Developing a multi-layer reference design retrieval technology for knowledge management in engineering design

This study develops a multi-layer reference design retrieval technology for engineering knowledge management to provide engineering designers with easy access to relevant design and related knowledge. The tasks performed in this research include (i) designing a multi-layer reference design retrieval process, (ii) developing techniques associated with multi-layer reference design retrieval technology, and (iii) implementing a multi-layer reference design retrieval mechanism. The retrieval process contains three main phases-'customer requirement-based reference design retrieval', 'functional requirement-based reference design retrieval' and 'functional feature-based reference design retrieval'. This technology involves (1) customer requirement-based reference design retrieval, which involves a structured query model for customer requirements, a case-based representation of designed entities, a customer requirement-based index structure for historical design cases, and customer requirement-based case searching, matching and ranking mechanisms, (2) functional requirement-based reference design retrieval, which includes a structured query model for functional requirements, a functional requirement-based index structure for historical design cases, and functional requirement-based case searching, matching and ranking mechanisms, and (3) functional feature-based reference design retrieval, which is a binary code-based representation for functional features, an ART1 neural network for functional feature-based case clustering and functional feature-based case ranking.