A PROTOTYPE EXPERT-SYSTEM FOR EMBODIMENT DESIGN OF MECHANISMS AND ARTICULATED SYSTEMS

The embodiment phase plays a significant role in mechanical design, particularly in the case of mechanisms and articulated systems. In order to investigate the capabilities offered by artificial intelligence techniques for the automation of this design stage, a prototype expert system (ES), called EMBMEC, was developed. The ES possesses a 'hybrid' structure, making use of both symbolic inference and numerical calculation techniques. At present, it can operate with plane mechanisms, selecting materials, link geometry and bearings. In the paper, the most relevant features of the system are discussed and a simple application example is reported.