A Tool for Supporting Conceptual Design of Multiple State Mechanical Devices

Research into conceptual design of mechanical systems has evolved as an area of interest since last few decades. Conceptual design plays a significant role as an early stage of design to produce designs with higher quality by economically exploring a larger solution space. Several attempts have been made by researchers to automate the conceptual design synthesis process using computer support. However, most of that work has been focused on single state design problems. This paper deals with multiple state mechanical design problems and proposes a systematic method for synthesizing a larger solution space. A web-based tool is developed to guide designers through the step-by-step synthesis process by providing automated retrieval of initial solution proposals and modification rules