Aerial Robot Design Principles in Creative Idea Generation and Evolution

Abstract

Abstract Design principles have been developed in many application fields to codify and formalize expert knowledge to increase the likelihood of design success. While there are abundant design principles reported, most of them have not been validated. However, many have been shown to result in more creative ideas, creating variety in ideas and stimulating idea generation and producing novel ideas. In this paper, we analyzed the Efficient Design Principles for Innovative Aerial Robot Design and investigated their impact on the originality of the produced concepts. We assessed the concepts generated between groups with the help of design principles for originality, using the Decision Tree for Originality Assessment in Design (DTOAD) and qualitatively the ideas they helped produce. We report the results of how the originality of the ideas produced varied across (1) domain expertise, (2) problem novelty and (3) idea evolution. The results reveal that the average originality score is statistically significant for a more novel problem, and the originality is always higher for the evolved ideas. Additionally, the results showed no statistically significant differences in the quantity and originality of the ideas between domain expertise for case problems of different novelty. These results support our understanding of the perceived usefulness of design principles for idea generation in aerial robotics design.