Conceptual design of product structures based on WordNet hierarchy and association relation.

Conceptual design has a significant impact on performance of the final product. Existing methods of the concept design such as quality function deployment and axiomatic design cannot decide product structures based on function requirements (FRs) to meet product specifications. An effective method is proposed to decide the product structure based on relations of FRs and physical structures using the WordNet hierarchy and association relation in this paper. Physical attributes (PAs) of FRs are searched based on similarity of FRs and functions of existing product structures. Suitable product structures are decided by comparing PAs of design structures with PAs of FRs. Relations between structures and FRs are defined by the association relation to decide the best product structure from all potential solutions using a pairwise comparison method. The proposed method is verified in a case study of the concept design of upper limb rehabilitation devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]