Kinematic Simulation Using Qualitative Mechanism Models
Abstract When trying to use computers to aid designers at the conceptual design stage, it becomes clear that many traditional methods and support tools are incompetent because they mainly deal with sufficient and quantitative information. However, at the conceptual design stage, information is insufficient and mostly qualitative. The focus of this paper is on representing and reasoning about the geometry and motion of physical objects for mechanical conceptual design. A new concept, called qualitative spatial relation space (QSRS), is introduced to describe mechanisms of mechanical products by referring to the qualitative spatial relations between their components. A qualitative kinematic simulation system has been implemented to enable verification of functions of products at the conceptual design stage. The system derives motions of components caused by other components’ specified motions from the qualitative structural descriptions of products, and puts brief and comprehensible functional interpretations of products.