Solving an inventive problem costs a great deal of labour and time: the necessary knowledge has to be found and ordered, possible variants of the projected system generated, and the ideas and decisions offered analysed and judged for their promise. This monograph presents the results of work on a computing technology for the synthesis of new engineering at the level of invention.
The greatest attention is given to computer-aided design at its earliest stages, where new technical systems are synthesized in principle. Such synthesis draws on databases and knowledge bases of physical effects and of technical decisions, together with heuristic procedures of systematization. Because the operating principles of a new technical system are derived from expert knowledge, the task requires methods of artificial intelligence and of decision-making theory.
The book sets out the software developed for inventive problem solving, the application of the analytic hierarchy and network processes to invention problems, an intelligent system for the evolutionary synthesis of compound objects, and a decision-support system for collaborative choice that takes account of the mutual requirements of the parties. Separate sections show how international patent resources can be used in the study of innovative technologies, on the example of GLONASS/GPS, and how decisions on the substitution of imported equipment can be founded on the analysis of patent and financial information.
New paradigms of decision-making are examined next: approaches to choice, the analysis of the evolution of technical systems, the selection of a vibration isolation system under changing environmental conditions, expert preferences that vary over time, and particular features of AHP/ANP applications. The closing chapter describes an intelligent system for strategic decisions and its software implementation.
The approach has been applied to the synthesis of new technical systems of various functional purposes and has shown high efficiency in computer-aided design.
