The proliferation of functions: Multiple systems playing multiple roles in multiple supersystems

AbstractWhen considering a system that performs a role, it is often stated that performing that role is afunctionof the system. The general form of such statements is that “the function ofSisR,” whereSis the functioning system andRis the functional role it plays. However, such statements do not represent how that single function was selected from many possible alternatives. This article renders those alternatives explicit by revealing the other possible function statements that might be made when eitherSorRis being considered. In particular, two forms of selection are emphasized. First, when we say “the function ofSisR,” there are typically many systems other thanSthat are required to be in operation for that role to be fulfilled. The functioning system,S, does not perform the role,R, all by itself, and those systems that supportSin performing that role might also have been considered as functioning. Second, when we say, “the function ofSisR,” there are typically many other roles thatSplays apart fromR, and those other roles might also have been considered functional. When we make function assignments, we select both the functioning system,S, and the functional role,R, from a range of alternatives. To emphasize these alternatives, this article develops a diagrammatic representation of multiple systems playing multiple roles in multiple supersystems.This work  was partly supported by an Early Career Fellowship (EP/K008196/1) from the  UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and by an  Interdisciplinary Fellowship in Philosophy (Crausaz Wordsworth 2013/14)  from the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities  (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge. This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9520930&fileId=S0890060414000626

Information and interaction requirements for software tools supporting analogical design

AbstractOne mode of creative design is for designers to draw analogies that connect the design domain (e.g., a mechanical device) to some other domain from which inspiration is drawn (e.g., a biological system). The identification and application of analogies can be supported by software tools that store, structure, present, or propose source domain stimuli from which such analogies might be constructed. For these tools to be effective and not impact the design process in negative ways, they must fit well with the information and interaction needs of their users. However, the user requirements for these tools are seldom explicitly discussed. Furthermore, the literature that supports the identification of such requirements is distributed across a number of different domains, including those that address analogical design (especially biomimetics), creativity support tools, and human–computer interaction. The requirements that these literatures propose can be divided into those that relate to the information content that the tools provide (e.g., level of abstraction or mode of representation) and those that relate to the interaction qualities that the tools support (e.g., accessibility or shareability). Examining the relationships between these requirements suggests that tool developers should focus on satisfying the key requirements of open-endedness and accessibility while managing the conflicts between the other requirements. Attention to these requirements and the relationships between them promises to yield analogical design support tools that better permit designers to identify and apply source information in their creative work.Dr Gülşen Töre Yargın' s work was supported by the International Post Doctoral Research Fellowship Programme [BİDEB-2219] from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). Dr Nathan Crilly' s work was supported by an Early Career Fellowship [EP/K008196/1] from the UK s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).This is the accepted manuscript. It will be embargoed until 27/10/2015. The final version is available from CUP at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9673077&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S089006041500007

Testing a New Structured Tool for Supporting Requirements’ Formulation and Decomposition

open4noThe definition of a comprehensive initial set of engineering requirements is crucial to an effective and successful design process. To support engineering designers in this non-trivial task, well-acknowledged requirement checklists are available in literature, but their actual support is arguable. Indeed, engineering design tasks involve multifunctional systems, characterized by a complex map of requirements affecting different functions. Aiming at improving the support provided by common checklists, this paper proposes a structured tool capable of allocating different requirements to specific functions, and to discern between design wishes and demands. A first experiment of the tool enabled the extraction of useful information for future developments targeting the enhancement of the tool’s efficacy. Indeed, although some advantages have been observed in terms of the number of proposed requirements, the presence of multiple functions led users (engineering students in this work) to useless repetitions of the same requirement. In addition, the use of the proposed tool resulted in increased perceived effort, which has been measured through the NASA Task Load Index method. These limitations constitute the starting point for planning future research and the mentioned enhancements, beyond representing a warning for scholars involved in systematizing the extraction and management of design requirements. Moreover, thanks to the robustness of the scientific approach used in this work, similar experiments can be repeated to obtain data with a more general validity, especially from industry.openFiorineschi, Lorenzo; Becattini, Niccolò; Borgianni, Yuri; Rotini, FedericoFiorineschi, Lorenzo; Becattini, Niccolò; Borgianni, Yuri; Rotini, Federic

Does Form follow Function? Connecting Function Modelling and Geometry Modelling for Design Space Exploration

The aerospace industry, representative of industries developing complex products, faces challenges from changes in user behaviour, legislation, environmental policy. Meeting these challenges will require the development of radically new products. Radically new technologies and solutions need to be explored, investigated, and integrated into existing aerospace component architectures. The currently available design space exploration (DSE) methods, mainly based around computer-aided design (CAD) modelling, do not provide sufficient support for this exploration. These methods often lack a representation of the product’s architecture in relation to its design rationale (DR)—they do not illustrate how form follows function. Hence, relations between different functions and solutions, as well as how novel ideas relate to the legacy design, are not captured. In particular, the connection between a product’s function and the embodiment of its solution is not captured in the applied product modelling approaches, and can therefore not be used in the product development process.To alleviate this situation, this thesis presents a combined function and geometry-modelling approach with automated generation of CAD models for variant concepts. The approach builds on enhanced function means (EF-M) modelling for representation of the design space and the legacy design’s position in it. EF-M is also used to capture novel design solutions and reference them to the legacy design’s architecture. A design automation (DA) approach based on modularisation of the CAD model, which in turn is based on the functional decomposition of the product concepts, is used to capture geometric product information. A combined function-geometry object model captures the relations between functions, solutions, and geometry. This allows for CAD models of concepts based on alternative solutions to be generated.The function- and geometry-exploration (FGE) approach has been developed and tested in collaboration with an aerospace manufacturing company. A proof-of-concept tool implementing the approach has been realised. The approach has been validated for decomposition, innovation, and embodiment of new concepts in multiple studies involving three different aerospace suppliers. Application of FGE provides knowledge capture and representation, connecting the teleological and geometric aspects of the product. Furthermore, it supports the exploration of increasingly novel solutions, enabling the coverage of a wider area of the design space.The connection between the modelling domains addresses a research gap for the “integration of function architectures with CAD models”.While the FGE approach has been tested in laboratory environments as well as in applied product development projects, further development is needed to refine CAD integration and user experience and integrate additional modelling domains

Towards automated conceptual design space exploration

In\ua0mature and safety-concerned industries, such as the aerospace industry, product development is often incremental and design solutions are limited to improvements of an existing design. Radical changes to the known product architecture are avoided, for reasons of reliability, lack of technology or lack of design space exploration (DSE) methods. This thesis aims to investigate into the challenges for DSE, and how it can be improved to be faster, wider and more systematic. This research has been undertaken in four different research projects, addressing the challenges of the aerospace industry. The process of exploring the design space, the set of all possible designs, can be divided into three phases: to define the design space boundaries, to populate this design space with concepts, and lastly, to analyse the different concepts to find the one which provides the highest value. A deficiency in the description of functions and constraints which constitute the design space dimensions and boundaries, rooted in the lack of methods, has been identified to reduce the available search space already in the beginning. To populate this search space, developers need to generate representations of their new designs. These representations, commonly 3D geometries in the form of CAD models, are too rigid in the form they are used today. Therefore, it is expensive to create many variants, which differ in solutions and shape. This reduces the design space population to only a few concepts, derived from the legacy design. The analysis of alternative concepts is challenged through different maturities and variety of concepts.The coverage of multiple hierarchical search spaces, from geometry over solutions to value, has been identified as a driver for wider DSE. Furthermore, the need for a product development approach that is capable to bridge the levels of modelling abstraction. Enhanced Function-Means (EF-M) modelling, a function model applied in all studies referenced in this thesis, bridges the abstraction from a verbal description to a teleological graph, while enabling a more systematic capture of the design space boundaries. However, a subsequent gap towards geometry models could be observed in all studies. This hindered a faster design space exploration, since extensive manual labour is required to bridge these abstraction levels. For further work, the closing of the abstraction gap in the product modelling methods is seen as the primary goal for further work, either by extending the already applied function- and geometry modelling methods, or by including other frameworks