Transforming behavioral and physical representations of mechanical designs

We are exploring the use of formal grammars to represent two distinct but interconnected attributes of mechanical designs: geometry and behavior. By creating a formal description of a limited set of behaviors for mechanical designs and a corresponding description of physical components, we can generate the description of a physical system that takes advantage of the multiple behaviors of its components. Our approach is based on the following assertions: • The behavioral requirements of mechanical systems can be represented using a graph grammar. • The behavioral characteristics of components can be represented using a graph grammar. • The physical characteristics of designs and components can be represented using formal topological and geometric models. • The behavioral and physical graphs of components can be linked parametrically or algorithmically. • The behavioral specifications graph can be formally transformed into a description of a physical system with associated behavioral and geometric . representations. The goal of our research is to create a transformational strategy by which the design specifications for a mechanical system can be transformed into a description of a collection of mechanical components. For any given design specification, many different physical systems could potentially meet that specification. Hence there are potentially many transformations that could be applied to a particular design specification. We are interested in those transformations of the design specifications which preserve the original behavior of the design. In this paper, we explore a set of transformations that enable us to move from specifications to topological configurations and from topological configurations to geometric configurations. University Libraries Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890