International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems 17 (2013) 243–256 243 DOI 10.3233/KES-130273 IOS Press Ontology matching for facilitating inventive design based on semantic similarity and case-based reasoning Wei Yan a,b,∗ , Cecilia Zanni-Merk b , Francois Rousselot c and Denis Cavallucci a a LGECO/INSA Strasbourg, Strasbourg Cedex, France b ICUBE/BFO Team, Illkirch Cedex, France c Rousselot Consultant, Illkirch, France Abstract. Even if TRIZ is developing increasingly both in research and education, new users always encounter difficulties in their first attempts to practice it. In such situation, Altshuller’s original contradiction matrix often appears as an “easy-to-begin-with” tool. However, while not being representative of what TRIZ really is, it continues to seduce new users, teachers and trainers. This article presents an innovative method for facilitating the use of the contradiction matrix, using a semantic similarity approach and case-based reasoning. Keywords: Inventive design, ontology matching, semantic similarity, WordNet, case-based reasoning 1. Introduction The inventive design methodology we are interested in, TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) [1, 2], is primarily about technical and physical problems, but is now being used on almost any problem or situa- tion. The basic idea in TRIZ is that (technical) systems evolve in similar ways, and by reducing any situation and problem to a physical level, standard solutions and problem solving techniques, borrowed from many dif- ferent industries, can be applied. The creator of TRIZ, a Russian engineer named Genrich Altshuller, proved that a systematic approach to tackle inventive problems following a well-defined process is possible. A major conclusion of Altshuller’s studies was that inventions were not a result of unor- ganized thinking, but instead the products of objective laws and recurrent trends of technology evolution. * Corresponding author: Wei Yan, LGECO/INSA Strasbourg, 24 Boulevard de la Victoire, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France. E-mail: wei.yan@insa-strasbourg.fr. Comprehensive studies of patent collections fol- lowing this discovery resulted in two more findings. First, Altshuller shows that an inventive solution re- sults from the elimination of a contradiction which is caused by attempts to improve preceding products characteristics. Attempts to compromise without elim- inating the contradiction do not allow a designer to achieve a degree of improvement qualified as “inven- tive”. The second conclusion is that the majority of the patented inventions comply with a relatively small set of basic principles for eliminating the contradic- tions. Based on these findings, Altshuller has devel- oped a scientifically-based problem solving methodol- ogy which codifies numerous inventive principles and, in some techniques, incorporates the laws of engineer- ing system evolution. Figure 1 describes the way classical TRIZ solves problems, and the interrelations among its different parts. Three different phases are clearly identified: 1. The “formulation” phase, where the expert uses different tools to express the problem in an ab- stract form, by the use of several models at dif- ferent levels of abstraction. ISSN 1327-2314/13/$27.50 c  2013 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved AUTHOR COPY