Device Modeling Environment (DME)

The Device Modeling Environment (DME) is a software environment that helps formulate simulation models, performs numerical and qualitative simulation, and generates natural language explanations of device behavior. DME is designed to help engineers at all stages of the design process by providing rapid feedback about the implications of design decisions, and to provide high quality documentation of designs for other engineering tasks such as diagnosis and redesign.

The system is developed by the How Things Work project of the Stanford University Knowledge Systems Laboratory (KSL).

DME operates on multiple engineering knowledge bases that include libraries of process and component models, representations of the principles of physics, and knowledge about modeling itself. Multiple models of devices at various levels of abstraction can be represented, and the relationships among device models are explicitly represented. Given a model, which can be quite abstract, a simulation module can make predictions about the device behavior under specified conditions. Explanation capabilities generate natural language text in an interactive medium to communicate the results to human engineers. Model formulation tools permit engineers to create useful models appropriate for various information requirements.

For more information, see the overview of the How Things Work project.