Automated modeling to support conceptual design

Abstract: "The need to consider a number of different alternatives at an early stage in design has been well established. It is hypothesized that providing a tool for automatically modeling and analyzing devices and relating individual component characteristics to device behavior would aid the conceptual designer by facilitating the consideration of more varied alternatives. In this paper we identify the characteristics of conceptual mechanical design that must be accommodated in any tool to aid designers at this stage. The role of natural interface, modularity and numerous types of flexibility requirements have been established and addressed in a prototypical design environment.The nature of automated modeling and issues pertaining to modeling relevance and model simplification and analysis techniques are also briefly discussed in the context of a design-analysis tool for automatic formulation and analysis of dynamic system models."