An expert system using rough sets theory and self-organizing maps to design space exploration of complex products

In complex product design, product performance driving design is a new and innovative research in the engineering field. For realizing the product performance driving design, an elaborated expert system, Expert Systems for Assisting Mapping from Performance Space to Design Space (ESMPD) is proposed, which have two main modules for mapping from product performance space to interesting design space by two layers mapping method. In Rough Sets Theory Analysis Module, Rough Sets Theory (RST) is used to calculate configuration rules in incomplete configuration information system to assist product designers in mapping performance space to configuration space. In self-organizing maps Analysis Module, SOM is employed to analyze design variables and objective function based on preliminary optimization, to mapping from the fixed configuration space to smaller interesting regions in design space. The contribution of this research is utilizing the product design knowledge to guide engineer to partition and reduce the design space, which can save product design time and promote the design efficiency. Finally, a new bulk carrier design is taken as a case study to prove the validity and necessity of this expert system. The detailed analysis testifies ESMPD can effectively facilitate rapid and intelligent design, and reduce the cost of complex product design.