A New Method of Using Physical Effects in Su-field Analysis based on Ontology Reasoning

Su-Field analysis, as one of the inventive problem solving tools, can be used to analyze and improve the efficacy of the technical system. Generally, the process of using Su-Field model to solve a specific inventive problem includes: building a Problem Model, mapping to a Generic Problem Model, finding a Generic Solution Model based on the corresponding inventive standard, and finally establishing and instantiating a Solution Model. As one of the most important phases of Su- Field analysis, the last step is normally implemented manually with the help of physical effects, which link generic technical functions with specific applications and systems. The physical effects compatible with the context of the specific problem should be chosen to assist the users to instantiate the Solution Model. However, the physical effects and the specific problems are built at different levels of abstraction, and it is difficult for the users to choose, that is, given a certain function, too many physical effects are chosen while with the detailed context of the problem, no physical effect is returned. This paper proposes a new way of representing knowledge: both inventive standards and physical effects are represented as the change of two states, that is, the couple of the problem standard and the solution standard for inventive standards, and the couple of two states before and after applying physical effects. Firstly, three ontologies, that is, Su-Field Model Ontology, Su-Field Analysis Ontology and Physical Effects Ontology, are built to describe the problems with different granularities, and then the IS (Inventive Standard) rule and PE (Physical Effect) rules are established respectively for two kinds of reasoning. Finally the ontology reasoning is launched to provide the heuristic physical effects for the users. A case is used to elaborate the whole process in detail.