Although it has contributed to remarkable improvements in some specific areas, attempts to develop a universal design theory are generally characterized by failure. This paper sketches arguments for a new approach to engineering design based on Semiotics - the science about signs. The approach is to combine different design theories over all the product life cycle stages into one coherent and traceable framework. Besides, it is to bring together the designer's and user's understandings of the notion of 'good product'. Building on the insight from natural sciences that complex systems always exhibit a self-organizing meaning-influential hierarchical dynamics, objective laws controlling product development are found through an examination of design as a semiosis process. These laws are then applied to support evolutionary design of products. An experiment validating some of the theoretical findings is outlined, and concluding remarks are given.

Although a number of Computer Aided Process Planni ng (CAPP) systems have been implemented, human planners are still irreplaceable for actual manufacturing. Because process planning requires multiple types of human expertise, there is a common trend to apply knowledge-based techniques for solving the process planning tasks. This circumstance is conducive to developing so-called CAPP Expert Systems (CAPPES). A few approaches to building CAPPES can be found through means-aids analysis of the research literature since 1980. At the same time, it can be seen that authors' efforts in those papers have mostly been made in special cases of CA PPES implementation, whereas the problem of "How to develop CAPPES" on the whole is still open. Se veral general conceptions and methodologies for CAPP have been published, but no fairly versatile technology is yet known. The aim of the paper is to consider the us age of logical models for development of a CAPPES building technology.

The research results described are concerned with: - developing a domain modeling method and tools to provide the design and implementation of decision-making support systems for computer integrated manufacturing; - building a decision-making support system based on know-how and its software environment. The research is funded by NEDO, Japan.

In the late 90th, the complex of concepts, theories, technologies and software called knowledge-based systems has become a key point in development of many future-oriented manufacturing paradigms, such as Agile Manufacturing and Intelligent Manufacturing Systems. Besides, the progress from craft production, to automated and flexible production and to wards'next generation' production is now realized to be in many respects determined by the human/systems ability to handle the domain knowledge rather than simply by a given standard of knowledge in the domain. This is the motivation for a continuously growing research interest to utilization of manufacturing knowledge. It should be noted however, that while a great many reports on different theoretical and applied aspects of knowle dge utilization have been published, the issues of the specificity of manufacturing knowledge and the appropriateness of the methodologies brought into manufacturing from other domains to build knowledge-based systems have not been given due attention. One instance of this research lack is given in this paper with the phenomenon of know-how. It was discovered rather long ago that know-how plays an important role during the solving of professional tasks in manufacturing (e.g.

This paper presents results of an ongoing interdisciplinary study to develop a computational theory of creativity for engineering design. Human design activities are surveyed, and popular computer-aided design methodologies are examined. It is argued that semiotics has the potential to merge and unite various design approaches into one fundamental theory that is naturally interpretable and so comprehensible in terms of computer use. Reviewing related work in philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science provides a general and encompassing vision of the creativity phenomenon. Basic notions of algebraic semiotics are given and explained in terms of design. This is to define a model of the design creative process, which is seen as a process of semiosis, where concepts and their attributes represented as signs organized into systems are evolved, blended, and analyzed, resulting in the development of new concepts. The model allows us to formally describe and investigate essential properties of the design process, namely its dynamics and non-determinism inherent in creative thinking. A stable pattern of creative thought - analogical and metaphorical reasoning - is specified to demonstrate the expressive power of the modeling approach; illustrative examples are given. The developed theory is applied to clarify the nature of emergence in design: it is shown that while emergent properties of a product may influence its creative value, emergence can simply be seen as a by-product of the creative process. Concluding remarks summarize the research, point to some unresolved issues, and outline directions for future work.

This paper discusses the systematic use of product feedback information to support life-cycle design approaches and provides guidelines for developing a design at both the product and the system levels. Design activities are surveyed in the light of the product life cycle, and the design information flow is interpreted from a semiotic perspective. The natural evolution of a design is considered, the notion of design expectations is introduced, and the importance of evaluation of these expectations in dynamic environments is argued. Possible strategies for reconciliation of the expectations and environmental factors are described. An Internet-enabled technology is proposed to monitor product functionality, usage, and operational environment and supply the designer with relevant information. A pilot study of assessing design expectations of a refrigerator is outlined, and conclusions are drawn.

In this paper after short review of the CSIEC project initialized by us in 2003 we present the continuing development and improvement of the CSIEC project in details, including the design of five new Microsoft agent characters representing different virtual chatting partners and the limitation of simulated dialogs in specific practical scenarios like graduate job application interview, then briefly analyze the actual conditions and features of its application field: web-based Englis h education in China. Finally we introduce our effort s to adapt this system to the requirements of English te aching and learning in China and point out the work next to do.

This paper presents a new concept of a mobile robot speed control by using two degree of freedom gear transmission. The developed intelligent speed controller utilizes a gear box which comprises of epicyclic gear train with two inputs, one coupled with the engine shaft and another with the shaft of a variable speed dc motor. The net output speed is a combination of the two input speeds and is governed by the transmission ratio of the planetary gear train. This new approach eliminates the use of a torque converter which is otherwise an indispensable part of all available automatic transmissions, thereby reducing the power loss that occurs in the box during the fluid coupling. By gradually varying the speed of the dc motor a stepless transmission has been achieved. The other advantages of the developed controller are pulling over and reversing the vehicle, implemented by intelligent mixing of the dc motor and engine speeds. This approach eliminates traditional braking system in entire vehicle design. The use of two power sources, IC engine and battery driven DC motor, utilizes the modern idea of hybrid vehicles. The new mobile robot speed controller is capable of driving the vehicle even in extreme case of IC engine failure, for example, due to gas depletion.

Abstract: This paper presents a robotics vision-based heuristic reasoning system for underwater target tracking and navigation. This system is introduced to improve the level of automation of underwater Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs) operations. A prototype which combines computer vision with an underwater robo tics system is successfully designed and developed to perform target tracking and intelligent navigation. Th is study focuses on developing image processing algorithms and fuzzy inference system for the analys is of the terrain. The visi on system developed is capable of interpreting underwater scene by extracting subjective uncertainties of the object of interest.

The problem of designing optimal trajectory for redundant manipulators has attracted many researchers for the last three decades. One of the main reasons is the use of kinematically redundant robots is expected to increase in the future due to their increased flexibility. Some of the extra capabilities include the ability to avoid internal singularities or exte rnal obstacles over their entire workspace (Parket et al.,1989). Also, the inverse kinematics problem is underdetermined and admits an infinite number of distinct feasible solutions, meaning that a given end-effector pos es can be realized by an infinite number of distinct manipulator configurations (McAvoy, et al, 2000). In order to overcome the shortcomings inherent in non-redundant robots, redundant robots have been utilized in industrial applications to increase fl exibility and dexterity around a restricted task space in pres ence of obstacle.