JP2847709B2 - Design support equipment - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to a design support apparatus that supports efficient design using a computer.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when designing a large-scale design object such as a vehicle, a design support device using a computer is used for the purpose of improving design efficiency.

This design support device will be described by exemplifying a vehicle as a design object. In general, a vehicle is designed based on a certain design concept, for example, a concept of designing a sports car that can drive quickly on Hakone Pass. First, to design a vehicle that satisfies the design concept,
A plurality of target indices, for example, more specific design concepts such as acceleration performance and cornering performance are set, and in order to achieve these target indices, a huge number of design elements related to the target indices, that is, design parameters Is set. The designer is required to determine the value of each design parameter, that is, the set value, to a value that can achieve the target index while adjusting the design parameters. At this time, the design support device provides various kinds of design information to the designer to support the efficiency of the design.

Here, the value of each design parameter is determined by one of the following methods. That is, a) It is determined by the input of the designer (user of the design support device).

b) A fixed value such as a physical constant, which is determined from the beginning.

c) In determining the value of a certain design parameter, the value is determined by applying a predetermined function f such as a calculation formula or a table reference to the value of another design parameter arranged in a lower layer. That is, for example, let X be the value of the design parameter determined by applying the predetermined function f,
Assuming that the values of the other three design parameters arranged in the lower layer are a, b, and c, the values are determined on the assumption that the relational expression of X = f (a, b, c) holds.

Here, the respective design parameters are arranged hierarchically with each other based on the relational expression of the above c). The value of the design parameter existing in a certain hierarchy is uniquely determined depending on the value of the design parameter existing in a lower layer. Therefore,
In general, d) the value of the design parameter of the lowest layer is determined by the above method a) or b).

e) The value of the design parameter of the uppermost layer is determined by the method c), and is a so-called design target.

f) The value of the design parameter existing in the intermediate layer is usually determined by the method c), and is an auxiliary parameter.

The conventional design support apparatus stores the above-mentioned design parameters, relational expressions, and the like in a memory of a computer. For example, when the relational expression of X = f (a, b, c) in the above c) is established, X When determining the value, it is desired to determine the value of each design parameter sequentially according to a predetermined fixed procedure, such as “determination of the value of a → determination of the value of b → determination of the value of c”. The value X of the design parameter is determined.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the conventional design support apparatus, the values of the respective design parameters are sequentially determined according to a predetermined fixed design procedure. Even when it is desired to determine the value of c prior to the value determination, there is a problem that the flexibility is poor such that the value of c cannot be determined until the values of a and b are determined.
Further, as described above, a design object such as a vehicle is generally designed based on a certain design concept. For example, if it is assumed that there are two design objects having mutually different design concepts, these The priorities of the target indices that make the design concept of each design object more specific also differ from each other. To elaborate on this,
For example, if the vehicle has a sporty orientation concept, the priority of the target index related to the power performance is high, while if the vehicle has a family car orientation concept,
Depending on the design concept at the time of development, the priority of the target index to be prioritized will differ, such as the priority of the target index relating to economy. However, in the case of a conventional design support apparatus, when designing vehicles in which the order of the target index to be prioritized according to the design concept is different from each other, the value of the design parameter is determined in consideration of the difference in the order of priority. It was up to the designer to decide in this order, so the designer was spending extra time designing while taking into account differences in priorities, and this situation has been improved. The advent of a possible design support device has long been eager among designers.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and by mutually assisting in sequentially determining the values of design parameters in an appropriate procedure reflecting the priority according to the design concept of a design object, It is an object of the present invention to provide a versatile design support apparatus capable of presenting a designer with output data corresponding to a difference in priority according to a design concept even when designing a design object having a different design concept.

[Configuration of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, a design support apparatus of the present invention provides information necessary for designing a design object, and data values, related information, and information necessary for obtaining the information. Information storage means for storing a plurality of pieces of information on the design including the relational expression as a combination of heading information and sub-information, and importance information storage means for storing importance information preset for the heading information and sub-information; Input means for inputting desired heading information to be obtained, and searching means for searching for and obtaining sub-information related to the heading information from the information storage means for the heading information input by the input means; For the heading information input by the input means and the sub-information searched by the searching means, the heading information and the sub-information are stored in the importance information storage means. Importance information searching means for searching for and obtaining corresponding importance information; and the heading information in a priority order according to the importance information corresponding to the heading information and sub-information searched by the importance information searching means. And execution control means for controlling acquisition of the information on the design related to the sub-information in order.

(Operation) According to the design support apparatus of the present invention, first, when desired heading information to be obtained is input to the input unit, the input heading information is associated with the heading information from the information storage unit. The sub-information is retrieved and obtained by the retrieval means. At this time, when a plurality of pieces of desired heading information are input to the input means, sub-information related to the plurality of pieces of heading information is searched and obtained by the searching means, by the number corresponding to the input heading information. Then, the importance information search means, the heading information input by the input means,
The sub-information retrieved by the retrieval unit is retrieved and obtained from the contents stored in the importance information storage unit for the index information and the importance information corresponding to the sub-information. The execution control means has a priority according to the importance information corresponding to the heading information and the sub information obtained by the importance information search means,
Control is performed so as to sequentially acquire information on the design related to the heading information and the sub information. As a result of the execution of the acquisition of the information on the design in the priority order according to the importance information, it is possible to obtain output data reflecting the priority order according to the design concept of the design target object. Provided to the designer via intermediary. In other words, according to the design support apparatus of the present invention, when designing a design object, if a design value of information related to a design is set earlier in advance of information related to another design, other design parameters and the like can be obtained. The degree of freedom in setting the value of information related to a certain design increases as much as there is no restriction from the information related to the design of the design, and the design concept of the design object is followed based on the idea that it is easy to achieve the design target value. Since the setting of the value of the information on the design is executed in an appropriate procedure reflecting the priority order, even when designing the design objects having different design concepts, output data corresponding to the difference in the priority order according to the design concept. Can be presented to the designer. In the design support apparatus according to the present invention, the degree of importance information is set as appropriate by the designer, so that the degree of polymerization information can be appropriately changed according to the designer's intention. This makes it possible to exhibit flexibility that could not be achieved with the design support device of the present invention.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention is described using a drawing.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a design support apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. The design support apparatus shown in the figure is a keyboard 21 which is input means for inputting desired information necessary for design, which is output data desired by a user of the apparatus, and other information, and attempts to calculate output data. During the design support operation to be performed, the display device 23 that displays data that must be determined by the user further inputting, parameters, calculated output data, and the like, and knowledge of the design procedure, specifically, the user Information storage means for storing a plurality of combinations of output information required, heading information including information necessary for design, and sub-information including data values, related information, relational expressions, etc. required for obtaining the heading information. The information storage unit 25 as, and desired output data input from the keyboard 21, search for heading information such as design information from the information storage unit 25, The sub-information for the information is obtained, and the obtained sub-information has no value and is undetermined.
When the information can be input from the keyboard 21, control is performed such that the undetermined sub-information is input from the keyboard 21, and the obtained sub-information is undetermined, and the undetermined information is input from the keyboard 21. Unless all the undetermined sub-information is determined, the undetermined sub-information is searched for and obtained from the information storage unit 25 as sub-information for the heading information until all the undetermined sub-information is determined. The keyboard 21 based on the sub-information and the relational expression
And a control unit 27 as search means for acquiring output data corresponding to desired heading information input from the server.

FIGS. 3A to 3D show various frames composed of a combination of the index information and the sub information stored in the information storage unit 25. FIG. As shown in FIG.
The heading information stored in combination with the heading information 25 and the sub-information related to the heading information are indicated according to the description of a frame.

FIG. 3 shows, as an example, a frame composed of a combination of heading information and sub-information used in a design support device for explaining a vehicle. FIG.
That is, a frame relating to information of “0-400m start acceleration” is shown as design information which is one of the vehicle performances desired by the user. In this frame, “0-400” is entered as heading information in the top column. Are shown together with the Flame, and in the lower section, sub-information related to the heading information “0-400 m start acceleration” is shown. The sub information includes, for example, an output, an input, and an expression (sik) as shown in FIG.
i).

The output in the sub information is the heading information “0-40”.
0m start acceleration), in this case,
For this output (output), "(value) if-needed sik
"i" to indicate that it is necessary to calculate the formula (siki) when a value is required. Evaluating what is described by a mathematical expression in this way is referred to as starting a daemon.

The input in the sub-information describes information that needs to be input in order to obtain “0-400 m start acceleration”. The input information includes “empty weight w”, “engine maximum output”. p max "," constant a ", and" constant b ". The equation (siki) is an equation (aw / p max + b) for calculating “0-400m start acceleration” from the input information.
Is described.

The input information described in the input of the above-mentioned frame includes information input from the keyboard 21 and the information storage unit using the input information as heading information.
There is information required from 25. The input information that needs to be input from the keyboard 21 is displayed to the user via the display device 23, and the user sees the display and inputs data corresponding to the input information. The input information obtained from the information storage unit 25 as the latter heading information is, for example, “constant a”, “destination y”, “mission type” and the like shown in FIGS. 3 (b) to 3 (d), respectively. “Constant a” is the input (inpu) of the frame shown in FIG.
The input information “constant a” is not immediately input from the keyboard 21 but is described in the information storage unit 25 as a frame as shown in FIG. 3 (b). Is searched for by the control unit 27 and found.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3B, the frame of the “constant a” has the sub information “output:
(Value) if-needed f (dm-db, constant a) "and" input (i
nput): (destination) ", input / output information consisting of" input-mission type ", and a database shown as" db-dm "as shown in FIG. Values 0.4, 0.39, etc. of the constant a for each combination of destination and mission type are described.

That is, the input (inpu) shown by the frame in FIG.
t) The “constant a” of the information is obtained by searching the information storage unit 25 under control of the control unit 27 as a frame as shown in FIG.

Similarly, input information such as "destination destination y" and "mission type" is obtained by searching the information storage unit 25 as a frame as shown in FIGS. 3 (c) and 3 (d). Third
The destination y shown in FIG. 9C is “output: (value) if
-Needed ask "and" range: (domestic, U.S.) ". The range" range: (domestic, U.S.) "is displayed on the display device 23, and a desired destination within this range is selected. Is selected. The mission model shown in FIG. 3 (d) is "output"
(Value) "and" range: (M / T, A / T) "
The range "range: (M / T, A / T)" is displayed on the display device 23, and the M / T or A / T mission model is selected and designated from the keyboard 21.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

Now, the design support device shown in FIG. 2 is applied to the case of designing a vehicle as an example, and a large number of frames composed of a combination of the heading information and the sub-information, which are procedural knowledge of the design information, are stored in the information storage unit 25. It is assumed to be described, and "0-40" which is a running parameter of this many information is described.
The case of obtaining "0 m start acceleration" will be described with reference to FIG.

First, in order to obtain information on “0-400 m start acceleration”, for example, a vehicle designer who is a user of the present apparatus inputs this information “0-400 m start acceleration” from the keyboard 21. Searches the information storage unit 25 for a frame i having this information "0-400 m start acceleration" as the index information (step 110). This search is generally performed by sequentially performing pattern matching on the knowledge data of the heading information described in the information storage unit 25.

When this frame i is searched, it is checked from the sub information of this frame whether or not there is an output value for the heading information "0-400m start acceleration", and if there is an output value, the output value is output (step 120,180).

If there is no output value for the frame i, it is determined from the description of the sub-information whether or not this output value is to be input by the user (step 130). Is displayed on the display device 23 to notify the user, and the user inputs the output value from the keyboard 21 (steps 140 and 180).

On the other hand, if the user does not input in step 130, the "output: if-needed si"
The daemon is started as shown in "ki", and the calculation is performed from the expression. In this case, it is necessary to first obtain each input required for the expression. For this, first, each input (inpu) of the sub information of the frame as shown in FIG.
Information for t), that is, knowledge, is sequentially searched and obtained from the information storage unit 25 under the control of the control unit 27 (steps 150 and 160).

This input is shown in FIG. 3 (a))
As described above, there are “empty weight”, “engine maximum output”, “constant a”, “constant b”, etc., and these inputs (inpu
t) is, for example, as shown in FIG. 3B, each frame having each of these inputs as heading information is stored in the information storage unit 2.
The search is sequentially performed from step 5, and if there is an input in the searched frame in the same manner, the similar search processing is further repeated to obtain values for each input (input) until all the values are obtained (step 160).

Specifically, the third case in which the value of “constant a” is obtained
This will be described with reference to FIG. In order to obtain a value for “constant a” which is an input of the frame “0-400m start acceleration” in FIG. 3 (a), FIG. It is necessary to obtain a frame as shown, but this is performed by searching the information storage unit 25 in the same manner as in the case of obtaining the frame of “0-400 m start acceleration”. As a result, if a frame for "constant a" is retrieved as shown in FIG. 3 (b), there is no value for this frame.
(Dm-db), the data is stored in the dm-db database described below this frame. For this purpose, the "destination" and "mission type" Input will be required.

Enter the “destination” and “mission type” (in
In order to obtain a value for “put”, the corresponding frame is searched from the information storage unit 25 using these “destination” and “mission type” information as heading information. The searched frames are shown in FIGS. 3 (c) and 3 (d), respectively.

The output (ou) of the "destination" frame shown in FIG.
Since “tput” includes “if-needed ask” (input is required as needed), the destination information of “Domestic and United States” described in the range below is displayed on the display device 23. The user selects desired destination information, that is, the country or the United States from the keyboard 21 and makes a key input to determine the destination. The “mission type” is determined in the same manner.

The input information such as “destination” and “mission type” determined as described above is applied to the “constant a” frame in FIG. 3 (b). "Domestic" is determined as the "destination" of each input, and "M /
If "A" is determined, the value of "constant a" for this combination of "domestic" and "M / T" is 0.4 from the database dm-db. The value 0.4 of this “constant a” is the input (inpu) of the frame of “0-400 m start acceleration” in FIG.
t).

Similarly, when all the input values for “0-400m start acceleration” in FIG. 3 (a) are obtained, the obtained values of all the inputs (input) are expressed by the formula (a).
w / p max + b), and an output value for “0-400 m start acceleration” is obtained from this equation and output (step
170,180).

That is, the heading information “0-400m” shown in FIG.
To obtain an output value for “start acceleration”, the information “0−
It is necessary to obtain information such as “empty weight”, “engine maximum output”, “constant a”, “constant b”, etc. of the input of “400 m start acceleration”. As shown in FIG. 3 (b), it is necessary to obtain knowledge frames hierarchically, for example, to obtain inputs for such information. FIG. 5 shows the hierarchical structure of such a knowledge frame. In the figure, “A and B” are, for example, “0-400 m” described above.
The highest information such as "start acceleration" and "fuel efficiency" is shown, and "C, D, E, F" thereunder are, for example, "empty weight", "engine maximum output", "constant a", "constant". b, etc., and the bottom "G, H, I, J, K, L" indicates the lowest order information such as the above-mentioned "destination" and "mission type". In hierarchization of information constituting such a knowledge frame, each information is sequentially determined according to the hierarchy. For example, when B is to be obtained after A, G, I, C, H, K, D, J, E, A, L, F, B
, And when A is sought after B, H, I, K, D,
J, E, L, F, B, G, C, and A are obtained in this order. Even if you want to obtain C before A and B, you only need to specify the order in which to obtain them. The design procedure can be supported without writing a program.

In the design support apparatus described above, the value of each input element of each frame is described as an output of another input element frame (a frame having an input element as heading information), and the value is set as in the conventional frame structure. , The validity of knowledge can be maintained only by considering execution of the frame alone even in a complicated network. Generally, each index always monitors the data of its own input element like a blackboard model, and the execution speed can be improved from this point as well.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a design support apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The design support apparatus shown in FIG. 11 is different from the embodiment shown in FIG.
The difference is that an execution control unit 31 as an importance information search unit and an execution control unit and an importance information input control unit 33 are added. The importance information storage unit 29 is a storage unit that stores input / output parameters for procedural knowledge, that is, the importance of input information in the above-described frame. The execution control unit 31 is a control unit that controls the control unit 27 so as to search and determine input information in an order according to the importance stored in the importance information storage unit 29. The importance information input control unit 33 is a part that controls the input so that importance information for each input information input from the keyboard 21 is stored in the importance information storage unit 29.

The importance information stored in the importance information storage unit 29 includes:
As shown in FIG. 5, the highest-level information “A, B” and the like among the information classified hierarchically are set according to the concept. For example, in the case of a vehicle or the like, importance is set as follows according to a concept classified as a sports car, a passenger car, a wagon, a van, or the like.

Concept X1 (for example, in the case of a sports car) A imp 0.8 B imp 0.7 Concept X2 A imp 0.3 B imp 0.9 In addition, the above-mentioned medium-level information C, D, E, etc. are made to correspond to the respective frames of procedural knowledge and function. The importance of the input parameter to the equation, for example, the value of the element sensitivity is shown, and the importance is set as the parameter A IMP as follows.

Parameter A IMP C imp 0.6 D imp 0.7 E imp 0.3 In addition, for the above-mentioned lowest information G, H, I, J, K, L, etc., as an engineering database of input parameters, for example, values on dimensional constraints of parts I can not change the
The importance is set as the parameter EDGE as follows to indicate the importance of what needs to be set in this range due to ergonomics.

Parameter EDGE G imp Ni1 (not determined) H imp0.5 I imp Ni1 J imp 0.5 K imp Ni1 L imp Ni1 Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 14 shows steps 135, 143, and 14 in FIG.
The only difference is the addition of 6.

Step 135 is a step of inputting the concept X1 or X2 described above, etc.
Is input, the importance of each piece of information related to the concept is retrieved from the importance information storage unit 29,
Control is performed so that knowledge is acquired according to the importance (steps 143 and 146). In this case, assuming that there is knowledge in the order described above, search is first performed by performing comparison matching with concept X2. When it is determined from the importance data of the concept X2 that the importance of "A" is 0.3 and the importance of B is 0.9 as described above, "B" is obtained first, and then "A" is obtained. Searches are performed in order. In general, for example, the search is performed by sequentially searching the data of the importance information storage unit 29 and by pattern matching.

When the importance of each input information is retrieved from the importance information storage unit 29 as described above, the execution control unit 31 controls the control unit 27 based on the importance information, and The values of the frames of each input are sequentially obtained (steps 146 and 150). When the values of all the frames are obtained in the same manner as described above, the calculation of the expression or the search of the database is executed to obtain the desired value from the user. Find and output the value of the frame for the input information.

In the hierarchical structure shown in FIG. 5, after the output information for “B” is calculated, the processing procedure is changed to “H, I, K, D, J, L, F, E, B”. Assume that they are obtained in order.
That is, assuming that the priority order of the input parameters of B is D, F, and E, in this case, the value of E is already determined when determining F, and when determining F, L and J are determined. It is possible to design with some flexibility while thinking. However, on the other hand, since E to be designed later is determined by J, the constraint is directly applied to this and E is determined without any design freedom. This will have a more severe effect on A. If the importance of A is E, D, C, the design procedure is E, D, G, C, A
Knowledge acquisition is performed in this order. That is, since E and D are designed after B is already determined, the input parameters of E and D are already fixed. C having a small degree of freedom has a small degree of influence.

As described above, the priority of the design procedure is extremely important for the design, and it is conceivable that it is absolutely necessary to provide a design with a high degree of freedom in terms of the concept, the parts constraints, and the ergonomic constraints. This is a design that changes flexibly depending on the concept to be created, and the design procedure is extremely important in performance design. In concept X1, A
, And then B, J, E, H, I, K, D, G, I, C, A; L,
F and B are determined in this order. As described above, importance information to be input in advance may be given by, for example, a pair comparison method or another evaluation method.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the design support apparatus of the present invention, when designing a design object, if a design value of information related to a design is set earlier than information related to another design, Because the degree of freedom in setting the value of information related to a certain design increases as much as it is not restricted by information related to the design such as other design parameters, the target of setting The value of the information related to the design is set in an appropriate procedure that reflects the priority according to the design concept of the object, so even when designing objects with different design concepts, the difference in the priority according to the design concept Can provide an output data corresponding to the above to a designer with high versatility. In the design support apparatus according to the present invention, since the importance information is appropriately set by a designer, the importance information can be appropriately changed according to the designer's intention. This is an extremely excellent effect that it is possible to exhibit flexibility that could not be achieved with the design support device of the present invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram corresponding to claims of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a design support apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a view showing a frame composed of heading information and sub-information used in the design support apparatus shown in FIG. 4; FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the design support apparatus shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a hierarchical structure of knowledge information, FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a design support apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation of the design support apparatus of FIG. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Information storage means, 2 ... Importance information storage means, 3 ... Input means, 5 ... Search means, 7 ... Importance information search means, 9 ... Execution control means, 21 ... Keyboard, 25 …… Information storage unit, 27 …… Control unit.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of pieces of information necessary for designing a design object and information on a design including data values, related information, and relational expressions necessary for obtaining the information are stored as a combination of heading information and sub-information. Information storage means for storing importance information preset for the heading information and sub-information, input means for inputting desired heading information to be obtained, and inputting by the input means A search unit that searches for and obtains sub-information related to the heading information from the information storage unit for the searched heading information; a heading information input by the input unit; and a sub-information searched by the searching unit. An importance information searching means for searching and obtaining importance information corresponding to the heading information and the sub information from the importance information storage means; Execution control for controlling to sequentially execute acquisition of information on the design related to the heading information and the sub-information in a priority order according to the importance information corresponding to the heading information and the sub-information retrieved by the information retrieving means. Means for supporting the design.