Elsevier

Computer-Aided Design

Volume 44, Issue 10, October 2012, Pages 879-900
Computer-Aided Design

Cognitive, collaborative, conceptual and creative — Four characteristics of the next generation of knowledge-based CAD systems: A study in biologically inspired design

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cad.2011.03.010Get rights and content

Abstract

We envision that the next generation of knowledge-based CAD systems will be characterized by four features: they will be based on cognitive accounts of design, and they will support collaborative design, conceptual design, and creative design. In this paper, we first analyze these four dimensions of CAD. We then report on a study in the design, development and deployment of a knowledge-based CAD system for supporting biologically inspired design that illustrates these four characteristics. This system, called DANE for Design by Analogy to Nature Engine, provides access to functional models of biological systems. Initial results from in situ deployment of DANE in a senior-level interdisciplinary class on biologically inspired design indicates its usefulness in helping designers conceptualize design of complex systems, thus promising enough to motivate continued work on knowledge-based CAD for biologically inspired design. More importantly from our perspective, DANE illustrates how cognitive studies of design can inform the development of CAD systems for collaborative, conceptual, and creative design, help assess their use in practice, and provide new insights into human interaction with knowledge-based CAD systems.

Highlights

► Biologically inspired design uses analogies to biological systems. ► In SBF models, functions act as indices to knowledge of structure and behaviors. ► We deployed DANE in a course on biologically inspired design. ► DANE’s SBF models could be useful for conceptualizing biological systems. ► The value of SBF models may lie in enabling designers to organize their knowledge.

Section snippets

Next generation CAD systems

Computer-aided design (CAD) encompasses a broad area of scholarship focused on supporting design processes that shift and adapt even as the underlying computational technology is evolving. Given the challenge of defining the next generation of CAD, we prefer to focus on intelligent CAD, i.e., CAD that develops and deploys artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. In particular, we want to focus on knowledge-based CAD that investigates the content, representation, organization, access, use,

Cognitive studies of biologically inspired design

Biologically inspired design, also sometimes referred to as biomimicry or bionics, is a design paradigm that uses analogies to biological systems to suggest creative design ideas for difficult engineering problems [109], [110]. The paradigm attempts to leverage the billions of design solutions already existing in nature by exposing engineers to the biological world. Examples of biologically inspired designs range from bio-inspired clothing to biomimetic robots [111], [112]. One specific example

From cognitive studies to design of CAD tools

From the observations made in our in situ cognitive studies, we abstracted functional requirements for a knowledge-based CAD tool called DANE for supporting the process of biologically inspired design. We then designed features for the software tool iteratively to meet these functional requirements. For example, we used variations of Structure-Behavior-Function models [45], [46], [47] to represent knowledge of biological systems. As is always the case, there are many more functional

Functional modeling of biological systems

To represent functional models of biological and technological systems in our prototype CAD software, DANE, we used the Structure-Behavior-Function (SBF) knowledge representation scheme [45], [46], [47]. Briefly, (1) the structure portion of an SBF model of a complex system specifies the “what” of the system, namely, the components of the system as well as the connections among them. (2) Behaviors specify the “how” of the complex system, namely, the causal processes or mechanisms occurring in

Design and development of DANE

In this section we describe our prototype CAD technology. Not only is DANE designed to address the issues our cognitive studies identified in biologically inspired design, but it is also represents our first attempt at building a next generation CAD system. As the name implies, the Design by Analogy to Nature Engine (DANE) is intended in the long term to be a semi-automated engine for design. However, at present, DANE interactively facilitates biologically inspired design by (1) helping

Deployment and assessment of DANE

We deployed DANE in the Fall 2009 semester session of the project-based, senior-level, undergraduate ME/ISyE/MSE/PTFe/BIOL 4740 course on biologically inspired design taught by Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for Biologically Inspired Design. Although student teams were offered extra credit for adding a model to DANE, we did not connect the software with any specific learning objective. Our goal was exploratory: how, if at all, would teams integrate our CAD system into their design

DANE as a case study in the 4C’s of next generation CAD systems

We presented in this paper a knowledge-based CAD system called DANE for functional modeling of biological systems in the context of biologically inspired design. The design literature describes a small but increasing number of interactive computational tools for supporting biologically inspired design (e.g., [132], [133], [134], [135], [136], [137]). The Biomimicry Institute [132], for example, has developed an online web portal called AskNature for accessing a functionally-indexed database of

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Professor Jeannette Yen, Director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Biologically Inspired Design (www.cbid.gatech.edu), for her strong support and encouragement for this work. Yen also coordinated the ME/ISyE/MSE/PTFe/BIOL 4740 class in Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008 and Fall 2009, when we conducted our cognitive studies of design teams engaged in biologically inspired design. We developed the interactive knowledge-based design tool DANE during 2008–09, where the design of DANE

Ashok K. Goel is an Associate Professor of Computer Science & Cognitive Science in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is Director of the School’s Design & Intelligence Laboratory, and a Co-Director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Biologically Inspired Design. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Intelligent Systems and ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering. His research has been supported by NSF, DARPA, ONR, DHS and IES, and he

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    Ashok K. Goel is an Associate Professor of Computer Science & Cognitive Science in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is Director of the School’s Design & Intelligence Laboratory, and a Co-Director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Biologically Inspired Design. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Intelligent Systems and ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering. His research has been supported by NSF, DARPA, ONR, DHS and IES, and he has been a technical consultant to NEC and NCR.

    Swaroop Vattam is a candidate for Ph.D. in Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He works in the Design & Intelligence Laboratory in the School of Interactive Computing, where he is investigating analogical reasoning and creativity in the context of biologically inspired design. His forthcoming Ph.D. thesis investigates mediated analogy, i.e., analogical problem-solving mediated by external information environments.

    Bryan Wiltgen is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He does research in the Design & Intelligence Laboratory in the School of Interactive Computing, studying creativity, analogical reasoning, and cognition in natural and social settings, such as biologically inspired design.

    Michael Helms is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology working in the Design & Intelligence Laboratory in the School of Interactive Computing. He has been an instructor in Biologically Inspired Design at Georgia Tech and at NASA, and is the graduate student coordinator at the Center for Biologically Inspired Design at Georgia Tech. Previous to his Ph.D. work, Michael worked as a business consultant with Teradata as well as holding various marketing and strategic planning positions with Zurich Financial Group.

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