This award supports research to enhance the application and use of solid freeform fabrication (SFF) through the development of a language for the separation of the design and fabrication functions. SFF is an emerging technology that enables the rapid fabrication of a nearly unrestricted range of geometrically designed parts. This research addresses three topics: (1) the development of a reduced instruction functional specification language consisting of a basic voca`ulary for specifying functional performance and mechanisms for combining primitive elements of this vocabulary to produce complete system specifications; (2) a synthesis methodology to generate design descriptions satisfying functional requirements that will bring together the conception, geometric abstraction, idealization, mesh generation, simulation, and optimization stages of design in a unified concurrent framework; and (3) an encapsulated interchange format for the digital interface between design and fabrication. The successful completion of this research would greatly enhance the emergence of SFF technologies. These technologies could provide substantially enhanced capability to designers, particularly by expanding the range of designs that can be fabricated, and they would significantly reduce the time to market for new products. These advances would greatly improve the competitiveness of U.S. industry.
