Nowadays, Configuration design is a topic that has captured the attention of many people around the world. Its relevance is not limited to a single sector or area of interest, but covers a wide range of contexts and situations. From its impact on society to its influence on the global economy, Configuration design has proven to be an extremely important issue that does not go unnoticed. As we continue to explore and better understand aspects related to Configuration design, new opportunities and challenges arise that require in-depth analysis and careful reflection. In this article, we will take a closer look at the different facets of Configuration design and its impact on our world today.
Type of design in engineering
Configuration design is a kind of design where a fixed set of predefined components that can be interfaced (connected) in predefined ways is given, and an assembly (i.e. designed artifact) of components selected from this fixed set is sought that satisfies a set of requirements and obeys a set of constraints.
The associated design configuration problem consists of the following three constituent tasks:
Selection of components,
Allocation of components, and
Interfacing of components (design of ways the components interface/connect with each other).
Types of knowledge involved in configuration design include:
Problem-specific knowledge:
Input knowledge:
Requirements
Constraints
Technology
Case knowledge
Persistent knowledge (knowledge that remains valid over multiple problem solving sessions):
Mittal, S. and Frayman, F. (1989), Towards a generic model of configuration tasks, Proceedings of the 11th IJCAI, San Mateo, CA, USA, Morgan Kaufmann, pages 1395-1401.
Levin, Mark Sh. (2015) Modular systems design and evaluation. Springer.
B. Wielinga and G. Schreiber (1997), Configuration Design Problem Solving, IEEE Intelligent Systems, Vol. 12, pages 49–56.