Automated Design Knowledge Capture Using Virtual Reality Available to Purchase

As the use of knowledge capture and reuse becomes more prevalent in industry, the research into how the capture process can be automated is also increasing. In this paper, research is presented on how basic design knowledge, such as design decisions and best practice, in a virtual reality-based cable harness design system can be automatically captured and represented. By automated and unobtrusive logging of a user as a design task is carried out, the resulting log file is parsed and various representations of the captured design processes are automatically generated. A user trial involving industrial collaborators was conducted to find out which of the representations were the most effective and preferred. It was discovered that users had a preference for representations that contain more visual information. Future work will involve utilising the captured knowledge to develop training tools which will aid new users performing similar design tasks.