AI EDAM: Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis, and Manufacturing

Table of Contents - 2007 - Volume 21, Issue 02  


GUEST EDITORIAL

Computational linguistics for design, maintenance, and manufacturing

NICOLE  SEGERS  a1 c1 and PIERRE  LECLERCQ  a2
a1 JANUS Institute, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
a2 Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

Article author query
segers n   [Google Scholar] 
leclercq p   [Google Scholar] 
 

Although graphic representations have proven to be of value in computer-aided support and have received much attention in both research and practice (Goldschmidt, 1991; Goel, 1995; Achten, 1997; Do, 2002), linguistic representations presently do not significantly contribute to improve the information handling related to the computer support of a design product. During its life cycle, engineers and designers make many representations of a product. The information and knowledge used to create the product are usually represented visually in sketches, models, (technical) drawings, and images. Linguistic information is complementary to graphic information and essential to create the corporate memory of products. Linguistic information (i.e., the use of words, abbreviations, vocal comments, annotations, notes, and reports) creates meaningful information for designers and engineers as well as for computers (Segers, 2004; Juchmes et al., 2005). Captions, plain text, and keyword indexing are now common to support the communication between design actors (Lawson & Loke, 1997; Wong & Kvan, 1999; Heylighen, 2001; Boujut, 2003). Nevertheless, it is currently scarcely used to its full potential in design, maintenance, and manufacturing.


Correspondence:
c1 Reprint requests to: Nicole Segers, The JANUS Institute, VRT 9.08, PO Box 513, NL-5600, MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands. E-mail: nicole@nicolesegers.nl

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