Natural Language Processing in-and-for Design Research

We review the scholarly contributions that utilise Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods to support the design process. Using a heuristic approach, we collected 223 articles published in 32 journals and within the period 1991-present. We present state-of-the-art NLP in-and-for design research by reviewing these articles according to the type of natural language text sources: internal reports, design concepts, discourse transcripts, technical publications, consumer opinions, and others. Upon summarizing and identifying the gaps in these contributions, we utilise an existing design innovation framework to identify the applications that are currently being supported by NLP. We then propose a few methodological and theoretical directions for future NLP in-and-for design research

Enhancing creativity through Biological Stimuli during new products ideation

The development of new and innovative products consists in a competitive advantage, allowing companies to overcome competitors, maintain or even increase its market share. As the product development cycle is shortening, a greater effort is required at the ideation of new technologies and products. In this context, the bio-inspired design has been receiving attention as a creativity strengthening method. However, the majority of methods and tools proposed in this field present biological stimuli in the form of literature extracts, requiring a great cognitive effort from the design teams in abstracting principles to generate ideas. In this paper a systematic approach to biological stimuli development is presented, as well as its contribution during the ideation process. An experiment was conducted on the context of a product design course. As result, it was evidenced that the biological stimulators contributed to the increase of the ideas\u27 utility and variety, favoring the innovation process

Review on recent advances in information mining from big consumer opinion data for product design

In this paper, based on more than ten years' studies on this dedicated research thrust, a comprehensive review concerning information mining from big consumer opinion data in order to assist product design is presented. First, the research background and the essential terminologies regarding online consumer opinion data are introduced. Next, studies concerning information extraction and information utilization of big consumer opinion data for product design are reviewed. Studies on information extraction of big consumer opinion data are explained from various perspectives, including data acquisition, opinion target recognition, feature identification and sentiment analysis, opinion summarization and sampling, etc. Reviews on information utilization of big consumer opinion data for product design are explored in terms of how to extract critical customer needs from big consumer opinion data, how to connect the voice of the customers with product design, how to make effective comparisons and reasonable ranking on similar products, how to identify ever-evolving customer concerns efficiently, and so on. Furthermore, significant and practical aspects of research trends are highlighted for future studies. This survey will facilitate researchers and practitioners to understand the latest development of relevant studies and applications centered on how big consumer opinion data can be processed, analyzed, and exploited in aiding product design

Industrial Symbiosis Recommender Systems

For a long time, humanity has lived upon the paradigm that the amounts of natural resources are unlimited and that the environment has ample regenerative capacity. However, the notion to shift towards sustainability has resulted in a worldwide adoption of policies addressing resource efficiency and preservation of natural resources.One of the key environmental and economic sustainable operations that is currently promoted and enacted in the European Union policy is Industrial Symbiosis. In industrial symbiosis, firms aim to reduce the total material and energy footprint by circulating traditional secondary production process outputs of firms to become part of an input for the production process of other firms.This thesis directs attention to the design considerations for recommender systems in the highly dynamic domain of industrial symbiosis. Recommender systems are a promising technology that may facilitate in multiple facets of the industrial symbiosis creation as they reduce the complexity of decision making. This typical strength of recommender systems has been responsible for improved sales and a higher return of investments. That provides the prospect for industrial symbiosis recommenders to increase the number of synergistic transactions that reduce the total environmental impact of the process industry in particular

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Function-Based Computer Aided Conceptual Design Support Tool

Conceptual design is considered as the most critical and important phase of design process. It is the stage where product’s fundamental features are determined, large proportion of the lifecycle cost of the product is committed, and other major decisions are made, which have significant impact on the downstream design and related manufacturing processes. It is a knowledge intensive process where diverse knowledge and several years of experience are put together to design quality and cost effective products. Unfortunately, computer support systems for this phase are lagging behind compared to the currently available commercial computer aided design (CAD) tools for the later stage of design to reduce the designers workload and product development time. The overall goal of this research is to provide designers with computational tool that support conceptual design process. To achieve this goal a methodology that integrates systematic design approach with knowledge-based system is proposed in this thesis. Accordingly, a framework of computer based computational tool known as conceptual design support tool (CDST) is developed using the proposed methodology. The tool assists designers in performing functional modeling by providing standard vocabularies of functions in the form of function library, generate concepts stored in the database from previous designs, display the generated concepts on the morphology chart, combine the concepts and evaluate the concepts variants. Concepts from subsea processing equipment design have been collected and saved in the database. The tool also accepts new concepts from the designer through its knowledge acquisition system to be saved in the database for future use. In doing so, it is possible to integrate human creativity with data handling capabilities of computers to perform conceptual design more efficiently than solely manual design. The tool can also be used as a knowledge management system to preserve expert’s knowledge and train novice designers. The applicability of the proposed methodology and developed tool is illustrated and validated by using a case study and validation test conducted by independent evaluators

SAVER (Surface Autonomous Vehicle for Emergency Rescue)

This document serves to introduce the design team and their competition challenge, as well as to detail the results of the project. The original design challenge was the NASA Micro-g NExT’s SAVER (Surface Autonomous Vehicle for Emergency Rescue) competition; we were tasked with developing a self-driving water vehicle capable of delivering supplies to Orion astronauts separated from the rest of their crew in the case of a maritime emergency. However, we were not selected to go forward in this competition and thus we decided to scale down the size of the SAVER device to shift the focus of the project to testing and refining the technologies necessary for a successful future team. Additionally, our overall Cal Poly SAVER design team was split into two subsystems: one focused on the hull and payload of SAVER and the other focused on the navigation, controls, and mechatronic components. This report will detail the design process of the navigation and controls subsystem. Throughout the course of the project, we performed research on the problem at hand, outlined and refined a preliminary design through ideation and initial analysis. Following the downsizing of the project, we finalized the design, created prototype devices, and performed testing on these devices. The main body of this report details our design processes, as well as the manufacturing, testing, and verification of the SAVER navigation and controls prototype. Finally, a project management section describes our plans for handing off the current SAVER device and documentation to next year’s SAVER team

Conceptual design of the natural fiber composites of car spoiler using hybrid method

This study presents the natural fiber composite filament as an environmentally friendly material for the car spoiler and a conceptual design of car spoiler in a stage of product development process for natural fiber composites. The objective of this study is to analyze the mechanical properties and the material setting of natural fiber composite using Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM). Next, to determine the best design concept of the generated car spoiler and to determine the best material of natural fiber composite for the best design of car spoiler using hybrid method. Four natural fiber composite filaments were used in the Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) process to obtain the printing setting. The tensile and flexural testing were done to obtain the mechanical properties of the natural fiber composite filament. Subsequently, five design concepts were generated by using morphological chart and biomimetic method. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used then to analyze the ir performance using Solidworks software. Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method was_ used as the decision-making too ls. As a results, the mechanical properties from the testing for PLA composite filaments shows PLA + Metal has the highest value with 53 .65 MPa for tensile strength, 6261.77 MPa for young mod ulus, 70.23 MPa for flexural strength, and 2714.267 MPa for flexural mod ulus. Next, the design concept 5 with the infill pattern of rib + I, were the best compared to others because of the lowest value of Von Mises Stress and displacement in finite element analysis with the value of 2.1 14 MPa and 1 .123 MPa respectively. TOPSIS method shows that PLA + Metal was the best PLA composite filament for the best design concept of car spoiler with first ran king in performance score. This study shows that the Morphological Chart and TOPSIS method can helps engineers and researchers in developing design concept that inspired by nature, as well as the best design concept and the best material selection using the systematic strategy

Using smart services as a key enabler for collaboration in global production networks

Collaboration in global production networks becomes more important in times of increased interconnectivity and complexity. However, due to various resistors the collaboration potential has not been realized, yet. At the same time digitalization has become a key enabler in today’s world of high complexity leading to new, disruptive solutions. Part of digitalization are smart services, triggering incentives by including business models. This and further characteristics of smart services have the potential of overcoming the resistors of collaboration. In this paper an approach is proposed for developing collaborative relationships - from strategy and collaboration scenario modelling to a service-oriented implementation