Part Selection for Reconfigurable Product Design with Minimum Loss Function

Part selection and reuse is the basis of product creative design. Rational constraints should be applied to limit the results of part selection. In the case of reconfigurable product design, there exist mainly two types of constraints in part selection, namely constraints applied to the part alone, and constraints existing among interconnected parts. As a result, the earlier selected parts would narrow down the feasible range of choice for the later selected ones. The concept of "minimal loss function" is proposed to limit the excessive narrowing down of available range of choice for later defined parts. An algorithm is worked out to keep enough selection range for all parts. This algorithm optimizes the selection process by predicting the range of selective domain. An example of part selection was studied and the result was compared with the results of selection process before adopting the new approach. Finally, some conclusions were made and problems for further study were outlined.