A tangible understanding of the latent design knowledge base of a technology domain, i.e., the set of technologies and related design knowledge used to solve the specific problems of a domain, and how it evolves, can guide engineering design efforts in that domain. However, methods for extracting, analyzing and understanding the structure and evolutionary trajectories of a domain’s accumulated design knowledge base are still underdeveloped. This study introduces a network-based methodology for visualizing and analyzing the structure and expansion trajectories of the design knowledge base of a given technology domain. The methodology is centered on overlaying the total technology space, represented as a network of all known technologies based on patent data, with the specific knowledge positions and estimated expansion paths of a specific domain as a subgraph of the total network. We demonstrate the methodology via a case study of hybrid electric vehicles. The methodology may help designers understand the technology evolution trajectories of their domain and suggest next design opportunities or directions.

中文翻译：

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用于分析技术领域设计知识库的叠加技术空间图：以混合动力汽车为例

对技术领域的潜在设计知识库（即用于解决领域特定问题的一组技术和相关设计知识及其演变方式）的有形理解可以指导该领域的工程设计工作。然而，提取、分析和理解领域积累的设计知识库的结构和演化轨迹的方法仍然不发达。本研究介绍了一种基于网络的方法，用于可视化和分析给定技术领域的设计知识库的结构和扩展轨迹。该方法以覆盖整个技术空间为中心，表示为基于专利数据的所有已知技术的网络，以特定领域的特定知识位置和估计的扩展路径作为整个网络的子图。我们通过混合动力电动汽车的案例研究来演示该方法。该方法可以帮助设计人员了解其领域的技术发展轨迹，并建议下一个设计机会或方向。