A novel approach to computer-aided configuration design based on constraint satisfaction paradigm

The trend in today’s manufacturing industry is changing from mass production to mass customization. The companies which win the markets are those which can deliver highly customized products at the fastest rate and allow for life-cycle participation of customers regardless of where they are and when they participate. One of the strategies for implementing the mass customization paradigm is to implement the product development according to the assemble-to-order (ATO) pattern. Under the ATO pattern, the design of a product becomes the determination of a configuration which contains a set of pre-developed components – configuration design for short. The configuration design problem can be well treated as a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP). The mature methods are available for CSP, but there are several limitations with CSP for configuration design. This thesis proposes a novel approach to configuration design. This approach is based on a CSP but adds a wrapper (product data model, PDM for short) over the CSP model. Consequently, both the customer and the other life cycle development programs only communicate with the PDM, and a more intelligent and user-friendly computer system for configuration design can then be implemented. Both the conceptual design and implementation of such a wrapper are discussed in this thesis. A computer prototype system for elevator design is developed for demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach

Data Product Canvas: A visual inquiry tool supporting data product design

Data products (DP) are considered a key enabler of data-driven innovation. However, suitable methodologies and tools supporting DP design are still scarce. The emerging body of practitioner literature mostly focuses on analytics based products and their technical design and architecture but lacks a more comprehensive product perspective on data. To address this gap, we propose the Data Product Canvas (DPC) as a visual inquiry tool that supports cross-functional teams in understanding, designing, and analyzing DPs. The DPC was developed in an iterative design science process involving focus groups with 15 global companies and demonstrations for selected DPs. Building on the core ideas of the Business Model Canvas, the DPC outlines the critical elements for designing DPs around three key themes: desirability from the customer perspective, feasibility from the technical perspective and viability from an economic perspective. The DPC instantiates the design principles for visual inquiry tools and comprises a conceptual model, shared visualization, and directions for use. The DPC is the first step towards a systematic approach and shared language to design DPs in ways that technical experts and business users understand

Collaborative video searching on a tabletop

Almost all system and application design for multimedia systems is based around a single user working in isolation to perform some task yet much of the work for which we use computers to help us, is based on working collaboratively with colleagues. Groupware systems do support user collaboration but typically this is supported through software and users still physically work independently. Tabletop systems, such as the DiamondTouch from MERL, are interface devices which support direct user collaboration on a tabletop. When a tabletop is used as the interface for a multimedia system, such as a video search system, then this kind of direct collaboration raises many questions for system design. In this paper we present a tabletop system for supporting a pair of users in a video search task and we evaluate the system not only in terms of search performance but also in terms of user–user interaction and how different user personalities within each pair of searchers impacts search performance and user interaction. Incorporating the user into the system evaluation as we have done here reveals several interesting results and has important ramifications for the design of a multimedia search system

Paradigms for biologically inspired design

Biologically inspired design is attracting increasing interest since it offers access to a huge biological repository of well proven design principles that can be used for developing new and innovative products. Biological phenomena can inspire product innovation in as diverse areas as mechanical engineering, medical engineering, nanotechnology, photonics, environmental protection and agriculture. However, a major obstacle for the wider use of biologically inspired design is the knowledge barrier that exist between the application engineers that have insight into how to design suitable products and the biologists with detailed knowledge and experience in understanding how biological organisms function in their environment. The biologically inspired design process can therefore be approached using different design paradigms depending on the dominant opportunities, challenges and knowledge characteristics. Design paradigms are typically characterized as either problem-driven, solution-driven, sustainability driven, bioreplication or a combination of two or more of them. The design paradigms represent different ways of overcoming the knowledge barrier and the present paper presents a review of their characterization and application

Operator interfaces for the lifecycle support of component based automation systems

Current manufacturing automation systems (specifically the powertrain sector) have been facing challenges with constant pressures of globalisation, environmental concerns and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) innovations. These challenges instigate new demands for shorter product lifecycles and require customised products to be manufactured as efficiently as possible. Manufacturing systems must therefore be agile to remain competitive by supporting frequent reconfigurations involving distributed engineering activities. [Continues.

Product design methodology supporting aesthetic evaluation

Based on the fundamentals of visual art and function, this research has developed a product design methodology capable of quantification of the aesthetic qualities and proposing objective solutions to enhance the appearance related variables and characteristics of a product. The objective evaluation has been done via analysis of involuntary responses using eye-tracking data based on the visual perceiving process of design. The result confirmed the reliability of the methodology by generating constant results and a good match between the measured values and declared preference. In addition, the aesthetic enhancement methods based on quantified metrics with the sample designs have been provided. The result of the research suggests that eye-tracking technology is a reliable tool in aesthetic evaluation and has potential for further development

Development of a computer-aided design supporting system for transformative product design

Modern product innovation is often delivered by fusing technologies from different domains. To meet the current speedy pressure of product innovation, the conceptual design is a very critical stage to develop an innovative product. This research presents a new design paradigm, Transformative Product Design (TPD), to meet the demands in the conceptual design. TPD aims to design a new product from a combination out of a base product and reference products, which have been developed. To expedite the TPD paradigm, Interaction Network is introduced to represent a product design by following a representative product design representation method in the teleological perspective. However, generating an interaction network of a product is very cumbersome and somewhat subjective. In the past decade, a few research works have been reported to identify functions of a product in a systematic way. They are not satisfactory to develop an interaction network for TPD systematically. To systematically generate an interaction network, this research adopts functional requirements in design documents as the source of the proposed method. The proposed method in this research aims to identify functions, structures and dynamic behaviors between structures from the functional descriptions in natural (English) language by adapting natural language-based object identification methods in the software engineering. Another aim of this research is to provide semantic capability to utilize the use of a natural language throughout the design transformation process, taking into account cross-disciplinary design knowledge that domain experts could struggle if the knowledge is beyond their expertise. To fulfill the demand, this research builds research methods for the design transformation, based on the proposed similarity score, i.e., Stem-POS based Similarity Score. By employing the proposed score, this research detects concept functions and generates transformative design alternatives with interaction networks. Additionally, for the design transformation, the degree of transformability is to check how much products are semantically related each other, by adapting the semantic similarity score. Finally the proposed methods have been implemented in a Computer-Aided Transformative Design (CATPD) supporting system with minor human involvement to a minimum. The proposed methods and the system are validated according to Stieglitz\u27s convergence types

The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research: A New Paradigm for Battery Research and Development

The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) seeks transformational change in transportation and the electricity grid driven by next generation high performance, low cost electricity storage. To pursue this transformative vision JCESR introduces a new paradigm for battery research: integrating discovery science, battery design, research prototyping and manufacturing collaboration in a single highly interactive organization. This new paradigm will accelerate the pace of discovery and innovation and reduce the time from conceptualization to commercialization. JCESR applies its new paradigm exclusively to beyond-lithium-ion batteries, a vast, rich and largely unexplored frontier. This review presents JCESR's motivation, vision, mission, intended outcomes or legacies and first year accomplishments.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, 96 reference