A Case-Based Design System for the Conceptual Design of Electrical Connectors

The paper describes a case-based system for the conceptual design of connectors. The objective is to increase the designer productivity by providing case-based support for automatic exploration of the design alternatives that can be generated from past design cases. A framework for case-representation and library structure is developed based on analysis of the connector design process. The case-based design approach takes advantage of the distinct subcomponents in a connector to retrieve past connector designs based on the concepts of the desired subcomponents. An industrial example is given to illustrate the generation of the conceptual design alternatives by combining the retrieved connector designs with respect to their subcomponents. The proposed system allows the designer to select the appropriate alternative or it can recommend alternatives based on the complexity of the combination. The selected alternative would be modified further in the detailed design stage to develop the complete design. Although this paper provides an approach to automating the conceptual design of connectors, the approach could be useful to other products that contain distinct subcomponents confined within a fixed topology.