An approach to collaborative design based on distributed constraint-net

We focuse on design process in concurrent engineering and propose an, approach to collaborative design based on distributed constraint-net. The approach adopts agent technology to express kinds of distributed constraints. And through the cooperation among agents, the consistency of constraint is maintained and the constraint conflict is detected and eliminated. The constraints are satisfied concurrently and distributively. Based on the proposed approach, the collaborative design process in concurrent engineering can be well supported.