The Digital Body Development System

The Digital Body Development System (DBDS) is a $10.6 million 4 year NIST ATP project to shorten the time to launch vehicles by improving the launch problem solving process. The project is based on two concepts: virtual functional build, and an intelligent agent based decision support system. This paper presents a novel architecture for the decision support system that streamlines the launch process through the integration of a virtual assembly simulation, problem identification, and solution generation and evaluation. Following the virtual functional build process, the architecture deploys a number of multi-agent systems to provide system functionality, such as problem knowledge retrieval, solution generation, modification, and evaluation. The project is cofunded by a consortium of 14 organizations, which have filed for their first patent based on this novel technology.