Patent data-assisted concept generation for new product development

To solve problems of lacking design knowledge in describing, decomposing and discovering functions, low availability of function implementation technology and difficulty in obtaining technical features when generating concepts of a new product, a patent data-assisted concept generation method for new product development was proposed. The text related to design tasks in the International patent classification were retrieved using text similarity algorithms to assist in describing main functions of the new product. Based on the C-K theory, the lower level of classification text was considered as K space elements, sub-functions of the new product are considered as C space elements, and main functions decomposition was realized assisted by elements transformation. Then, directions for new product function innovation were determined by combining the patent technology maturity analysis and function innovation strategies, and integration functions of the new product were predicted based on text of co-occurrence classifications, which realized function innovation of the new product. Based on the cross-field patent analysis model and the definition of field convergence, the knowledge breadth and liquidity of patent technology were quantified to prioritize function implementation technologies, and technical features in independent claims of patent were automatically extracted using semantic parsing, which were recombined to generate a conceptual design schema of the new product. Finally, the method was applied to generate a conceptual design schema in the field of heavy truck chassis pre-assembly equipment, which proved the effectiveness of the method. © 2024 CIMS. All rights reserved.