Knowledge-based Configuration
Encyclopedia
Knowledge-based configuration (of complex products and services) has a long history as an Artificial Intelligence
application area, see, e.g.,,,,,,,. Informally, configuration can be defined as a "special case of design activity, where the artifact being configured is assembled from instances of a fixed set of well-defined component types which can be composed conforming to a set of constraints" . Such constraints are representing technical restrictions, restrictions related to economic aspects and conditions related to production processes. The result of a configuration process is a product configuration (concrete configuration), i.e., a list of instances and in some cases also connections between these instances. Examples of such configurations are computers to be delivered or financial service portfolio offers (e.g., a combination of loan and corresponding risk insurance).
Configuration systems are one of the most successfully applied Artificial Intelligence
technologies. Examples are the automotive industry , the telecommunication industry , the computer industry , or power electric transformers . Starting with rule-based approaches such as R1/XCON
, model-based representations of knowledge (in contrast to rule-based representations) have been developed which strictly separate product domain knowledge from the problem solving one. There are two commonly sited conceptualizations of configuration knowledge ,. The most important concepts in these are components, ports, resources and functions. This separation of product domain knowledge and problem solving knowledge increased the effectiveness of configuration application development and maintenance ,,, since changes in the product domain knowledge do not effect search strategies and vice versa.
"Core configuration", i.e., guiding the user and checking the consistency of user requirements with the knowledge base, solution presentation and translation of configuration results into bill of materials
(BOM) are major tasks to be supported by a configurator . Configuration knowledge bases are often built using proprietary languages (see, e.g.,,,). In most cases knowledge bases are developed by knowledge engineers who elicit product, marketing and sales knowledge from domain experts. Configuration knowledge bases are composed of a formal description of the structure of the product and further constraints restricting the possible component combinations.
Configurators are also often considered as "open innovation
toolkits", i.e., tools which support customers in the product identification phase . In this context customers are innovators who articulate their requirements leading to new innovative products ,. "Mass Confusion" - the overwhelming of customers by a large number of possible solution alternatives (choices) - is a phenomenon which often comes with the application of configuration technologies. This phenomenon motivated the creation of personalized configuration environments taking into account a customer’s knowledge and preferences .
Recently, knowledge based configuration has been extended to service and software configuration. Modeling software configuration has been based on two main approaches: feature modeling , and component-connectors . Kumbang domain ontology combines the previous approaches building on the tradition of knowledge based configuration .
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
application area, see, e.g.,,,,,,,. Informally, configuration can be defined as a "special case of design activity, where the artifact being configured is assembled from instances of a fixed set of well-defined component types which can be composed conforming to a set of constraints" . Such constraints are representing technical restrictions, restrictions related to economic aspects and conditions related to production processes. The result of a configuration process is a product configuration (concrete configuration), i.e., a list of instances and in some cases also connections between these instances. Examples of such configurations are computers to be delivered or financial service portfolio offers (e.g., a combination of loan and corresponding risk insurance).
Configuration systems are one of the most successfully applied Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
technologies. Examples are the automotive industry , the telecommunication industry , the computer industry , or power electric transformers . Starting with rule-based approaches such as R1/XCON
Xcon
The R1 program was a production-rule-based system written in OPS5 by John P. McDermott of CMU in 1978 to assist in the ordering of DEC's VAX computer systems by automatically selecting the computer system components based on the customer's requirements...
, model-based representations of knowledge (in contrast to rule-based representations) have been developed which strictly separate product domain knowledge from the problem solving one. There are two commonly sited conceptualizations of configuration knowledge ,. The most important concepts in these are components, ports, resources and functions. This separation of product domain knowledge and problem solving knowledge increased the effectiveness of configuration application development and maintenance ,,, since changes in the product domain knowledge do not effect search strategies and vice versa.
"Core configuration", i.e., guiding the user and checking the consistency of user requirements with the knowledge base, solution presentation and translation of configuration results into bill of materials
Bill of materials
A bill of materials is a list of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, sub-components, components, parts and the quantities of each needed to manufacture an end product...
(BOM) are major tasks to be supported by a configurator . Configuration knowledge bases are often built using proprietary languages (see, e.g.,,,). In most cases knowledge bases are developed by knowledge engineers who elicit product, marketing and sales knowledge from domain experts. Configuration knowledge bases are composed of a formal description of the structure of the product and further constraints restricting the possible component combinations.
Configurators are also often considered as "open innovation
Open Innovation
Although the idea and discussion about some consequences date back at least to the 60s, open innovation is a term promoted by Henry Chesbrough, a professor and executive director at the Center for Open Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, in his book Open Innovation: The new...
toolkits", i.e., tools which support customers in the product identification phase . In this context customers are innovators who articulate their requirements leading to new innovative products ,. "Mass Confusion" - the overwhelming of customers by a large number of possible solution alternatives (choices) - is a phenomenon which often comes with the application of configuration technologies. This phenomenon motivated the creation of personalized configuration environments taking into account a customer’s knowledge and preferences .
Recently, knowledge based configuration has been extended to service and software configuration. Modeling software configuration has been based on two main approaches: feature modeling , and component-connectors . Kumbang domain ontology combines the previous approaches building on the tradition of knowledge based configuration .
Workshops on Configuration
- AAAI Fall Symposium 1996: http://www.aaai.org/Press/Reports/Symposia/Fall/fs-96-03.php
- AAAI 1999 Workshop on Configuration: http://cohave.ifit.uni-klu.ac.at/papers/ConfigurationWorkshop_1999.zip
- ECAI 2000 Workshop on Configuration: http://www.soberit.hut.fi/pdmg/ECAI2000WS/
- IJCAI 2001 Workshop on Configuration: http://www.soberit.hut.fi/pdmg/IJCAI2001ConfWS/
- ECAI 2002 Workshop on Configuration: http://www.enstimac.fr/recherche/gind/manifestations/ecai2002
- IJCAI 2003 Workshop on Configuration: http://www.isi.edu/integration/workshops/ijcai03/iiweb.html
- ECAI 2004 Workshop on Configuration: http://www.dsic.upv.es/ecai2004/workshops/cfps/cfp-w02.html
- IJCAI 2005 Workshop on Configuration: http://cohave.ifit.uni-klu.ac.at/papers/ConfigurationWorkshop_2005.pdf
- ECAI 2006 Workshop on Configuration: http://fmv.jku.at/ecai-config-ws-2006/
- AAAI 2007 Workshop on Configuration: http://www.cs.ucc.ie/~osullb/aaai-config-ws-2007/ Proceedings: http://www.aaai.org/Library/Workshops/ws07-03.php
- ECAI 2008 Workshop on Configuration: http://www.soberit.hut.fi/configws08/pages/agenda.htm
- IJCAI 2009 Workshop on Configuration: http://www.cis.unisa.edu.au/~confws09/
- ECAI 2010 Workshop on Configuration: http://www.hitec-hh.de/confws10
- FLoC 2010 Workshop on Logic in Component Configuration: http://lococo2010.mancoosi.org/
- ECAI 2010 Workshop on Intelligent Engineering Techniques for Knowledge Bases: http://ase.ist.tugraz.at/ecai_2010
- IJCAI 2011 Workshop on Configuration: http://ls13-www.cs.uni-dortmund.de/homepage/confws11/
Journal special issues on Configuration
- AIEDAM 1998 Special Issue on Configuration Design: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=38637
- IEEE Intelligent Systems Special Issue on Configuration 1998 (vol. 13, No. 4): http://www.computer.org/portal/web/intelligent/home
- AIEDAM 2003 Special Issue on Configuration: http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~aiedam/SpecialIssues
- IEEE Intelligent Systems Special Issue on Configuration 2007: http://www.computer.org/portal/web/intelligent/home
- Special Issue on Configuration in the International Journal of Mass Customization 2006: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=119&year=2006&vol=1&issue=4
- International Journal of Mass Customization Special Issue on Configuration 'Advances in Configuration Systems' 2010 (vol 3, No: 4). http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=119&year=2010&vol=3&issue=4
- AIEDAM 2011 Special Issue on Configuration (upcoming): http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~aiedam/SpecialIssues
Configurator vendors
- Oracle configurator: http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/ebusiness/scm/051314.html
- SAP configurator: http://www.sap.com/sme/howtobuy/businessallinone/configurator.epx
- Tacton configurator: http://www.tacton.com/en/
- ConfigIT configurator: http://www.configit.com/
- Encoway configurator: http://www.encoway.de/
- Siemens configurator: http://www.siemens.com
Research prototypes
- 1991 PLAKON / PROKON http://www.hitec-hh.de/ueberuns/home/aguenter/literatur/literatur.html
- 1999 Konwerk http://www.aaai.org/Papers/Workshops/1999/WS-99-05/WS99-05-024.pdf
- 2002 ConIPF tools: http://www.conipf.org
- 2003 WeCoTin http://www.soberit.hut.fi/pdmg/papers/Tiihonen_1290ICED03FPB.pdf
- 2005 Kumbang tools: http://www.soberit.hut.fi/kumbangtools
Benchmarks
- Configuration Benchmarks Library (CLib): http://www.itu.dk/research/cla/externals/clib/
- Benchmarks from automotive product configuration: http://www-sr.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/~sinz/DC/
Further Links
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Configuration
- http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Produktkonfigurator
- http://www.mass-customization.de/
- http://www.open-innovation.de/
- Software product lines and variability management dates back to 1996: http://www.splc.net/history.html
- German language "configuration workshops" Planen und Konfigurieren started already in 1987: http://www-is.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de/~sauer/puk/puk.html