A market-based infrastructure for exchanging rapid prototyping services

A distributed rapid prototyping project using layered manufacturing techniques such as Solid Free-Form (SFF) manufacturing requires the cooperation of designers and manufacturers that may be largely unfamiliar with each other's requirements. An open formalization of the interface between designers and fabrication facilities is therefore necessary to decompose the highly coupled design and manufacturing domains, especially when the numbers of designers and manufacturers who use such processes grow to an extent where it can be commoditized in the open marketplace provided by the Internet.; This thesis describes an approach where collaboration between SFF designers and manufacturers occurs through a marketplace of on-line services that synthesizes the needs of both designers and manufacturers. At the core of this approach is the negotiated dialogue of a shared representation of features and attributes that represent the utilities of both designer and manufacturer. Market-based techniques for transaction resolution based upon two different systems for negotiation are then used to resolve both sets of needs and align the resources necessary for production. Results from the numerical simulations of one of these systems are discussed.; In addition, this thesis describes a formal approach to proliferate electronic representations of engineering services and examines its role in an electronic commerce framework that integrates producers and consumers of engineering services as an integrated network. Lastly, it explores the pragmatic aspects of constructing online engineering services through electronic commerce frameworks.