An integrated principle solution synthesis method in multi-disciplinary mechatronic product conceptual design

Synthesizing suitable principle solutions together to form the design solution is a universal method in conceptual design. For the modern mechatronic product, the conceptual design is often multi-disciplinary, which would be extremely time consuming and labour-intensive for designers to synthesize multi-disciplinary principle solutions together. Taking advantage of functional knowledge and structural knowledge of principle solution, this article proposes an integrated principle solution synthesis method which not only achieves the automated synthesis of multi-disciplinary principle solutions but also solves the undesired physical conflicts among principle solutions to be synthesized. In integrated principle solution synthesis, a synthesis agent is developed to chain the functional flows of principle solutions to form the combinatorial principle solution set, and synthesis agent selects the combinatorial principle solution with highest availability value as the recommended combinatorial principle solution. Then extensic theory is employed to deal with the partial design conflicts hidden in recommended combinatorial principle solution by extending and transforming the conflict functional structures. A case study on the emergency cutting off device design is given to prove the industrial applicability of integrated principle solution synthesis, which indicates that compared with traditional synthesis method, integrated principle solution synthesis can not only get multi-disciplinary design result of emergency cutting off device but also further resolve the design conflict (i.e. vibration impact) to optimize the functional structure of emergency cutting off device.