A Design Support System Using Analogy Based Reasoning

This paper represents a procedure to support the designer in his/her process of mechanical system design, by inspiring the knowledge acquired from previous projects. To this end, the proposed method represents an appropriate means to capitalize the know-how of the professional experts. Based on this approach, an interactive programme is implemented, which assist designers in the specification of new products. The data structure of the implemented tool is based on the object oriented modelling. This structure allows several classifications of a same design, using different levels of abstraction. This approach enables designer to begin with a more general description of the product, and to refine the description by referring to similar data in the pattern bases.