Conceptual design method driven by product genes

Abstract

Genetics-based design is an effective approach to develop novel products for conceptual design. It could reduce innovation blindness by providing logically structured procedure. However, the major challenge of genetics-based engineering method is that how to identify what information is genetic information and how to use it in a conceptual design process. To solve this problem, this article proposes a conceptual design method driven by product genes. First, a functional expansion model is established based on analyzing the conceptual design process. Second, to respectively compare the functions and structure schemes in the model to biological traits and proteins, a product gene definition composed of behaviors and attributes is put forward. Then, a modeling and coding method of product genes is given analogous to that of biological genes. Third, operation technologies of product genes are analyzed, including breakdown, crossover, recombination, transcription, and translation. Based on this, a conceptual design method driven by product genes is advanced. Finally, an example shows that this method is able to extract key information of products and gives a method of how to use the information in a conceptual design process. Moreover, structure schemes obtained through this method are of high feasibility and have more possibilities of innovation.