Research on product conceptual design based on biological-technological characteristic analogy

Analogy-based design(ABD)is a kind of method to apply design knowledge from other field into the target field and can enhance innovation efficiency effectively.From the respect of source knowledge,ABD was divided into three types that was based on man-made system,based on bionic system and based on rules.This paper focused on the second type and provided a formal method to describe biological and technical function based on general attribute and general operations.Two general characteristic sets of attribute and operation respectively were summarized,a computational method to measure the similar degree and a process to transform biological prototype into technical system were proposed.Lastly a new product called physical cooler,which was an instrument for measuring and cooling infant temperature,was taken as an example to further demonstrate the former method.