Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

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Expert Systems with Applications

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa

The process model to aid innovation of products conceptual design

Wenqiang Li a, Yan Li a,*, Jian Wang b, Xiaoying Liu a
a
b

School of Manufacturing Science & Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, Peoples Republic of China
School of Aerospace & Aircraft Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Kingston University, Friars Avenue Roehampton Vale, London SW15 3DW, UK

a r t i c l e
Keywords:
Conceptual design
Innovative strategies
Process mapping
Extension reasoning
Mathematical model

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Currently, designers often pay little attention to integrated innovation during the design process of products. In addition, the product assistance design systems mainly focus on the detailed design phrase and
the construction function of mathematics models are often been neglected. In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes a conceptual design process model to aid multi-stage innovation of product
design based on the integration of the essential rules of the Axiomatic Design (AD) model, Function
BehaviourStructure (FBS) model, and the guideline of functional creative thinking logics. By utilising
the function tree and functional structure tree as the mediums to express the design information and
by applying the conict solving strategies of Extensic theory, the conceptual design process is dened
as an integrated system with ve stages and four mappings. The integrated logical processes of this
model are described with mathematical language. Thus, the whole transformation from design experiences to design principles and to mathematical model nally to aided design system is realized perfectly
in the proposed process model. The meaningful exploration on the nature and practical processes of product conceptual design is carried out in this research.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The product development process is a transform process from
customer requirements to a physical structure while considering
the various design constraints. During the transform process, the
stage of conceptual design is the most important one. It not only
determines the innovation level of the nal product but also commits 7080% of the funds. In addition, any design defect in the conceptual design is very difcult to correct in detail design and will
incur further cost in the future (Francis, Tay, & Jinxiang, 2002).
The product conceptual design process includes a set of technical
activities, which are the renement of customer requirements into
design functions, new concept development, and embodiment
engineering of a new product.
Under the notion of customer-driven design, the essential part
of the conceptual design process is ensuring the ability of product
functions meets customers requirement(s) (Henry, Bing, Felix, &
Ralph, 2002; Lin, Wang, Chen, & Chang, 2008). Researchers have
proposed many conceptual design methods, which can be classied into three categories based on focal points and tools used: design models according to design criterion of product, design
models based on design strategies of product and design models
adopting articial intelligence. (1) For the rst group, conceptual

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 28 85406946; fax: +86 28 85406988.

E-mail address: liyan@scu.edu.cn (Y. Li).
0957-4174/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2009.10.034

design process of product is dened as the mapping process among

different design domains.A certain canonical format is chosen to
represent the design information, and the innovation of product
design is supported by mapping processes among different domains, such as the Axiomatic Design (AD) model proposed by
Suh (2001), the Sycle design model proposed by Kobayashi
(2006) and the Technology System Forecasting model proposed
by Mann (2003). (2) For design models based on the design strategies, the design process is regarded as a decision-making process.
The innovation process of product can be implemented through
various design strategies among design units. For example, the
FunctionBehaviourStructure (FBS) model proposed by Gero and
Kannengiesser (2007), the agent-based model proposed by
Campbell, Cagan, and Kotovsky (2000) and the attribute-based
decision-making model proposed by Wang (2001). (3) For design
models adopting articial intelligence, the design process is
regarded as a process of resolving different design conicts. It
can be realized effectively with various innovative tools springing
from intelligence techniques, such as the case-based reasoning
model proposed by Therani Madhusudan, Zhao, and Marshall
(2004), the rule-based reasoning model proposed by Burattini, De
Gregorio, and Tamburrini (2002), the design catalogues reasoning
model proposed by Peien, Shuai, Yong, Shuangxia, and Bin
(2002), the analogy-based reasoning model proposed by Goel and
Bhatta (2004), the fuzzy neural network and the genetic algorithm
reasoning model proposed by Hsiao and Tsai (2005) and the Extensic reasoning model proposed by Cai, Yang, and He (2003).

W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

At the same time, many design assistance systems have been

developed, which include:
(1) A knowledge-based system developed by Zhang, Tor, and
Britton (2001): a concept variants are generated rstly and
an expert system shell, called C Language Integrated Production System, is used to aid the quantitative phase of concept
evaluation. It performs the product design based on various
design rules and eliminates the explosion phenomenon of
design projects effectively during the design process.
(2) An agent system developed by Campbell et al. (2000): software agents are interacted to achieve the function solving,
and then by combining unique problem solving strategies,
these agents are able to generate solutions to open-ended
design problems. This model has been implemented to solve
general electromechanical design problems currently.
(3) A case system developed by Han and Lee (2006): a computational framework for design synthesis is provided by imitating the common design method of reviewing past designs to
obtain solution concepts for a new design problem. Feasible
design alternatives are generated by combining virtual function generators using some adaptation rules.
(4) A FBS system developed by Umeda, Ishii, and Yoshioka
(1996): since FBS Model can support functional design not
only in the analytical phase but also in the synthetic phase.
Simultaneity, a computer tool called subsystem Qualitative
Process Abduction System is developed. It can realize the
analogism innovation between different design elds eetly.
(5) A Scheme builder system developed by Bracewell and Sharpe
(1996): a design environment called Schemebuilder which is
a comprehensive of software tools aimed at supporting the
designer in the rapid development of product design models
in the conceptual, through embodiment stages of design.
(6) A character system developed by Brownsboro and Noort
(2004): unlike current modelling systems, it provides a multiple-view feature modelling can adequately support an own
view on a product for each phase. Each view contains a feature model of the product specic for the corresponding
phase.
(7) A restriction system developed by Kulak, Durmusoglu, and
Tufekci (2005) and an environment system developed by
Xu, Sun, and Pan (2001) integrate the design environment
into design process and make the design result meets the
practice accurately. All these design assistant systems are
to complete the requirement functions of a product based
on certain functional solving strategies and the expressing
form of design information.
However, in these design models and assistant systems always
pay more attention to the practical methods or systems of product
design and emphasise partial optimization of the design process.
The research of integrated innovative strategies of product design
has been ignored. In addition, few mathematical models have been
proposed to represent their research theoretically, which restricts
the expression of the innovative process from a microscopic view
as the mathematical form can express the essence of design process quanticationally and accurately.
In an attempt to rectify these deciencies, this paper proposes a
conceptual design model aiding multi-stage innovation of the
product by means of the hierarchy frame of information description model and based on the internal driven regulations of the
AD and FBS models. The different innovative strategies in different
design stages are discussed respectively. The logic process of the
design model framework is presented mathematically, in which
the integrated transform from design experience to design principle, then, to the mathematical model, nally to assistance design

3575

system is presented in this paper. These provide an exploration

into the effective practical supports of conceptual design and also
establish a foundation for the conceptual design assistant systems
development.

2. The design process based on multi-stage innovation

The purpose of conceptual design is to realize the requirement
functions of a product and the essence is innovation. How to support the innovative design effectively has become the priority consideration in the conceptual design process. Those design models
discussed above can all realize some innovation to new design
products through various means. For example, the product innovations in the criterion model are achieved through the conversion
mappings among design domains. The product innovations in the
strategies model are achieved through various decisions and the
articial intelligence model achieve it through different intelligent
tools. In the sections below, the three kinds of typical design models referred to in this paper will be discussed in detail.
In the AD model (Suh, 2001), the design process is carried out by
zigzagging mappings between the customer domain, function domain, physical domain and process domain. This model describes
an integrated design framework and general design regulations of
the product design process, but lacks a specic strategy to deal with
the innovative process of design. In the FBS model (Vermaas &
Dorst, 2008), every design task is decomposed into three stages:
establishing a requirement function, searching functional structures and recomposing functional structures. The model provides
an effective means for conceptual design process by utilising behaviours of the products as the information bridge, adopting causal
mapping between design elements as the driver to implement
exploration of the innovative space of the products. The disadvantage of this model is paying much attention to innovative strategies
of the product but neglect the representation ability of the model
for the whole design process. As a conict resolving theory in the
cross-disciplinary, the focuses of Extensic are the expansion methods, expansion rules and expansion operation of the conicts. The
fundamental theory is based on extension set theory of matter-element and extension logics, which provides an effective mode of
thinking and a concrete operational process to solve contradictory
problems in the design process of product by the rhombus thinking
method of transformation operations (Cai et al., 2003).
Considering the characteristics of the above design models and
conict resolving strategies, this paper combines the three methods
together and attempts to create a fusion of their advantages. It
builds an integrated process of conceptual design with the good
expression framework of the AD model and realizes various creative solutions of requirement functions according to the decisionmaking behaviours between design units in the FBS model. At the
same time, the conict resolving strategies of Extensic theory are
incorporated into the model to deal with various design conicts.
Finally, an integrated conceptual design model aiding multi-stage
innovation of products is proposed. The whole process is dened
as a multi-stage mapping process among the customer requirements domain, principle solution domain, functional structures domain, extension structures domain, and design project domain,
shown in Fig. 1. Different innovative strategies are implemented
in the different mapping processes to enable the design process of
the product to be performed with multi-stage innovation.
In the mapping processes, the customer requirements domain is
the target descriptive set of design products which meets customer
requirements. These need to be abstracted into the standard form
of functions to adapt the design process. The principle solution domain is the scientic principle set used to achieve various design
functions. It spans different academic boundaries to create a

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W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

Fig. 1. The multi-stage mapping processes of product design.

perfect product. The functional structures domain is the physical

structures set produced from a certain scientic principle and
there always exists some partial conict structures which do not
meet the design constraints. Extending and perfecting those conict structures is necessary to obtain a satisfying design project.
The extension structure domain is the satised functional structures set in which the structures meet the design constraints after
various extending conversions. The design project domain is the
various effective design path set in which a product satisfying
the design constraints can be obtained. Through the multi-stage
mapping process, the uxion of design information can be realized
smoothly in the design process. Furthermore, the scientic principles are introduced as the innovative means and the conict
resolving strategies of Extensic theory are incorporated into the design process, making up for the deciency of the information break
and the limited innovative means in AD model. In the following
sections, we will describe the transformation process of creative
thinking in the multi-stage mapping process.
2.1. The innovative strategies in design process
Product innovative design is a superior design process which
performs design along with various creative thinking strategies
and is built on the foundation of routine design. The creative thinking strategies are usually classied into three categories: exploring
a new conceptual space, transforming an existent conceptual
space, and recomposing a familiar conceptual space. They are
implemented by mapping processes between different conceptual
design domains (Vermaas & Dorst, 2007).
As discussed above, in this paper, the design process is dened
as an integrated mapping system with ve stages and the design
information can be conveyed among the different design domains.
It provides a broad space for the implementation of creative thinking strategies. The mapping processes among the design domains
are shown as follows:
(1) The mapping from the customer requirements domain to the
principle solution domain: The aim of this mapping is to
search for primary principle solutions which full the main
requirement functions of customers by means of function
matching methods. In this process, the conceptual solution
space is extended adequately so that customers requirements are satised by attempting various scientic principles. Consequently, the variety and innovation of the
ultimate design project can be decided in this process.
(2) The mapping from the principle solution domain to the functional structures domain: Taking the principle solution as
the information bridge, a function model and corresponding
functional structures model can be built based on the primary principle solutions. After evaluating the functional
structures model according to the design requirements,
some partial function conicts and functional structures
conicts are identied and conrmed. The transformation
from the holistic conict space to partial conict space will
be realized and the design space will be further extended.

(3) The mapping from the functional structures domain to the

extension structures domain: As for all the conict functional structures existing in the design model, they will be
eliminated by the extension mechanism of Extensic theory.
Different extending conversions are used from the conict
elements to their solutions, it can realize the extension and
innovation of design process further.
(4) The mapping from the extension structures domain to the
design project domain: After optimized assembly of the
extension structures solutions, an optimal conceptual solving path is developed based on the evaluation strategies
about the least design information and shortest solving path.
It will realize a nally design project place and provide an
end-result to the multi-stage innovation.
From the perspective of function, this conceptual design model
including four mapping processes reects the transform relation of
the multi-stage innovation of a new product. They are coherent
from the customer requirements domain to the design project domain and the solution range of every mapping process is the denition domain of the next mapping process. Therefore the design
information conveyed in the whole design process has good consecution. This kind of mapping model between domains uses the
mapping rules of the AD model and applies different innovative
strategies according to the characteristics of the different design
stages. It not only puts forward a kind of design approach in consistent with the thinking logic of the design process, but also provides an efcient and high level concrete means to develop a
creative product.
2.2. The description of the conceptual design process
The conceptual design model can be logically described as a
transformation of the customer requirements to a product that
best meets those requirements wherein the design law is deduced
(Karuppoor, 2003). There are always two non-mathematical approaches to describe the processes. One is the semantic description
with words or languages such as detailed task lists. It is abstract
and systematic. The other is the non-semantic description with
block diagrams and entities such as ow charts. It is gurative
and visible. In contrast, the mathematical model possesses the
merits both of them. It can simplify the abstract semantic information by rigorous symbols and logic, and also changes the nonsemantic process framework into the structure of a mathematical
model, which enables the descriptive process to be clear and accurate. In addition, by means of the computers supportive management of the conceptual design process, and depending on the
outstanding communication quality of mathematical model, the
designers thinking can be transferred into the computer system,
which provides a foundation for the development of the computer
language. Moreover, it can abstract accurate design norm from the
blurry design experience and make general designer acquaint the
design process quickly. Therefore, it is meaningful to establish a
mathematical model of the design process with good structure
which will benet to the designers in understanding the essence
of the conceptual design process and developing an assistance system for the conceptual innovation of product design. In the following section, the conceptual design model with multi-stage
innovation will be further described mathematically.
3. Mathematical descriptions in the multi-stage innovation
model
The conceptual design process of products is a mapping process
from customer requirements to the design project. Supposing Rc as

W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

the customer requirement set, F as the function set and S as the

functional structures set, and mapping Rc to S on the basis of F, a
satised design project X can be yielded, which can be written as:

X FRc ! S

The conversion process of Eq. (1) is the essence of product design.

However, this conversion process in practice is always complicated
and different conversion strategies will be adopted in different design models. In this paper, the design process is dened as an integrated system which includes ve arbitrary design stages and four
_

mapping processes. The ve design stages are Rc ; F ; S; S; X and

H

the four mapping processes are RC ! F ; F ! S; S ! S and S ! X,

H

which match the

where F is the set of primary principle solutions
_
main function requirements of customers. S is the set of conict
functional
structures derived from the functions decomposition
^
and S is the corresponding set of extended functional structures.
The four mapping processes are described below:
H

The first mapping : K R : Rc ! F or : F K R Rc

This is a divergent mapping process with the aim of searching various scientic principles to match the main requirement functions
of customers. Since the requirements knowledge KR at this stage
H

is blurry and uncertain, the primary principle solution F is usually

not unique. The more scientic principles that are found, the higher
the innovative level of a product.
_

The second mapping : K F : F ! S or : S K F F

This is a convergent mapping process. After applying the reasoning

H

design of the FBS model to the principle solution F , a function model

and functional structure model is set up. Comparing the relationship between the functional structures model and the customer
requirements and design constraints, the conict functional struc_

tures set S, which requires further optimization, is conrmed. In

this mapping, KF is the restriction knowledge of the design process.
_

The fourth mapping : K V : S ! X or : X K V S P H

This is a convergent mapping process and its essence is an evaluation process. Based on the convergent mapping, the evaluation
^

means that the functional^structures S satises design requirements

after conversion, and K V S < H mean the opposite. H denotes the
entropy conrmed in advance.
From the four mapping processes discussed above, we can see
that the aim of product design is to enable a design project X satisfying the requirements, which can be expressed mathematically
as:
^

4. The key techniques in the multi-stage innovation model

All conceptual design models consist of two key techniques that
are the expression of design information and the solution of
requirement function. Because both of them are restricted by the
model of customer requirements, there are three focuses in a conceptual design model. In order to describe the multi-stage conceptual design process clearly, this paper will discuss the design
process from these three aspects, which are: establishing the customer requirements, expressing the design information and producing the design project.

As above explanation about the conceptual design process, the

commence point is customer requirements. Because they are usually expressed with certain human language which can be blurry,
the customer requirements cannot be regarded as the design
requirements directly used in design process. Therefore, a model
is required to clarify and clearly dene the customer requirements
in order to convert them into the concrete design parameters. As a
kind of conceptual descriptive method for the essential requirements of an existing object, function is very suitable for representing the design requirements. Therefore, the design requirements
are generated in the form of function based on customer requirements in the following two steps.

knowledge KV been acted on S in this process. Here, K V S P H

RC K V S [ F X

From Eq. (7), the starting point of conceptual design is the product
characteristic knowledge related to the design requirements, and
the design target is to obtain new knowledge set. The new knowledge set will become the knowledge resource for this and/or other
new designs later. Therefore, the re-creation process based on the
existing knowledge is the essence of product design and is a very
important element of the design as well. From the aforementioned
mapping processes, it can be easily concluded that this design model is composed of double cycles from divergent thinking to convergent thinking, shown in Fig. 2. The rst and second stage
innovations are achieved in the rst alternation which realizes the
innovation for principles on the whole. The third and fourth stage
innovations are achieved in the second alternation which realizes
the deep-level innovative design of the product in some local respects. This design-thinking model has two advantages. First, it
can avoid the premature convergence of the design space at the
early design stage and also ensures that the distributed scientic
principles can support the innovation of the design effectively. In
addition, it can effectively eliminate the explosion phenomenon
which is difcult to forecast during the reorganization process of
the design scheme. In the following section, taking some key problems in the conceptual design process into account, the solving process of the specic design scheme will be elaborated.

This is a divergent mapping process with the restrictions on the

requirement functions and design process. The aim of this mapping
process is to convert all the conict functions and conict functional
structures into extension functional structures by the conict resolution theory of Extensic.
In this mapping, KT is the various reason
^
knowledge in Extensic, S is the extension functional structures after
conversion.

4.1. Establishing design requirement functions of customer

The third mapping : K T : S ! S or : S K T S

X K V K T K F K R X

3577

In this formula, [X] denotes all the characteristic knowledge of X.

Substituting Eq. (6) into Eqs. (2)(5), we can get Eq. (7):

4.1.1. Classifying the customers requirements

Customers provide requirements for designers in terms of quality, cost, and environment and so on. The information is usually
provided in human language i.e. words and/or sentences, such as
the product is light in weight and the price is low. Since these
expressions, without any delity differences in their level of significances, are too blurry to guide the design process and dene the
preferential level of the design, they must be analysed and classied rstly. Fuzzy set theory has strong ability in tackling abstract,
uncertain and un-quantitative information, and can be used to describe the design information quanticationally and effectively.
After classifying and prioritising the requirements information
of customers by fuzzy set theory, the essential and important

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W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

Fig. 2. Double divergent and convergent processes.

requirements can be separated from the surplus/redundant and

subsidiary requirements, which clearly reect the true intentions
of customers (Laszlo, David, Dirk, & Wim, 2008). Let Rc denote
the claried customer requirements.
4.1.2. Abstracting and normalising customer requirements
Because of designers experience, habits and design concept,
different designers will hold different interpretations on the
customer requirements, which is likely to cause many prejudices
and unreal constrains being introduced into the design process in
advance. Therefore, the customer requirements should be abstracted in rigorous language to smash the fetters of the traditional
design ideology and limitations of the subjectivity and contingency. It is necessary to represent the customers essential requirements emphatically to ensure smoothly transform from the
customer requirement space to the design knowledge space. It
can furthest guarantee to grasp the core of customers requirements by using design requirement function to represent the
essence of customers requirements. Therefore, the fault restrictions can easily be identied and eliminated. The design solution
space can be constructed in the highest level. (Rc)+ denotes the
design requirement functions and can be derived from the standardization of customers requirements.

Rc RRc

where the R is the normalise operator. Based on Kirschmans classication method according to basic functions, different objects and
action status are described in terms of four basic function types,
namely, Motion, Control, Power and Enclosures (Kirschman & Fadel,
1998), each of which has the respective basic feature set. However,
this classication only focuses on the technical characteristics of
product but disregards the non-technical characteristics. Nevertheless, the design process should be comprehensive and integrated
design features. Therefore, in this paper, the characteristics of customer requirements in conceptual form is taken into account, a synthetic functions is introduced into the design process to describe
the non-technical characteristic of product, such as the eld characteristics, application characteristics and so on as a complementary
to Kirschnmans method. Consequently, the design requirement
functions become ve basic functions which are Motion Function
(MF), Control Function (CF), Power Function (PF), Enclosures Function (EF) and Synthetic Function (SF). Further more, each basic function set includes multi-level more basic functions. Finally, every
customer requirement can be dened by a combination function
set of the ve types of basic function sets. Each basic function is ex-

pressed in the form of function operation method + function operation object and comprised of a sentence with verb+noun such as
deliver machine energy, separate impurity, etc.

R MF; CF; PF; EF; SF; MF MFV; MFN;

CF CFV; CFN . . .

Among the motion function MF, MFV, MFN means the functional
operation method and functional operation object of the basic
motion function respectively. For example:

MFV bring; switch; change; transfer; consume;

MFN electric-energy; mechanical-energy; other-energy;
Similarly, each basic functions of CF, PF, EF, SF have their own more
basic functional operation method set and functional operation
object set.
In order to express and manage the basic function set of the designs requirements efciently, each function set is expressed with
the form of power set which its element is a sub-function set, i.e.
lower level set is embed in the higher level set. The higher level
element in a set denotes more abstract function, while the element
in a lower level set represents specic function. In this way, the
customer requirements can be established through the ve basic
function sets successfully and the conversion from the customers
requirement space to designers concept space can be accomplished. The ith customer requirement can be uniquely described
as a set of basic function set, shown in Eq. (10).


 c   i
Ri MF k ; CF ik ; PF ik ; EF ik ; SF ik \ k 6 kmax ;
k 1; 2; . . . ; kmax

10

Then

Rc

m
X
 c 
Ri ;

i 1; 2; . . . n

11

i1

In Eqs. (10) and (11), kmax denotes the maximal decomposing level
of function and n is the number of customer requirements.
4.2. The representation model for design information
In conceptual design, it is necessary to dene a model, which is
completive and conductive to innovation design, representing
product design information to describe the whole design process.
Under the function of the environment, the realization of the

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W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

Fig. 3. The tree-like structures of product function.

customer requirement function runs through the entire design

process, in this paper product functions information is used as
expression of information representing the product design process.
The original customer requirements are the design target. However, they are normally general, complex, regardless of the hierarchy and lack of focused and practical accuracy and are impossible
to be represented by single functional structures. Therefore, the
hierarchical approach is introduced to decompose the original customer requirement functions into sub-functions which will be
dealt with gradually in different design levels. In order to describe
the relationship of product design information in different design
stages accurately, a notion of function tree and functional structures tree is introduced with tree-layer structures. This information expressive model can not only describe the design conicts
in each stage exibly and unanimously, provide support for eliminating the conicts effectively, but also lay a foundation for implementing the product function innovation layer by layer during the
design process. The top down representing tree proposed by Csabai, Stroud, and Xirouchakis (2002) is used for the expressive model of product function, notated as F, which can be written as:

F fFi; k; jji; k 1; 2; . . . ; n; j 1; 2; . . . mg;

F ki fFi; k; jjj 1; 2; . . . mg

12

where F(i, k, j) is the most top level of function tree, i is the ith subfunction of F. k is the decomposition layer number and j is the function sequence of sub-function F(i, k) in layer k. F ki represents all of
the function tree in layer k. The function tree is shown in Fig. 3.
According to the reasoning theories of FBS (Karuppoor, 2003),
the continuous decomposition of functions will inevitably lead to
the corresponding decomposition of functional structures. Similar
to the function expressive model, the functional structures model
also can be expressed as:

S fSi; k; jji; k 1; 2; . . . ; n; j 1; 2; . . . mg;

Ski fSi; k; jjj 1; 2; . . . ; mg

13

where S(i, k, j) is the root functional structures of functional structures tree and F ki are all functional structures tree in layer k.
Following the tree-layer description of the function and functional structures, the design information in each conceptual design
stage can be expressed by the basic function tree and basic functional structures tree.
4.3. An innovation project produced from multi-stage mapping
The essential target of conceptual design is to get an innovation
project plan which can meet the customer requirements in compliance with design constraints. The conceptual design model with

multi-stage innovation proposed in this paper achieves this target

with the following four mapping processes.
4.3.1. The mapping of searching for functions principle solution
Although innovation is the essence of product design, high-level
innovation is usually difcult to full due to the knowledge limitations of the designer, particularly in situations requiring design
knowledge across multiple disciplines. During the process of
implementing certain kinds of requirement functions, having more
knowledge in achieving a certain kind of functions is more likely to
obtain novel principle solutions and provide a wide range of design
solutions to the new product. In this paper, the scientic principle
set, which can realize the design requirement functions, are classied into different classes according to Kirschmans classication
method. It is expressed in the form of verb+noun, where the verb
denotes the operations of a scientic principle, such as input, output, deliver, guide, etc. The noun denotes the objects of operations,
such as gas, liquid, voice, electricity, magnetism, caloric, etc. The
verb can be simply denoted as V and the noun as N. In this way,
the similar principle solutions of function are combined together,
and the corresponding principle solution trees are set up on the basis of the function trees. The high-level nodes of the tree are those
abstract principle solutions, which are used for implementing general functions, and the leaf nodes of the tree are the most specic
principle solutions, which are utilised to realize concrete functions.
Using the mapping mechanism between scientic principles and
design requirement functions, a satised principle solution from
the scientic principle tree can be found efciently.
There are many mathematic ways (Amir & Yoram, 2005; Hrishikesh & Suh, 2004) to search for a scientic principle satisfying
the requirements in the resource tree. In this paper, a correlation
function,

qx0 ;X 0
rx Dx;X
of Extensics theory, is introduced to ex0 ;X

press the level of similarity between any two nodes in function

space and used to search and realize the principle solution of a
function. Fig. 4, the extendable matter-element semantic information pattern, is used to illustrate the searching principle, which also
shows that the searching process of the principle solution is the
issue of semantic matching between extended semantic information. The semantic pattern of information can be expressed as an
H

array M Rc ; F ; r; r0 ; K. In this array, r is the dependent level

H

level between
between the verbs of Rc and F . r is the dependent
 H
H
the nouns of Rc and F . The Possible level K Rci ; F i between Rci
H

and F i can be obtained by the following equation:

 H X
5


K Rci ; F i
rV i ; V 0i  r Ni ; N0i
i1

14

3580

W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

employed as a basis to check the completion of decomposition.

When every decomposed sub-function is realized by a set of basic
functional structures, the reasoning process is completed. Then,

Rc
Vi

Nj

Vj

(V j ,V j' )

(Vi , Vi ' )
V j'

Vi '

'
j

Nj

K (Rc , F )
N

'
j

F
Fig. 4. The extendable matter-element semantic information pattern.

 H
H
The unequal equation K Rci ; F i P U will chose F i as the principle
solution to meet the requirement functions of customer, where U
is the entropy determined as prior.
4.3.2. The conrming mapping of conict functional structures
There will be many principle solutions based on the entropy U
and each principle solution has theirs own characteristics. Therefore, when a principle solution is used to establish the concrete
functional structures system, some partial matching conicts
between functional structures and design constraints are likely to
appear. Resolving those conicts will guarantee the smooth performance of the design process. In this paper, the causal mapping
mechanism of the FBS model is adopted as the reasoning tool to
accomplish the functional structures analysis of a principle
solution. After the iteration of the multi-level mappings between
functions, behaviours and functional structures of the FBS model,
a functional structures tree which has the same structural view
as the design function tree is yielded. By comparing the matching
status between the functional structures tree and the design function tree, the conict functional structures, which need further
extension, will be identied. Following top down strategy, from abstract to practical and general to partial, the decomposed tree of
the functional structures is established. Then an integrated design
route to realize the principle solution can be found and the partial
conicts requiring extension are also located in the design model.
Meanwhile, a vast innovative space is created by the multi-layer
mappings among design elements. The construction process of
functional structures systems, commencing from a principle solution, are expressed by the following mathematic form:
H

DecF ; B; S
fi 0; k 0; j 0;
REPEATfi i 1; k k 1; j j 1;

Ski Si; k; j l F ki

F ki Fi; k; j l r dk ;

15

where l means the design conict between two design units.

4.3.3. The extending mapping of conict functional structures
After the mapping process above, the conict functional structures with design constraints can be conrmed. The extension of
the partial conict functional structures set is the further optimization with respect to the principle innovative solution. In this paper, Extensics (Cai et al., 2003) theory of resolving conicts is used
to deal with these kinds of partial conicts. According to the
expression
theory of Extensic, the conict functional structures
_
set Ski should be rstly expressed in the form of an ordered triad
things,
called
R N; c; v . It is the basic element for describing
_
_
L
matter-element and the matter-element of Ski is RSkj (k = 1, 2, n;
j = 1, 2, . . . , m), shown in Eq. (16).

6
6
6 L _
6N k
6 S1
6
6
_
6
L
RS 6
6
6
6 N Lk _
6 S2
6
6 .
6 .
4 .

where
_
L
RSk1 ;

L
C Skj

7
L 7
V Sk2
1 7
7
.. 7
. 7
5
L
V Skjj

7
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
Lk 7
V S2 7
7
.. 7
7
. 5
Lk
V Sn

V Sk1
1

6 L
6 C k2
6 S1
6
6 .
6 ..
4
L
C Skjj
L

C Sk2
..
.

L _
NSkn

_
L
RSk1

C Sk1
1

C Skn

16

is the child matter-element

of RLS ; N Skj is the represents of
_

is the characteristics of

L
RSkj ;

L
V Skj

is

L 0
N Skj s

measure about the

characteristics C Skj . Lk is _the character number in the kth layer of

the conict structures Ski . Si is the number of the sub-functional
structures.
_
Supposing RLS as the conict matter-element which needs transformation, and T as extendable transformation, the transformation
_

F ki

the nal Tree F ; B; S is the nal functional structures tree that is

derived from the various reasoning mappings. Comparing the discrepancy between the functional structures tree and design constraints, as well as the function conicts between the primal
principle solution, design requirement and the corresponding structures conicts are gured out, which sets up a target for further
extension of the structures, shown as below.

ffijk jj

1; 2; . . . ; ng;

8fijk 2 sF ki ; nfijk bkij ;

 

process of RLS can be present as follows:

s Bki bkij jj 1; 2; . . . ; n ;

   
8 2 s Bki ; n bkij skij ;
 
8skij 2 s Ski ;
 
IF skij R Ln ; THEN n skij F k1
ij ;
 
UNTIL 8skij 2 s Ski ; skij 2 Ln ;
k
bij

_
L

_
L

_
L

where s is the decomposing operator and n is the reasoning operator. Ln is the basic functional structures set which can be realized
directly. In this process, the realized structures of behaviours are

_
L

_
L

T 1 RSk1 ; T 2 RSk2 ; . . . ; T k RSkn ;

k 1; 2; . . . n

17

where T1, T2, . . . , Tk are the extendable transformations which meet

the design requirements.
According to the dependent principle of Extensic, any active
_
L

conversions Tu of matter-element RSki will cause the compelled con_

L

versions Tx of dependent matter-element RSkj . We note the trans-

TreeF ; B; Sgg

_
K

TRLS TRSk1 ; RSk2 ; . . . ; RSnk

formation T as T

^
Tu
. Supposing RLS as the resulting matterTx

element after conversions, the conversion process can be shown

as follows:

3581

W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

^

RLS TRLS

Tu
Tx

2
4

RSki

_3

L _
RSkj

54

L _

T u RSki
L _
T x RSkj

54

RSki

^
RLS

^3

L ^
RSkj

18

By virtue of various extendable strategies and extendable conversions, various

contradictions and conicts of the functional struc_
tures of Ski can be resolved from the perspective of dynamic
change through the transform from infeasibility to feasibility and
from opposition to coexist.
The reasoning knowledge set K Tk in this mapping stage includes not only the practical reasoning methods of the extension
theory but also the rule knowledge of regularities and rules L in a
special design eld. The need of humancomputer interaction
support in this stage represents the signicance of human inuence in the conceptual design process. It can be said that the reasoning knowledge in this mapping stage refers to all the
correlative knowledge which can satisfy the design process and
can be dened as:
H

K Tk

Ski

F ki

[L

19

where r is the reasoning operator. When all the extensions from

the conict functions to extended functions are completed, the extended functions can be assessed by the evaluation operator, which
is the nal phase of conceptual design.
4.3.4. The evaluating mapping of extension functional structures
Following the extension mappings, many design project plans
will be yielded. It can be regarded as the second divergent operation in the design process and can enhance the innovation in detailed level. However, in order to get an optimal design project
plan, these divergent design solutions are required to be integrated
through a convergent process to complete the evaluation on the
solution space. In this work, using a hierarchical extension evaluation method by comparing satisfactory level between the design
project and design requirement, the convergent process is accomplished, which is explained as follows:
(1) Establish the evaluation standards. According to the actual
demands, an evaluation standard that can comply with the
technical and economic requirements is set up. Then, the
evaluation measures set M = (M1, M2, . . . , Mn) is proposed,
where Mi = (Ni, ci, Vi) is the normal eigenvector and Ni is the
evaluation eld of the eigenvector.
(2) Decide the weighing coefcients of evaluation condition. The
weighing coefcients a = (a1, a2, . . . , an) of each child mat^
L

ter-element N Ski i; k 1; 2; . . . m towards the normal eigenvector M1, M2, . . . , Mn is worked out. In order to set the
weighing coefcients reasonably, a layer analysis method
based on the relativity and correlation between the evaluation objections are applied.
(3) Establish the dependent functions. The level of excellence Ki
^
L

^
L

^
L

for each child matter-element N Sk1 ; N Sk2 ; . . . ; N Skm regarding

the Mi is gured out.
^
L

^
L

^
L

K ij K i NSk1 ; K i NSk2 ; . . . ; K i NSkm i 1; 2; . . . ; n

20

where the calculation of

should be accomplished by
the dependent functions of Extensic theory.
^
(4) Calculate the advantageous level. The advantageous level of RLS
regarding each evaluation standard

M 1 ; M 2 ; . . . ; M n is :

^
L
aKN Ski

m
X

The whole mapping process can be summarised in Fig. 5, the

design frame. There are four main parts in this frame. Firstly, constructing the design requirements and searching for the main funcH

tion principle solution F on the basis of customer requirements.

Secondly, establishing the functional structures model based on
the principle solution by the reasoning mechanism of FBS and
dening the conict functions and conict functional structures
set by comparing the functional structures model with the design
constraints. Thirdly, according to the Extensic theory, extension of
the partial functional structures conicts to an extension structures solution. Finally, evaluating and recomposing the extension
structures solution to reach a nal design project.

4.4. The mathematical frame of multi-stage innovation design

Therefore, the framework of a conceptual design process with
multi-stage innovation is developed. Next, an integrated mathematical model of the design process will be presented. This model
includes 6 steps.
Step 1: Collect the customer requirements Rci and convert it to the

design requirement functions set Rci according to Kirschmans classication method, the ve types of basic function sets.
Step 2: Accomplish the mappings from
requirement functions set
H
to a primal principle solution F based on the requirement
 
functions Rci .
H
Step 3: Apply function analysis on the principle solution set F to
obtain a corresponding functional structures model. Compare the functional structures model with the design con_

straints to identify the conict functions F ki and conict

_

functional structures Ski .

_
Step 4: Expand the functional structures conicts of Ski to the
extension functional structures by the extensible reasoning conversions of Extensic.
^
Step 5: Evaluate the extension functional structures Ski to get the
s
satised structures
set Si according to the requirement
 
functions Rci .
s
Step 6: Recompose the structures set Si and corresponding funcf 
tion set F i to reach the nal satised projects set and
then, evaluate X.
These steps can be expressed mathematically as follows:

  
P  c 
;
1. 8Rci ; Rci MF ik ;CF ik ;PF ik ;EF ik ;SF ik \k6kmax ; Rc m
i1 Ri
H
H
 c 
 c 

Pm 
R
k
R
0
0
2. 8 Ri ; 9K k ; F i K k Ri ; KF i1 r V i ; V i  rN i ; N i P H;
H
_
 c 
k
F
k
3. 8F ki ; 8Ski ; F ki Fi;
;
_ k; j; Si Si; k; j; 9K k ; F i Fi; k; j l Ri
k_
k
Si Si; k; j l F i ;
_
^
_
_
^
_


4. 8 F ki ; 8Ski ; 9K TS ; K TS r Ski  F ki [ L; F ki K Tk F ki ; Ski K Tk Ski ;
^

^
L
K i N Ski

^
CRLS

The resulting matter-element

with the highest advantageous level is chosen to enable the design project meet the
design requirements perfectly.

ai K ij j 1; 2; . . . ; m

i1

21

5. 9Si 2 Ski ; 9F i 2 F ki ; 9K vk ; Si K vk Ski ; F i K vk F ki ;



P
s
f 
6. X ni1 Si [ F i ; X K V X ;
s

f 

s

f 

The aforementioned conceptual design process is an iterative

process which incorporates the design requirements, product
description and functions reasoning into the process. In iteration,
the results obtained from the previous design cycle will be used
as the input for the next cycle. It is an endless evolving process

3582

W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

Fig. 5. The model framework of multi-stages innovation design process.

KV
F[ f ]

KR

Rd

KF

F[ f ]

KT
X

S[ s ]

Rd

S[ s ]

KV

KV
Fig. 6. The reduplication process of design.

from low-level to high-level, requiring more and more multi-disciplinary knowledge. Finally, it will develop a huge and innite design system with a continuous learning mechanism, as shown in
Fig. 6.
According to the design thinking regulations, the FBS model and
conicting resolution theory of Extensic, the paper elaborates a
conceptual design method using mathematical language, which
is based on double divergentconvergent processes. This method
converts the vague qualitative description into a quantitative
description so that it can represent the design process accurately.
The next section will illustrate the process by an example of emergent cutting off valve.

5. Case studies
The top gas pressure recovery turbine (TRT), electricity generation unit of a blast-furnace, is a well-known and valuable piece
equipment for energy regeneration. The project is proposed to utilise the waste gas and pressure to be generated from the steel production processes of an existing hot roll workshop within the steel
production area, and generate power with the installation of top
pressure recovery power generation units (Huanrong, 2005). In
this piece of equipment, the pressure energy and thermal energy
of the blast furnaces top gas are recovered to drive the generator
to generate electricity by their expansion acting in the turbine. It

W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

3583

Fig. 7. The equipment of blast-furnace top pressure recovery turbine unit.

Table 1
The scientic principles of move solid matter.

not only recovers the former wasted energy, but also reduces the
noise and vibration in the reduction valve. The scheme of this
equipment is shown in Fig. 7.
The emergency cutting off valve is pivotal equipment in TRT.
The main function of this equipment is to cut the blast-furnace coal
gas in pipe rapidly when something wrong happens in order to
protect the whole system. In the following presentation, the design
process of the emergency cutting off valve will be elaborated to
illustrate the proposed design model. The design parameters of it
are listed below:
The maximal ux of coal gas: 1060 m3/h.
The maximal intake pressure: 3 bar.
The outtake pressure: 0.8 bar.
The maximal intake temperature: 240 C.
The period to cut off: 1 s.
The manner of switch: slow opening, slow shutting, quick shutting and moving.
The capability demands: high reliability and high pollution
resistance.
The next will present the conceptual design of this emergency
cutting off valve based on the process model of multi-stage
innovation proposed in this paper.
5.1. Searching for functions principle solution
The rst step is to analyse the customers requirements and
search various scientic principle methods to implement the main
functions. The purpose of emergency cutting off valves is to regulate the ux of coal gas by moving the valve plate position of the
buttery valve, so it can be abstracted as the requirement function

moving solid material. According to the mapping mechanism

from the requirement function to the principle solution, some satised scientic principles which can full the functions are picked
out from the scientic principles base in the form of verb+noun,
as shown in Table 1 (Runhua, 2002).
Because there are many principle solutions which can meet the
functions requirements, in order to reduce the time of the trialand-error method, the extensible dependent function r(x) is used
to choose the optimal principle solution. After setting an enactment entropy U0, the principle solutions which can satisfy the
enactment entropy can be found by calculating the possible level
between the moving solid material functions from the scientic
principles base. These principle solutions include the electrorheological effect, uid effect, forced vibration effect, magnetic effect,
aerodynamic effect and so on. They provide different directions for
the design target and can be realized from some practical functional structures models according to the reasoning strategies of
FBS.
5.2. Conrming of conict functional structures
Taking the electrorheological effect as an example of principle
solution, we can establish a functional structures model to full
the function of moving solid material. The implementation of
this principle is converting the electric power into other forms of
energy and driving the valve plate of the emergent cutting off
valves to move. According to the existing design experience, electric power is rstly converted into hydraulic pressure energy to nish the concrete function model. Here, the function model of
emergency cutting off valves is described in the form of a function
tree which combines the function design model verb+noun and

3584

W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

Fig. 8. The function model of emergent cutting off valve.

Fig. 9. The functional structures tree of emergent cutting off valve.

input ow + output ow, shown in Fig. 8. By this way, not only

can the function principle of the function operation steps be specifically obtained, but also the detail realization process modally
presented.
According to the function model of Fig. 8, a corresponding
functional structures model can be developed such as Fig. 9.
However, this design project at this state cannot satisfy all design
requirements. We need to compare it with the design constraints
and ascertain the conict functional structures. Following some
analysis, the functional structures in this state can meet most
of design constraints except for pollution resistance. This is because the hydraulic oil is used as the medium of energy transfer
and it will touch the dust in coal gas during the work of hydrau-

lic components. The friction among the components will inuence the stability of design project seriously. So, it can be
concluded that the functional structures of energy transfer are
the design conicts in this project, shown in the shadowed area
of Fig. 9.
5.3. Extending of conict functional structures
In order to make the design project satisfy the design constraints, the conict functional structures in the design project
should be eliminated. There are two ways to solve these conicts.
One is to reduce the density of blast-furnace coal gas. This is costly
in capital and the implementation technology is very different as

3585

W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

Fig. 10. The matter-element framework of emergent cutting off valve.

well. Another way is to extend the conict functional structures by

themselves. The second method is chosen in this paper and the
conict structures are disposed by the conicting resolution theory
of Extensic. According to the extensible condition of Extensic, the
conict functional structures should rstly described as the form
of matter-element, shown in Fig. 10.
In the matter-element framework, the matter-element of energy transfer is the conict matter-element, and it can be described
as:

2
6
R6
4
_

Energy Hydraulic cylinder Pluuger barrel

Control box
Oil resource

7
Control valve 7
5

82

> Energy transfer

Solenoid

>
>6

<

6

6
Ferromagnet

>
4
>

>

:
Spring
2
Energy transfer Pneumatic crock
6
6
6
Control box
4
Air resource

7
7
Steelbar 7;
5
Doughnut coil

7
7
Control valve 7; . . . ;
5
Air

2
39
Energy transfer
Heat resource
High temperature air >
>
^
=
6
7>
6
7
2
6
Gas storage equipment
Cylinder
7 R2
4
5>
>
>
;


23

A method is picked to remove the function conict of energy transfer from the various divergent solutions. It should be presented in
the form of specic corresponding functional structures. By the virtue of the underlying reasoning principles of Extensic, the concrete
functional structures solution can be yielded from the reverse
thinking. This process can be shown below

7
Steel bar 5

Dynamical pring
Energy transfer

Energy tansfer

Common

Canula

Metal tube

Lead

Nichrome

Ferromagnet

Steel bar

3
7
7
7
7
5

Electrical resource Alternating current

3
Canula length
30 cm
7
Canula material
Steel 7
7
Lead diameter
2 cm 7
7
7
Lead material
Nichrome 7
7
7
Ferroagnet length
10 cm 7
7
7
Ferromagnet material Steel bar 5
Voltage

220 V

( 

24

There are always some relationships among the design matter-elements, so the active reasoning conversions of a certain matter-element will lead to the compelling conversion of some other related
matter-elements. Because the medium of energy transfer is changed from hydraulic oil to magnetic force, the corresponding matter-element of energy control matter-element will be changed
from the hydraulic control valve to the magnetic control switch.
The energy transfer matter-element should be changed by passive
conversion, as shown below


U
TR22

Doughnut

Ferromagnet

6
6
6
6
6
6
(6
6
6
6
6
6
4


U
R22

Common

6
4

22

Solenoid

6
6
(6
6
4

L-HM

Doughnut

Energy

The extensible reasoning methods can be used to enable the energy

transfer matter-element to meet the design constraints of pollution
resistance. The extensible reasoning methods include radiation,
implication, relationship, addition, deletion and so on. They provide
various solving directions and approaches to eliminate design
conicts.
According to the extending conversion method that a matter
has many characteristics, called one matter many characteristics:
(N, c, v)  j{(N, c1, v1), (N, c2, v2), . . . , (N, cn, vn)}, the divergent nature
of matter-elements
is chosen for the energy transfer matter-ele_
ment R22 . Through the reasoning of radiation, many viable methods
which can eliminate the pollution conict are found, such as magnetic eld, air-actuated, and heat energy.

_
R22

2
^
R22

"

Tj

Tx

Energy transfer Hydraulic cylinder Plunger barrel

6 6
6 Tj6
6 4
6
6
6
6
2
6
Cut-off valve
6
6
6
6
6
T x4
4
2 2

Energy transfer

6 6
6 6
6 4
6
6
6
62
6 Cut-off valve
6
66
66
44

Hydraulic
Oil resource
Bearing
gear

33

77
Control valve 7
57
7
7
7
L-HM
7
7
3
7
Ball valve
7
7
7
7
Bevel gear 7
5
5

Valve body Butterfly

3
Mongline
7
Ferromagnet Steel bar 7
5
Solenoid

valve
3

7
7
7
7
Spring
Common 7
7
37
Bearing
Bushing valve 7
7
77
7
Gear
Bevel gear 7
55
Valve body Butterfly valve

25

3586

W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

Fig. 11. The function model of emergent cutting off valve subject extending conversion.

Fig. 12. The nal improved result of emergent cutting off valve.





U
U
Tj
R33 TR33
Tx
2
3
2
3
Oil
Oil box
Entirety type
6
7
6
7
Hydraulic
L-HM
6
7
6
7
6
7
Tj6
7
6
7
4
5
Oil
filter
Network
6
7
6
7
Hydraulic pump Vane oil pump
6
7
62
7
3
6 Hydraulic control box Electromagnetic valve Common 7
6
7
6
7
Throttle valve
2:1 7
66
7
6
7
66
77
64
7
5
Reversing valve
3:1
6
7
6
7
Pressure reducing valve Common 7
6
6
7
2
3
6
7
Hydrocylinder Hydraulic cylinder Plunger barrel
6
7
6
7
6
7
Piston
Plunger
4
5
4
5
Rack
Common
2
3
2
3
Magnetic force
Solenoid
Mongline
6
7
6
7
Ferromagnet
Steel bar 5
4
7
6
7
6
6
7
Altemating current
220 V
7
2
3
6
6 Control element
7
Switch
Two  way type
7
6
66
77
44
Connecting rod
Common
55
Resistance
Temperature sensing
26

5.4. Recomposing of extension functional structures

Based on the outcomes yielded from the various extending conversions, the hydraulic drive system is substituted by a control
cubicle system. While the electric current passes the solenoid,
the magnetic eld is generated inside the solenoid. The intensity
and direction of magnetic eld depends on the intensity and direction of the voltage or current. Changing the intensity and direction
of magnetic eld, the ferromagnet can move in different directions
and with different speed. It enables the valve to slowly turn on,
slowly cut off, quickly cut off and slide. The function model of
Emergency cutting off valves subject to the extending conversion
is shown in Fig. 11.The corresponding functional structures that
have realized the function of energy transfer also meet all design
constraints. After assembling the optimal functional structures,
the nal improved result of the emergent cutting off valve can be
reached, shown in Fig. 12.
Comparing the improved system with the original system, 1/3
of elements and interactions are decreased, the harmful actions
are eliminated, the system structure is simplied and the cost is reduced. From the point of view of system performance, the negative
effects inherent to the hydraulic system, such as the pollution of
oil, the ow resistance of oil and the unreliability of hydraulic

W. Li et al. / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 35743587

meter, etc, are removed by replacing the hydraulic drive system

with an electromagnetic drive system.
6. Conclusion
In this paper, based on the general process of conceptual design,
the innovation strategies applied in each design stage are discussed.
Based on hierarchical design information expression and double
divergentconvergent reasoning mechanism, an integrated conceptual design model to aid multi-stage innovation of product is proposed. In the conceptual design eld, this has been actively
exploring and practice on the decision making of an innovation design plan and on the description of the general design process. The
innovations of this paper are as follows. (1) An integrated design
process model of conceptual design from customer requirements
to design projects plan is proposed based the double divergentconvergent design reasoning. (2) Different innovative strategies in each
stage of the design process are discussed and they are implemented
using the different extendable methods of Extensic theory. (3) The
hierarchic and progressive design process is described by the design
information of function tree and functional structures tree. The essence of conceptual design is revealed from the microscopic point of
view. (4) The whole design process is described by sophisticated
mathematic language, in which a valid prototype framework of
the computer aided conceptual design systems is set up.
There are still some areas that need further work. Therefore, (1) A
computer assistant system based on this design model will be
developed and in this model the process information in the design
will be managed effectively and the sustainment of multi-stage
innovations will be realized during the whole design process. (2)
A better visual manmachine interface will be established and a pull
and push mechanism of design knowledge will be nished then.
Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation, China (Grant No. 50875180), and the National HighTech. R&D Program for, China (Grant No. 2006AA04Z102).
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