An Artifact Model with Structure of Operations and Its Application to Universal Design
Hidetsugu Suto, Hiroshi Kawakami, Osamu Katai · Transactions of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers · 2002
In this paper, we will propose a conceptual design support system based on the notion of the universal design by using a model for representing artifacts which focuses on operational structure. We have already proposed a hierarchical model for representing interactive artifacts involving “intentions”, “operations and states” and “physical phenomena” which are tightly related with each other from teleological, causal and temporal aspects. In this model, artifacts are interpreted as interfaces between humans and environments. In this sense, the proposed model is suitable for representing artifacts which are designed based on the notion of universal design. In order to apply the proposed model to design support system, we have proposed the conceptual classes that are suitable for representing “physical causalities” and “operations” based on “Ontology Engineering”. In this paper, we will propose a simulation system of our proposed model. The system consists of an “extended petri net simulator” and a “physical causal network generating system”. They interact with each other via a “node observation agent”. In order to elucidate the effectiveness of the proposed system, we will show an example of operational analysis result of an artifact.