Car style-holon recognition in computer-aided design

Abstract

Abstract Multi-scale design can presumably stimulate greater intelligence in computer-aided design (CAD). Using the style-holon concept, this paper proposes a computational approach to address multi-scale style recognition for automobiles. A style-holon is both a whole—it contains sub-styles of which it is composed—as well as a part of a broader style. In this paper, we first apply a variable precision rough set-based approach to car evaluation and ranking. Secondly, we extracted and subsequently computed the each car's characteristic lines from the CAD models. Finally, we identified style-holons using the property of a double-headed style-holon. A style-holon is necessarily included in a typical vertical arrangement with progressive accumulation and forms a nested hierarchical order called a holarchy of styles. We adopted an interactive cluster analysis to recognize style-holons. Our results demonstrate that car style depended on each brand's individual strategy: a car is a form endowed with some structural stability. The style-holon also demonstrated that the evolution of characteristic lines should preserve the property of functional homeostasis (the same functional states) as well as the property of homeorhesis (the same stable course of change). For many car companies, stable brand recognition is an important design specification. The proposed approach was used to analyse a set of car styles as well as to assist in the design of characteristic model lines. A designer can also use this approach to evaluate whether or not the strategic requirement—style alignment with the style-holon of benchmarked cars--is satisfied. Highlights A style-holon is double-headed: a part of a greater style that contains sub-styles. A car's characteristic lines preserve the properties of homeostasis and homeorhesis. The Chinese style offers a unique context to consider functionality of a whole style. Shift from functional to emotional performance demonstrated in Chinese car brands. Evaluates the strategic requirement of style alignment with the selected style-holon.