A two-stage fuzzy approach to feature-based design retrieval

In the conceptual design stage, designers usually begin the design process by referencing previous design cases similar to the one they are currently working on. Reviewing similar design cases can inspire a new idea and also shorten the design lead-time. To enhance this need, a two-stage fuzzy approach to feature-based design retrieval is developed in this research. First, a Fuzzy ART network is developed to search for designs based on geometric similarity. By adjusting a Fuzzy ART network parameter, designers can control the similarity of retrieved reference designs. Second, a fuzzy evaluation procedure is developed for finding reference designs with similar technological specifications. This procedure is capable of dealing with qualitative and quantitative technological attribute data. Implementation examples show the robustness of the proposed system in that it can flexibly retrieve reference designs based on geometric features and technological attributes even when incomplete query is provided. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.