Creative product configuration design driven by functional features

Directed by the idea that the product configuration is determined by its function, and also based on the description of the mapping from functional domain to configuration domain, a new method for creative configuration design driven by functional features is proposed. Then functional requirements and design parameters are classified and formalized in terms of characteristics set. By constructing the mathematical model of searching for the possible combinatorial solutions, a general co-evolutionary algorithm is introduced to automately generate a lot of creative product configuration, which is according to the close relationship between structure and function. A creative design software system of wheel modelling is developed and a design case is given to illustrate the feasibility and practicality of the proposed methodology.