A methodology for creating a statistically derived shape grammar composed of non-obvious shape chunks

A shape grammar is a production system that can be used to create new product designs. Traditionally, a product shape grammar’s rules are created by a skilled person that understands the language of the design. In this paper the results of a principal component analysis of vehicles are used to create a vehicle shape grammar by basing the rules upon the determined shape relationships. The advantages are that: rules can be created according the results of a statistical analysis, and not according to a designer’s subjective observations; class specific vehicles can be created with fewer rule applications; and those rule applications encourage divergent designs. Using the principal component analysis based shape grammar, unique vehicles are created to demonstrate the potential of statistically based concept creation for the generation of product forms.