Computer aided decision support in product design engineering

Product design engineering is a complex discipline, which is undergoing a transformation from informal and largely experience-based domain to scientific oriented domain. Computational intelligence can contribute greatly to product design process, as it is becoming more and more evident that adding intelligence to existing computer aids, such as computer aided design systems, can lead to significant improvements in terms of effectiveness and reliability of various tasks within product design engineering. Providing computer aided decision support is one of the computational intelligence methods that proved to be effective in enabling more intelligent and less experience-dependent design performance. In this paper, some of the most crucial areas of product design engineering process that require additional computational intelligence in terms of computer aided decision support are presented together with some examples of intelligent knowledge-based modules applied to this areas.