The development of a repository of innovative products (RIP) for inspiration in engineering design

The research presented in this paper introduces a new methodology for creative inspiration in product design using archived innovation information to emphasize a quick and efficient creative design process. The research presents a method to identify the innovative subsystems in a product and archive that information in a quick, efficient database for inspiration in concept design. The innovation information, when archived in a design repository, can support automatic concept generation that is biased toward creative concepts. This concept generation method is proposed as a tool for engineers to aid the creativity of designs and to assess their concepts based on creativity and innovation. Products featured in recent published lists of innovative products are reverse engineered to expose the component and functional relationships. A function subtraction method based on difference rewards is introduced to isolate innovation-related functions and components in order to populate a repository of innovative products (RIP). Initial results from two classroom studies are presented to examine the innovation of the products at the functional and component levels and support the utility of the RIP. This provides support that recent innovation information can be used in creative design using the data collection method proposed.