A Method for Extracting and Utilizing Design Knowledge on Physical Causal Laws on Artifacts

Abstract

For supporting functional design process by using computer, one of the promising way is to utilize knowledge or tips on design. One practical way for supporting functional design is to facilitate designers to refer to well-organized and sophisticated knowledge-bases of inventive principles and of physical effects. Designers are, however, required training to deal with these kinds of abstract pieces of knowledge and to combine them for creating design concepts. Thus, we will examine a case-based reasoning framework in which design examples instead of highly abstract inventive principles are utilized. Based on the assumption that each example in the case-base functions by employing physical laws and effects, and the examples are selected so as to be subject to Design Axioms introduced by Suh, the present work proposes a method to acquire physical causal networks which reflect design knowledge and to utilize them for re-design process for supporting designers.