A World Wide Web approach for capturing and deploying preferences over the Internet

A primary task of engineering design is to resolve the conflicting objectives that are inherent in the design process. As a result, design-automation tools must provide designers with the ability to represent and apply the preferential knowledge required to resolve conflicting objectives. This paper describes the ACME DecisionBot, a WWW-based tool for capturing and applying the preferential knowledge required to resolve design conflicts. Based on user input, the DecisionBot synthesizes an imprecise value function, which accurately captures the user's preferences for a task. An engineering-design tool can apply this preferential knowledge by way of an objective function approximation, by linking in a library of routines for evaluating design alternatives, or through direct interaction with the DecisionBot. Possible applications for concurrent engineering include incorporating the imprecise value function into the quality function deployment process, and representing the perspectives of team members for team-based design situations.