A grammar approach for combining product configuration modelling with behavioural aspects and simulations

The effective modelling of configurable products must handle the complex problem of representation of the configurable products, learning new configurable products and analysis of their behaviour. However, currently in advanced CAD systems, there exists no systematic and effective method for designing configurations and integrating behavioural aspects and simulations. This paper proposes and develops a grammar-based design approach to support both the computer-aided design for configuration and computing in CAD systems. Two interrelated questions are taken into account: (1) What are the hypothesis, properties and features for product configuration? (2) How can the product based on configuration features be represented and how can the configuration representation method integrate the numerical computing in design? This approach, under the guide of the proposed formal modelling, is implemented in computers. A design case study illustrates the proposed approach.