4. Exploring morphological space

The next step is to explore the morphological space. This involves successively opening the "drawers" of the morphological box, or creating different shape markings. You can then assess whether a drawer or marking corresponds to a more or less technically mature solution, or whether it describes a novel combination.

To illustrate our point, Figure 1 shows a morphological box associated with the motorization and propulsion function of an automobile.Six trivial morphological parameters have been selected.The morphological space comprises 2,304 shapes (3 x 4 x 4 x 3 x 4 x 4 shapes). The VP shape markings (circles and solid lines) correspond to the vehicle you probably own. It's a gasoline-powered city car. This marking is associated with an existing, even commonplace solution. The VA marking (squares and dotted line) corresponds to an avant-garde fuel-cell vehicle...