Compatible component selection under uncertainty via extended constraint satisfaction approach

This paper deals with compatible component selection problems, where the goal is to find combinations of components satisfying design constraints given a product structure, component alternatives available in design catalogue for each subsystem of the product, and a preliminary design constraint. An extended Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) is introduced to solve component selection problems considering uncertainty in the values of design variables. To handle a large number of all possible combinations of components, the paper proposes a systematic filtering procedure and an efficient method to estimate a complex feasible design space to facilitate selection of component combinations having more feasible solutions. The proposed approach is illustrated and demonstrated with a robotic vacuum cleaner design example.