A knowledge graph-aided decision guidance method for product conceptual design

In the fast-paced world of product design, businesses seek a competitive edge by swiftly addressing user requirements and developing precise solutions. Depending on diverse knowledge, conceptual design makes enterprises invest significantly in knowledge management. Following the philosophy of decision-based design, a knowledge graph-aided decision guidance method is proposed to streamline and enhance knowledge utilisation in product conceptual design. Firstly, the decision-making process in product conceptual design is modelled using the Concept-Decision-Knowledge (CDK) model, yielding the meta-model of CDK (mCDK). A data-augmented BERT-BiLSTM-CRF model is adopted to extract information from diverse data sources, forming a CDK knowledge graph (CDK-KG). A decision case for employing problem-solving knowledge configuration is generated to resolve specific design decision problems when new requirements arise. Validation of the method is demonstrated through a case study on the launch vehicle conceptual design of the first and second-stage separation system. The results indicate that the proposed method can automatically extract information from data resources to construct a knowledge graph. Furthermore, it can provide decision cases for design requirements through knowledge configuration, supporting decision-making.