Design Support Apparatus for Component Requirement Estimation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing techniques struggle to estimate requirement specifications for multiple components of a product, particularly when considering the relationships between components, which is crucial for ensuring product performance, cost, and reliability.

Innovation Solution

A design support apparatus that identifies inter-component relations and attribute information from design data, such as 3D-CAD shapes, to estimate requirement specifications for each component, thereby supporting efficient design reviews.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If manual review of design proposals is performed to satisfy requirement specifications, then design quality and reliability can be ensured, but the review process becomes time-consuming and inefficient as the number of requirement specifications increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedesign qualityVSAvoidreview time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces manual mechanical review processes with automated computer-based processing. The system automatically extracts component information from 3D-CAD data, calculates inter-component relations, and estimates requirement specifications without human intervention, thereby maintaining design quality while dramatically reducing review time.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system enables self-service by automatically performing the entire requirement specification estimation process without human assistance. The computer autonomously processes design data, identifies component relationships, and generates requirement specifications, allowing the design review process to serve itself without manual labor.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

2Reliability

If comprehensive requirement specifications for all components are manually identified to ensure product performance, then design completeness can be achieved, but the complexity and difficulty of the review process increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedesign completenessVSAvoidreview process complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent substitutes complex manual analysis with automated computer processing. The system automatically extracts component information, calculates spatial relationships, and estimates requirement specifications algorithmically, achieving comprehensive design coverage while eliminating the complexity associated with manual multi-component analysis.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system segments the complex overall design review into individual component analyses. By processing each component separately through automated extraction and estimation, the system manages complexity effectively while ensuring comprehensive coverage of all requirement specifications across the entire product.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

3Measurement precision

If detailed analysis of inter-component relations is performed to accurately estimate requirement specifications, then estimation precision can be improved, but the computational complexity and processing time increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverequirement specification estimation precisionVSAvoidcalculation complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces complex manual calculation processes with automated computer-based algorithms. The system automatically calculates inter-component relations and estimates requirement specifications with high precision, eliminating the computational complexity burden from human reviewers while maintaining accurate estimation results.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Data Source

PatentUS20250173472A1Support apparatus, design support method, and storage medium that stores design support program

Publication Date: 2025.05.29 HITACHI LTD

AI summary

A design support apparatus 10 for supporting a design for a product includes: a storage unit configured to store design information; an input unit 100 configured to receive the design information; a shape information extraction unit 101 configured to extract, from the design information, shape information indicating a shape and an arrangement of each of components constituting the product and attribute information indicating an attribute of each of components; an inter-component relation calculation unit 102 configured to calculate, based on the extracted shape information, inter-component information indicating relation between components of an own component that is a specified component and another component among the components constituting the product; and a requirement specification estimation unit 103 configured to estimate, based on the calculated inter-component information and the attribute information, a requirement specification required for the own component.