Information entropy approach to design adaptability evaluation

Adaptable design is an increasingly utilized design paradigm that can effectively and efficiently create a new design by adapting an existing design to maintain, upgrade and extend the functionality of a product by enhancing its adaptability. This paper presents an approach integrating soft sets and entropy theories to develop a mapping model between design requirements and design solutions to evaluate the adaptability when the design or product has insufficient design information. The design adaptabilities of cylindrical gear machine tools were used to validate the feasibility of the proposed approach and a modified design with improved adaptability is realized.