The present invention relates generally to engineering problem solving and design information processing systems and more particularly to computer based systems for aiding engineers, scientists and the like to have a greater understanding of the products, processes, or machines they wish to improve and the technical problems related thereto that they wish to solve.
Great advancements have been made in the fields commonly known as computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided engineering (CAE). These computer based systems enable the designer to create detailed images and print-outs of the product, process or machine he/she is designing or improving. With CAD, the designer can try many new designs or modifications of subsystems and components quickly and view the modified products immediately on the monitor or print-out. The CAD system also generates virtual 3-D images of the product or machine, enables in-space rotation of the product image and zoom through the product image interior.
Although CAD systems are a great designer tool for trying design changes quickly, they do not otherwise aid the designer in the evaluation and solving of technical engineering problems or conceiving new products or processes that provide new functional performance or the same functional performance with completely different engineering approaches. Accordingly, there has arisen a relatively new area of computer based engineering tools known as concept engineering computer based systems. These systems serve to increase the designer's inventive and creative abilities in solving engineering and scientific operational or functional problems and, in the course of such problem solving, induce the designer to invent new structural and functional concepts applicable to his/her design goals.
One such concept engineering computer based system is the TECHOPTIMIZER.TM. software sold by Invention Machine Corporation of Boston, Mass. and described in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/822,314, filed Nov. 12, 1996 that comprises a knowledge and logic based information processing system for generating conceptual engineering system definition and problem analyses. This system automates the process of originating the statement of the most important technical problems for elimination of components or harmful inter-actions between components of the object system being analyzed or redesigned.
Another concept engineering computer based system is the Invention Machine.TM. LAB.TM. Software sold by Invention Machine Corporation of Boston, Mass., that comprises a knowledge and logic based system that generates concepts and recommendations for solving engineering problems at the conceptual level. Various inventive rules or procedures are included and certain ones are selected and presented to the user for consideration in solving the user's current session problem. This system applies to all fields of physical science and aids the engineer by solving engineering contradictions to reduce the tendency of user applied engineering trade-offs. The system includes a large data base of physical, geometric, and chemical effects used in the past to solve other engineering problems. Selected ones of the effects are presented to the user for consideration by the user as potential solutions to his/her current problem session. The system also includes a technology evolution and prediction capability that aids the user in understanding the dynamics of his/her product evolution and the logical next or future generation of the product or its function. This stimulates the user to think forward and extrapolate the dynamics of the technology life cycle and originate the next generation of technology.
Although the above mentioned computer based concept engineering systems have experienced much acceptance by the technical community, there is still a need for alternate methods of concept engineering that enable the user to rapidly and comprehensively understand the nature of the technical result he/she wishes to achieve and the structure and function of various engineering devices that, if linked together, can produce the desired technical result.
There is also a need in concept engineering and design systems for the computer based system to rapidly, effectively and visually present to the user the capability of searching for the precise technical result he/she desires and displaying to the user in brief but comprehensive form an engineering system or device, what the physical effect is, and how the device can produce the desired technical result. The problem here is generating for the user information in such a way that enables the user to obtain and understand substantially immediately, e.g. within one or two minutes, the technical problem the user must address to achieve the desired technical result.
In addition, there is a need to present to the user/designer for consideration various subsystems that either control or affect the parametric environment for the engineering device under consideration or that can function as a series of input-output stages for the system representation that produces the desired technical result.