Functional decomposition of technical products based on large language models and Monte Carlo tree search

Research output: Journal contributionsConference article in journalResearchpeer-review

Authors

Functional decomposition (FD) is essential for simplifying complex systems in engineering design but remains a resource-intensive task reliant on expert knowledge. Despite advances in artificial intelligence, the automation of FD remains underexplored. This study introduces the use of GPT-4o, enhanced with a proposed Monte Carlo tree search for functional decomposition (MCTS-FD) algorithm, to automate FD. The approach is evaluated qualitatively by comparing outputs with those of graduate engineering students and quantitatively by assessing metrics such as structural integrity and semantic accuracy. The results show that GPT-4o, enhanced by MCTS-FD, outperforms smaller models in error rates and graph connectivity, highlighting the potential of large language models to automate FD with human-like accuracy.

Original languageEnglish
JournalProceedings of the Design Society
Volume5
Pages (from-to)1913-1922
Number of pages10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.08.2025
Event25th International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED 2025 - Dallas, United States
Duration: 11.08.202514.08.2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.

    Research areas

  • conceptual design, functional modelling, large language models, machine learning, Monte Carlo tree search
  • Engineering

DOI