Generating multiple new designs from a sketch

We describe a program called SketchIT that transforms a single sketch of a mechanical device into multiple families of new designs. It represents each of these families with a “BEP-Model”, a parametric model augmented with constraints that ensure the device produces the desired behavior. The program is based on qualitative configuration space (qc-space), a novel representation that captures mechanical behavior while abstracting away its implementation. The program employs a paradigm of abstraction and resynthesis: it abstracts the initial sketch into qc-space, then uses a library of primitive mechanical interactions to map from qc-space to new implementations.

Authors

• Thomas F. Stahovich Randall Davis
• Randall Davis
• Howard Shrobe

Keywords

• Sketch understanding
• Design generalization
• Mechanical design
• Qualitative geometric reasoning