Development of an expert system shell for engineering design

Abstract: "This report describes the development of an expert system shell for the preliminary phase (synthesis) of engineering design. It is during this part of the design process that the creativity and experience of an engineer are mostly needed. The increasing complexity of engineering design problems has made synthesis a very difficult process, even to an experienced designer, if not approached in a structured and organized fashion. The proposed shell adopts principles of the morphological approach to design, incorporating heuristics in the form of design constraints."