Architecture of Knowledge Service for Collaborative Product Design

A model of Web-enabled knowledge service system (Web-KSS) is proposed. The framework is intended to integrate the common forms of knowledge expression through enveloping knowledge representation with uniform XML tags. As it is implemented in Java with the techniques of object-oriented modeling and encapsulates design expert systems into standard Web services, this model provides an Object-Web framework for product design in an Internet-oriented design environment. A sample demonstrates the use of this framework as a prototype for implementation of electrical equipments design system. This architecture shows its advantages in supporting distributed knowledge-driven design.