A Methodology for Discovering Structure in Design Databases

Design by analogy, in which designers draw inspiration from cross-domain design solutions, is a promising methodology for product development. This work attempts to leverage the existing design solutions within a repository, combined with an exploration of inherent structural forms that can be discovered based on the content and similarity of that data, in order to gain useful insights into the nature of the design space. In this work, the approach will be applied to uncover structure in the U.S. patent database. Methodology for generating and analyzing these structures is presented here, in addition to insights from some initial results. These insights could generate fodder for stimulating design inspiration and innovation for engineering designers.