Interactive Construction of Product Digital Model: The Recursive FBS Design Method and System Prototype

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the rFBS (recursive Function-Behaviour-Structure) method for visualizing and facilitating the early phases of engineering design. The method is based on a hypothesis implied by cognitive science studies and common engineering design experience that the constitutive relationship of most, if not all, of the design products can be represented as tree-like topologies: the mereology trees. With that hypothesis, the rFBS method suggests that the information involved in design process can be distributed among the tree nodes and structurized according to the FBS theory; and that the FBS design iterations are recursively invoked at each of the tree nodes to acquire those information and perform designing. A concept design system prototype is developed to implement and verify this method, and an example of visualizing design process and information with the system is demonstrated.