A function-oriented biologically analogical approach for constructing the design concept of smart product in Industry 4.0

The development of the Industry 4.0 paradigm and the advancement of information technology have aroused new consumer requirements for smart products that are capable of context awareness and autonomous control. Nature holds huge potential for inspiring innovative design concepts that can meet the ever-growing need for smart products since biology perceive and interact with their living environment for survival. However, to date, very few studies have explored the application of natural wisdom in building innovative design concepts for smart products. This paper proposes a function-oriented design approach for smart products, by analogizing to biological prototypes. To do so, a unified functional representation, based on the Function–behavior–structure (FBS) ontology, is proposed to abstract biological prototypes, followed by a fuzzy triangular numbers-based algorithm designed to locate appropriate biological prototypes as analogical sources for smart product development. Moreover, functional innovative strategies and a hybrid design process are formulated to develop design concepts of smart products, by integrating several existing engineering design methods. Finally, an illustrative design case of a smart natural resource collecting system is used to demonstrate the workability of the proposed method.