Research on the technologyand application of case-based product conceptual design

Product conceptual design is a problem-solving process which is an ill-structured domain in terms of the design knowledge. This paper depicts the process and pattern of product conceptual design adopting the case-based reasoning (CBR) method in a cognitive approach. The process of concept produced was examined in a design cognition experiment, using protocol analysis and sketch analysis. Two types of spontaneous use of CBR in product conceptual design: bottom-up processing and top-down processing were identified. And based on the two processing, a framework for concept formation with case-based design is presented to depict case-based product conceptual design, which includes descriptive model of case-based reasoning and interaction mode. On the basis of experiment and study, a case-based CAD product conceptual design system - CBID is developed