Identification of Sharing Components and Synthesis of Interfaces in Redesign for Functional Adaptability
Year: 2016
Editor: Julie Linsey, Maria Yang, and Yukari Nagai
Author: Genhua, Wang; Yimin, Deng; Changwu, Zou
Series: ICDC
ISBN: 978-1-904670-82-7
Abstract
It is of great practical value to design the adaptable-function products. The research of
this kind of products is still lacking. Based on a study of the behavioral process characteristics of
the mechatronic products, this paper categorizes behavioral process into foundation
behavioral process and teleological behavioral process, and as such, points out the fact that it
is due to the similarity of foundation behavioral processes that makes it feasible to redesign
existing products for adaptable functions. To this end, a quantitative method is proposed for
the evaluation of similarity of the physical structures. By extracting the structural
components with maximum similarity, it is able to identify the sharing components, as well as
to determine suitable products to be redesigned. Furthermore, it is noted that one of the most
essential problems to be tackled in this kind of redesign is to design the interface between the
sharing and non-sharing components. Two types of methods are proposed to address this
problem. Finally, a case study of redesigning two mechatronic products for an adaptablefunction
product is also presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed methodologies.
Keywords: Mechatronic product, Redesign for functional adaptability, Structural similarity, Interface