A Computational Model of Human Proficiency in Engineering Configuration Design

Abstract

This work introduces the Proficient Simulated Annealing Design Agent Model (PSADA), a cognitively inspired, agent-based model of engineering configuration design. PSADA models different proficiency agents using move selection heuristics and problem space search strategies, both of which are identified and extracted from prior human subject studies. The model is validated with two design problems. Agents are compared to human designers and show the accurate simulation of the behaviors of the different proficiency designers. These behavior differences lead to significantly different performance levels, matching the human performance levels with just one exception. These validated heterogeneous agents are placed into teams and confirmed previous findings that the most proficient member of a configuration design team has the largest impact (positive or negative) on team performance. The PSADA model is introduced as a scalable platform to further explore configuration design proficiency’s role in design team performance and organizational behavior.