Affective product form bionic design based on functional analysis

Abstract

To address the challenge of the absence of automated design and evaluation methods encompassing both functional and emotional analysis in product form bionic design (PFBD), this study introduces a novel affective PFBD method based on functional analysis. Firstly, the target product, target emotion and target creature are identified through questionnaire surveys and statistical analysis. Elliptical Fourier analysis and principal component analysis are employed to parameterize the shape outlines of the target products and creature, yielding principal component score data capturing their shape features. Secondly, product form and biological shape are fused by utilizing a proposed fusion generation operator to generate diverse PFBD conceptual schemes. Finally, a comprehensive multi-dimensional evaluation method, incorporating the functional analysis model, bionic evaluation model and emotional evaluation model, is formulated to assess the conceptual schemes and identify the optimal scheme. To validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, it is applied to the automated generative design and evaluation of water cup shapes. The outcome reveals the identification of an optimal solution that not only satisfies the functional requirements of the product but also addresses user emotional needs. The results underscore the method's outstanding performance in PFBD involving both functional and emotional analysis, establishing it as an effective tool for designers to efficiently generate a variety of solutions, thereby ensuring the rationality and scientific foundation of product design.