Research on simulation and performance evaluation of open source design process based on multi-agent

Open source design is a new mode which is composed of many agents who spontaneously cooperate to complete product design. A process model of open source design based on multi-agent is proposed in this paper with the purpose of studying the dynamic characteristics of product evolution and the ability of design-agent in the process of product design. A set of indexes which can evaluate the process of product evolution and the ability of agent is developed, including the weight of each module, product maturity, completion time of module for each agent and development ability of the agent. The algorithms of indexes are realized and verified in the simulation program. The simulation results show that the proposed simulation approach and evaluation indexes are effective for evaluation and management of open source design. © 2013 Asian Network for Scientific Information.