Panasonic develops "Design AI" merging simulation and AI to automatically search for optimal linear motor structures

Toshihiro Ota of the company's Product Analysis Center explained the mechanism and practical achievements of this technology during a keynote speech at the online event "ITmedia Virtual EXPO 2026 Summer."

Unlike conventional design methods where designers determine a basic structure and then optimize parameters, the "Design AI" worked on by the company is a technology that searches from a zero-base for structures that can maximize performance within a set domain. This enables the consideration of structures that would be difficult to conceive using only a designer's experience.

As a specific use case, the design of linear motors installed in the "Lamdash" men's shaver was cited. By combining AI with a coupled analysis method (a method that analyzes multiple physical phenomena that influence each other) to handle three phenomena—magnetic fields, circuits, and motion—simultaneously and letting the AI search for structures, the company derived a high-output structure that surpasses the design values of current products based on designers' experience.