Abstract: Evolutionary design is an important design method attracting increasing attention recently. The researches and applications of evolutionary design in the last decades are summarized, especially its applications to structural optimization, conceptual design and artificial life design. Particular introduction and analysis are carried out on Lipson and Pollack’s works on design automation of robots, and some inspiration from evolutionary design and existing problems are also discussed. At the same time, a human-computer cooperation evolutionary design method and its application to layout scheme design of satellite module are introduced. Finally its developing tendency is predicted.

Key words: Evolutionary design, Full-automatization, Human-computer cooperation, Robot, Scheme design, Structural optimization, mechanical and electrical equipment, mechanical system, pressure equipment , special equipment, health management