Conceptual design of mechatronic products using PDS-TRIZ

Creativity is very important in the conceptual design stage for mechatronic products. The innovation and development of mechatronic products usually cover different knowledge domains. Traditionally, ideation comes intuitively or logically. However, this depends on the creativity and ideas of the designer. As such, tools; such as Pugh’s total design process (PTDP) and the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ); have emerged to help designers design and develop their products. Therefore, this paper attempted to present a conceptual design strategy; namely PDS-TRIZ; by combining product design specification (PDS) and TRIZ to improve PTDP. A locomotive lower limb exoskeleton (LLLE); a device used to assist paraplegics regain walking ability; was used to demonstrate the capability of the proposed PDS-TRIZ method. Our study proved that the proposed PDS-TRIZ could be used to develop conceptual designs for mechatronic products. Copyright © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.