Research on functional action collection and taxonomy

One of the significant tasks of conceptual design is to search for feasible principle solutions for an intended function. In the research of computer aided conceptual design, in order for a computer-aided conceptual design system to assist designers in retrieving feasible principle solutions effectively and accurately, the function of a known principle solution usually should be represented with a structured form. A functional action is an important part of a functional representation. In current research, functional actions are usually represented with natural language-based descriptions, which are difficult for a computer-aided conceptual design system to identify and process. In order to solve the above problems, based on the explanation and definition of transitive verbs in the Chinese dictionary, functional actions which related to the conceptual design were collected and normalized. According to the substantive characteristics of functional actions, the standard taxonomy framework and the specific taxonomy framework of functional actions were put forward, and a preliminary structured functional action library was formed. In order to realize the normalized management of functional actions, a management module was developed. The normalized functional actions can provide a solid foundation for the normalization of functional representation, the accurate retrieval of the principle solution and other research.