Internet-based distributive knowledge integrated system for product design

Aiming to meet demand of product designers on various knowledge resources, an Internet-based distributive knowledge integrated system (IDKIS) is proposed in this paper. The structure of IDKIS and the key issues regarding its implementation is discussed. Based on the STEP standard, a scheme of knowledge representation with neutral form is introduced. To improve the efficiency of knowledge search, an approach of function driven knowledge search (FDKS) is proposed. Furthermore, combining the artificial neural networks (ANN) and active server pages (ASP) techniques, the FDKS can be used within the Internet environment. Finally, a prototype system to demonstrate the feasibility of the IDKIS is developed. The works presented in this paper provide a feasible distributive knowledge integrated scheme to aid designers developing high quality product quickly and efficiently.