Expert system for vehicle body assembly conceptual design

The paper introduces the architecture of conceptual assembly expert system, which makes fuzzy and qualitative presentation of design knowledge in the conceptual assembly design stage. Qualitative simulation approach in the expert system is a new approach to designing assemblies' tolerance design and joint configuration in the conceptual design. Also, qualitative analysis assists designers to determine feasible assembly sequences. The system creates a rough draft of a set of promising design solutions that would be analyzed in more detail in the later design stages.