Towards a knowledge-based fixture designers' assistant

As the fixture design is a key step in planning process, the aim of our research is to develop a fixture designers' assistant integrated in the life cycle of the part. In order to develop a knowledge-based system for fixture design, we have structured the fixture designers' know-how and we have implemented it in an expert system. This paper focuses on the knowledge capitalisation process and the necessity of the knowledge formalisation. The following points are thrown into relief in this paper: the methodology used to model the fixture designers' knowledge, the results of this modelisation: a structuration of the fixture design process, an implementation of the procedure by means of an expert system.