Agent-based cooperative NC conceptual design

Creativity is a core issue of product design and development, as is the machine tool that is implemented to make the product. This paper presents a numerical control (NC) conceptual configuration model based on agents. Modularization is the fundamental aspect of NC conceptual layout design. It takes each module as an autonomous entity participating in the design activities, and the product design process is described as the organized cooperative work of agents. The CMNC (Cooperative Multi-agent NC Configuration) system should greatly increase the design efficacy as well as the creativity by offering a large number of design options and a rudimentary evaluation mechanism. This prototype system, which is under further development, has shown great potential for creativity