Engin roulant à propulsion humaine elliptique

L'invention concerne un engin comportant un châssis (12) portant une roue motrice (18) et deux palettes (19, 21) liée à cette roue (18) par un système de transmission (24), ces deux palettes (19, 21) étant destinées à recevoir les pieds d'un utilisateur adoptant le mouvement de la marche, chaque palette (19, 21) ayant son extrémité avant reliée au châssis (12) par une liaison glissière (22, 26), et son extrémité arrière liée au système de transmission (24), caractérisé en ce que: - le système de transmission (24) comporte deux trains épicycloïdaux accouplés par un arbre transversal compor­ tant deux manetons; - chaque maneton porte un pignon engrené dans une couronne dentée fixe correspondante, les pignons ont un diamètre valant la moitié du diamètre des couronnes fixes et 24 sont pourvus chacun d'une manivelle de rayon supérieur au rayon du pignon; 18 - un dispositif d'inversion de rotation est interposé entre l'arbre transversal et la roue (18)

Proposition of a PLM tool to support textile design: A case study applied to the definition of the early stages of design requirements

The current climate of economic competition forces businesses to adapt more than ever to the expectations of their customers. Faced with new challenges, practices in textile design have evolved in order to be able to manage projects in new work environments. After presenting a state of the art overview of collaborative tools used in product design and making functional comparison between PLM solutions, our paper proposes a case study for the development and testing of a collaborative platform in the textile industry, focusing on the definition of early stages of design needs. The scientific contributions presented in this paper are a state of the art of current PLM solutions and their application in the field of textile design; and a case study where we will present, define, and test the mock-up of a collaborative tool to assist the early stages, based on identified intermediary representations

A Universalist strategy for the design of Assistive Technology

Assistive Technologies are specialized products aiming to partly compensate for the loss of autonomy experienced by disabled people. Because they address special needs in a highly-segmented market, they are often considered as niche products. To improve their design and make them tend to Universality, we propose the EMFASIS framework (Extended Modularity, Functional Accessibility, and Social Integration Strategy). We first elaborate on how this strategy conciliates niche and Universalist views, which may appear conflicting at first sight. We then present three examples illustrating its application for designing Assistive Technologies: the design of an overbed table, an upper-limb powered orthose and a powered wheelchair. We conclude on the expected outcomes of our strategy for the social integration and participation of disabled people

Proposition of a method to design tailor-made knowledge management systems for small and medium enterprises

The aim of this paper is to propose a knowledge management system design method for small and medium enterprises that addresses the problems encountered on the existing ones. A literature review highlighted 5 main concepts that have a crucial role in knowledge management system design. To take these recommendations into account, a knowledge management system design method was designed. It uses the small and medium enterprises characteristics, needs and problems to select adapted knowledge management tools and practices, and offers a comprehensive and tailor-made knowledge management system. This method was used to design a knowledge management system for a high-tech small and medium enterprises from the navigation sector. It allowed to choose from the adapted knowledge management tools and practices and to write a set of requirements for the knowledge management system while taking the user into account, thus easing the knowledge management system implementation and ensuring its sustainability

Additive Creativity: An Innovative Way to Enhance Manufacturing Engineering Education

The present paper considers two pedagogical approaches that are mixing creativity tools and Additive Manufacturing (AM) knowledge and evaluates them through the originality and feasibility of the ideas generated as well as the satisfaction of the students. This experimentation was conducted in an engineering school with two groups of postgraduate students during a one-day Project-Based Learning module (PBL). This study points out that closely mixing creativity tools andAM knowledge all along the module gives better results in term of originality, feasibility, and student satisfaction than a more traditional approach disconnecting them. We believe this work can improve existing teaching activities enabling students to gain hands-on experience with additive creativity to better face tomorrow’s challenges

Early stages of apparel design: how to define collaborative needs for PLM and fashion?

Companies are faced with increasing challenges in their own environment. In several areas of the industry, but also among the suppliers, more and more competitors emerge. Companies react to this pressure by trying to implement new technologies for their products and offering more innovative products to successfully face direct competition. Overall, globalisation put pressure on companies in terms of innovation, costs and time to market. This climate of economic competition forces businesses to adapt to the expectations of their customers. To achieve this change, it becomes necessary amongst other things to reduce design time. Thus, practices in apparel design have evolved in order to be able to manage projects in new work environments. After presenting a literature review of collaborative functionalities used in product design, our paper presentsan illustration of a case study for Product Lifecycle Management research in the apparel industry, focusing on the definition of needs in terms of collaborative functions to support the design of apparel products, in an industrial context

Encouraging innovation activity: in the specific context of small- and medium-sized retailers

This paper aims at formalizing an innovation process well suited for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) specialized in retail. The design research consisted in analyzing conceptual models of innovation process from the literature and adapting it to the specific context. Indeed, the research issue deals with encouraging innovation activity in the context of small- and medium-sized retailers that have not yet integrated an intern design department. In the actual financial context, it is essential for SMEs to innovate in order to gain competitive advantage; but how to start a sized innovation activity? The undertaken research results in a plan that sets up a sized innovation activity gradually with a methodology conducting to repeated and regular new product development. Supported with international literature research, the paper contributes to the proposal of an innovation process meeting the two following requirements: - a retailer lacking knowledge in innovation activity and - an SME with limited financial means. From the industrial case studies that have been undertaken, an adapted process has been developed to ensure the success of innovation activity integration in this specific context

Social identity cues to improve creativity and identification in face-to-face and virtual groups

This research draws on the social identity approach to investigate group performance in face-to-face and virtual brainstorming settings. In particular, we display Social Identity Cues (SIC) on participants or on avatars to foster group membership. We compare four conditions in a factorial design: Brainstorming in Face-to-face or Virtual setting, With or Without SIC. Seventy-two students belonging to a population with a strong social identity participated in the experiment, using their traditional clothing as SIC. The results show that the presence of SIC led to increased creative performance both in face-to-face and virtual settings. SIC also increased group identification, but only in the virtual environment. These results highlight the potential of avatars to support teamwork in a meaningful way

Supports technologiques collaboratifs à la méthode des Personas

In this paper, we present two experiments to test the impact of collaborative technology to support the Persona method. In the first experiment, 24 designers used the Persona method to anticipate user needs for the design of an ambient device. These participants were affiliated with one or other of the following experimental conditions: with or without interactive Tabletop. In a second experiment, we asked at 12 designers of Alstom Transport company to generate user requirements related to the introduction of the Smart glass in public transportation. The working sessions were conducted in a multi-user virtual environments (MUVE): Second Life. It appears from these experiments that the technological supports positively affect collaboration and creativity with the Persona method, and optimized the Requirements analysis phase and particularly the collection of user needs. Finally, we discuss of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of these technologies in design projects

Avatar-mediated creativity: When embodying inventors makes engineers more creative

An important challenge today is to support creativity while enabling geographically distant people to work together. In line with the componential theory of creativity, self-perception theory and recent research on the Proteus Effect, we investigate how avatars, which are virtual representations of the self, may be a medium for stimulating creativity. For this purpose, we conducted two studies with a population of engineering students. In the first study, 114 participants responded to online surveys in order to identify what a creative avatar may look like. This enabled us to select avatars representing inventors, which were perceived as creative by engineering students, and neutral avatars. In the second study, 54 participants brainstormed in groups of 3, in 3 different conditions: in a control face-to-face situation, in a virtual environment while embodying neutral avatars and in a virtual environment with inventor avatars. The results show that inventor avatars led to higher performance in fluency and originality of ideas. Moreover, this benefit proved to endure over time since participants allocated to inventor avatars also performed better in a subsequent face-to-face brainstorming. The prospects of using avatars for enhancing creativity-relevant processes are discussed in terms of theoretical and applicative implication