Thinking Tracks for Integrated Systems Design

The paper investigates systems thinking and systems engineering. After a short literature review, the paper presents, as a means for systems thinking, twelve thinking tracks. The tracks can be used as creativity starter, checklist, and as means to investigate effects of design decisions taken early in the process. Tracks include thinking about time, risk and safety, and different types of life-cycles. The thinking tracks are based on literature, teaching experience and practice as a system designer. By using the tracks a more complete picture of the system under design, the issue to be solved, the context, stakeholders and the rest of the world is created

Agile development for a multi-disciplinary bicycle stability test bench

Agile software development methods are used extensively in the software industry. This paper describes an argument to explain why these methods can be used within a multi-disciplinary project and provides a concrete description on how to implement such a method, using a case-study to support the rationale. The SOFIE (Intelligent Assisted Bicycle) project was created to develop mechatronic appliances to make bicycles more stable, i.e. safer. A bicycle stability test bench is created within this project and is used as the case study for this research. The relative complexity of the test bench development and partner structure within the SOFIE project has many similarities with large-scale complex projects found in industry. Thus it provides a good environment to research the application of Agile software methods to a multi-disciplinary project

System design of a litter collecting robot

Litter in public places is a serious problem. Not only because of the obvious dirtiness, but also because litter attracts more litter and can cause the winding down of an area leading to large negative financial and social consequences. To avoid this, public areas have been kept clean by humans. In this paper, we apply systems architecting and engineering techniques and among others a tool from TRIZ in a multidisciplinary student project. Goal is to develop a Litter Collecting Robot for operation in public places. Through an investigation of the litter problem and subsequent development of a product vision, we plan four scenarios for robotic cleaning. The paper treats the litter problem, the architecting phase, and will show innovative technical details, including a working integrated result: a proof of principle of the robot. The project was executed by students from various disciplines, supervised by two University staff members. On a meta-level –regarding systems design and engineering– the combination of systems architecting and engineering principles, TRIZ tools, FunKey architecting and multidisciplinary communication will be treated

Flexibility in hospital building and application by means of standardized medical room types

This paper presents an approach to standardization of hospital rooms. As hospitals are becoming more complex, the need for quality assurance and validation increases as well. Several sources mention the responsibility of the medical personnel for the quality and safety of the equipment with which patients are treated. The room in which patients are treated can also be seen as part of this responsibility. The hospital currently consists of hundreds of rooms with very little information available on the exact properties and state of rooms. It is thus very hard, both for medical and technical personnel, to gain insight into and be aware of the state of a medical room. This can lead to risks for the patient. In order to give this insight, we paper propose a standardization of medical rooms. Based on the hygiene and electrical safety classes, nine standard room types are defined. Additionally, rooms may have specific ‘toppings’ for more specialized tasks. This approach allows medical personnel to instantly acquire insight into the capabilities of a room, and the possibility of performing a certain treatment. Furthermore, maintenance requirements are clearer, there is more flexibility in room use, and it is expected that the approach will greatly simplify the planning of hospital construction projects

Methods to assess the stability of a bicycle rider system

The SOFIE (Intelligent Assisted Bicycles) project wishes to create performance and design guidelines for mechatronic appliances which improve the stability of electric bicycles, so-called intelligent stability assist devices (IAD). To achieve this goal, a stability hypothesis, an advanced rider/bicycle model and bicycle stability test bench, will be created. This paper describes the development of these components and its goal is to present the project design. The stability hypothesis is based on the concept that the Centre of Mass (CoM) of the bicycle/rider system stays within certain lateral margins from the heading of a bicycle. The rider/bicycle model is created in Adams for multi-body dynamic simulations. The bicycle stability test bench is designed to be interchangeable between bicycles. The model, the test bench and the stability hypothesis will be used to validate the effectiveness of the IAD’s and assist in their design

Applying Systems Engineering on Energy Challenges

Systems engineering is a discipline with methods and techniques to address complex problems. We want to study how Systems Engineering methods can help to address today's grand challenges, such as the energy problem. The first step is problem definition which aims at articulating the problem in its context as clearly as possible.Humanity will have to cope with the energy problem, one of the most critical challenges of humanity in this century. The energy problem itself is related to other challenges facing humanity like water, food and poverty. The key challenges concerning energy are climate change and other environmental impact of energy production and use, energy security, and long-term sustainable and affordable access to energy.The intention is to investigate the energy problem through applying system engineering practices aiming to reach a more clear, concise, and consistent understanding of the energy problem. This will help in both reaching a common understanding platform for all those involved in the energy problem and pave the way to identify the needs and thus suggesting and assessing solutions. Our first attempts to formulate a problem statement and to identify energy needs indicate that there are many assumptions in current literatur

An integral safety approach for design of high risk products and systems

To make the world a safer place while adapting high-end technologies, engineers have to address societal concerns about the safety of emerging high-tech systems. While adapting services provided by technology, people concern about their safety. It seems that engineers are struggling to control the fast-growing technology. From another perspective, the safety toolbox seems to be outdated as there are issues that cannot be addressed by inherited nature of the commonly used tools. As systems become more complex and more autonomous, the safety-toolbox requires improvements to catch up new developments. This paper sheds light on societal concerns on safety issues, discusses commonly practiced design methods for dealing with safety, and suggests an integral safety approach. While the application range of this subject is indeed very broad, this study keeps its focus on the industrial design discipline

Robotic Control of a Traditional Flexible Endoscope for Therapy

In therapeutic flexible endoscopy a team of physician and assistant(s) is required to control all independent translations and rotations of the flexible endoscope and its instruments. As a consequence the physician lacks valuable force feedback information on tissue interaction, communication errors easily occur, and procedures are not cost-effective. Current tools are not suitable for performing therapeutic procedures in an intuitive and user-friendly way by one person. A shift from more invasive surgical procedures that require external incisions to endoluminal procedures that use the natural body openings could be expected if enabling techniques were available. This paper describes the design and evaluation of a robotic system which interacts with traditional flexible endoscopes to perform therapeutic procedures that require advanced maneuverability. The physician uses one multi-degree-of-freedom input device to control camera steering as well as shaft manipulation of the motorized flexible endoscope, while the other hand is able to manipulate instruments. We identified critical use aspects that need to be addressed in the robotic setup. A proof-of-principle setup was built and evaluated to judge the usability of our system. Results show that robotic endoscope control increases efficiency and satisfaction. Participants valued its intuitiveness, its accuracy, the feeling of being in control, and its single-person setup. Future work will concentrate on the design of a system that is fully functional and takes safety, cleanability, and easy positioning close to the patient into account