Given the problem of deciding which catalogue to order a particular component from, we might first use a constraint extraction mediator to generate descriptions of the available components as conjunctions of constraints. These would then need to be translated into the domain ontology used by our design database, using one or more ontological mediators. The resulting collection of constraints must then be transformed into a single disjunctive constraint representing the available options, and this must be fused into our existing set of design constraints. Finally, we ask one or more constraint solver mediators to coordinate the search for solutions to our problem, in a way that makes the best possible use of the available solving resources. Constraint transformation is done in Prolog, which is well suited to it.
Work is still in progress to test the extensibility of the system through facilitators and wrappers.
However, the novel contribution is the use of constraints as data, and their transformation. This makes it easier to use constraint satisfaction techniques for solving manufacturing design problems in cases where much of the design information is distributed over a growing network. References S Embury and P Gray. Planning Complex Updates to Satisfy Constraint Rules Using a Constraint Logic Search Engine. P Gray, A Preece, N Fiddian, W Gray, T Bench-Capon, M Shave, N Azarmi, M Wiegand, M Ashwell, M Beer, Z Cui, B Diaz, S Embury, K Hui, A Jones, D Jones, G Kemp, E Lawson, K Lunn, P Marti, J Shao, and P Visser.