Agent Behavior-Based Simulation Study on Mass Collaborative Product Development Process

Abstract

Mass collaborative product development (MCPD) benefits people by high innovation products with lower cost and shorter lead time due to quick development of group innovation, Internet-based customization, and prototype manufacturing. Simulation is an effective way to study the evolution process and therefore to guarantee the success of MCPD. In this paper, an agent behavior-based simulation approach of MCPD is developed, which models the MCPD process as the interactive process of design agents and the environment objects based on Complex Adaptive System (CAS) theory. Next, the structure model of design agent is proposed, and the modification and collaboration behaviors are described. Third, the agent behavior-based simulation flow of MCPD is designed. At last, simulation experiments are carried out based on an engineering case of mobile phone design. The experiment results show the following: (1) the community scale has significant influence on MCPD process; (2) the simulation process can explicitly represent the modification and collaboration behaviors of design agents; (3) the community evolution process can be observed and analyzed dynamically based on simulation data.