The laws of technical systems evolution are the most general evolution trends for technical systems discovered by TRIZ author G. S. Altshuller after reviewing thousands USSR invention authorship certificates and foreign patent abstracts.
Studying paths of evolution of technical systems has been a primary research method of TRIZ since its inception.
In the 1970s Altshuller consolidated them into a new section of TRIZ that he called "the laws of technical systems evolution".
The following authors, besides Altshuller, contributed most to it: Yuri Khotimlyansky (studied patterns of energy conductivity in technical systems), Vladimir Asinovsky (proposed principles of correspondence of various components of technical systems), Yevgeny Karasik (co-authored with Altshuller the law of transition from a macro-level to a micro-level, introduced the notion of dual technical systems and studied the patterns of their evolution).
In his pioneering work of 1975, Altshuller subdivided all laws of technical systems evolution into 3 categories: The patterns of evolution were developed by Altshuller as a set of patterns common to systems as they are developed and as they acquire new features.