Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/M53158/01
Title:	DARP: FLEXIBLE ENGINEERING DESIGN METHODS USING KNOWLEDGE BASED CAD SYSTEMS & EVOLUTIONARY SEARCH METHODS
Principal Investigator:	Keane, Professor AJ
Other Investigators:	Harris, Professor C Giles, Professor M Ruiz, Professor C Fleming, Professor PJ Wallace, Professor KM
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	BAE Systems Pre Nexus Migration Rolls-Royce Plc (UK)
Department:	Faculty of Engineering & the Environment
Organisation:	University of Southampton
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 October 1999	Ends:	30 September 2002	Value (£):	299,670
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Design & Testing Technology
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Aerospace, Defence and Marine Manufacturing Energy Information Technologies Transport Systems and Vehicles
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Increasingly, engineers are aiding their design processes by the application of knowledge based or intelligent parametric CAD systems, such as ICAD and Pro-Engineer. These are used to incorporate significant amounts of corporate design knowledge so as to carry out much of the routine design work previously performed by hand. There is also increasing pressure on engineers to produce highly refined 'optimal' designs by the application of optimisation based search engines. There is clearly a need to combine these techniques to give new, optimal design methods. When produced in this way a design family becomes defined by the commonality of the underlying design process rather than individual components. The approach proposed here represents a significant step forward in design practise by combining these techniques while also maintaining stretch capability within design families. The integrated use of these methods is of major interest to the aerospace industry and one where a timely programme of design research will be both novel and of significant value. The programme described here addresses this need, while also seeking to provide mechanisms whereby the results of design searches can automatically update engineering knowledge bases in a robust fashion.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Impacts
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Organisation Website:	http://www.soton.ac.uk