Architecture of a knowledge based engineering system for weight and cost estimation for a composite airplane structures

This paper presents the architecture of the knowledge based engineering system which has been developed for estimation of weight and cost. It mainly discusses knowledge implementation in the knowledge base and knowledge processing in the inference engine to obtain weight and cost estimates. The inference engine extracts geometric data from a geometric model in CATIA V5 and processes the knowledge using the geometric data. Fuzzy logic is used for indiscrete knowledge. It also recognizes the flanges of a part and measures part complexity. The system automates the design process of weight and cost estimation including structural analysis.