Abductive reasoning for design synthesis

Abductive reasoning as a type of “intelligent guessing” has significant impacts on design synthesis. This is particularly evident at early design stages when synthesis must be carried out with only intangible intents and incomplete information. This paper elaborates three types of applicability of abductive reasoning for design synthesis including: identification of implicit design targets, ideation of innovative design concepts, and diagnosis of violating design constraints or design axioms. These studies are then combined to develop a synthesis reasoning process in order to support early-stage design. Some real-world examples are used to illustrate the potential applications in design practice.