There is a critical need for computer aided design (CAD) methods for assisting designers to apply human factors principles during the early stages of product design. Attaining this objective requires progress in determining (1) how to obtain and efficiently organize within a computer the diverse types of knowledge relevant to design problems and; (2) how to best apply these diverse types of knowledge early in the design cycle using computer aided methods. This research will be concentrated over the next year on further development of a modeling approach as a foundation for computer aided design. This will require significant synthesis of principles from the fields of safety engineering, artificial intelligence, decision analysis, and human factors. This research effort will be a computer knowledge structure useful for organizing and applying human factors knowledge to design problems.
