A Model for the Flow of Design Information in the Open Assembly Design Environment (OpenADE)

This paper describes the OpenADE (Open Assembly Design Environment) project, a framework that is addressing issues relating to the development of information-exchange standards for the next generation of assembly-oriented design tools. The OpenADE architecture itself is based on a design workspace that is shared between a variety of agents. These agents interact with the design workspace using existing or proposed standards-based translators. The two main contributions described in this paper are an information flow model that describes the flow of information in the product development process, and a core representation for product development information. The information flow model classifies design information into various types, organizes these types into information states and levels of abstraction, and identifies the various transformations that operate between the information states. The information flow model has been augmented through the development of a product representation core. Together the information flow model and the representation core provide an infrastructure for semanticallymeaningful information exchanges between software tools used to support various product development activities. Although the information flow model was initially developed as part of a requirements analysis for the OpenADE framework, the end result more generally provides a foundation for interoperability in next-generation product development systems. * This work was performed while Professors Shooter and Keirouz were guest researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. + Senior Research Associate, University Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University.