New Advances in the Functional Modeling of Electro-Mechanical Components
This paper presents some key extensions to a representation for electromechanical components that is sufficiently detailed enough to provide for the automated construction of new design configurations. The extensions, shown here, build upon a representation that is both formal and implemented, and can handle the interactions between components even if such interactions represent only partial configurations. The results of these new additions elucidate the power and flexibility of this functional representation for electromechanical components. The method can be used as an interactive tool to allow an engineering designer to explore new design concepts or can be combined with additional software tools to achieve a computational design synthesis approach to topological design problems. The inclusion of function sharing, component layout, and qualitative dynamics achieve a closer approach to how the human mind represents components.