An application of game theory in distributed collaborative decision making

In a distributed product realization environment, new paradigms and accompanying software systems are necessary to support the collaborative work of geographically dispersed engineering teams from different disciplines who have different knowledge, experience, tools and resources. To verify the concept of collaboration by separation, we propose a generic information communication medium to enable knowledge representation and exchange between engineering teams, a digital interface. Across digital interfaces, each engineering team maintains its own perspective towards the product realization problem, and each controls a subset of design variables and seeks to maximize its own payoff function subject to individual constraints. Hence, we postulate the use of principles from game theory to model the relationships between engineering teams and facilitate collaborative decision making without causing unnecessary information exchange or iteration across digital interfaces. A product design and manufacturing scenario is introduced to demonstrate the efficacy of using game theory to maintain a clean interface between design and manufacturing teams

Product Development Process and Student Learning in an Engineering Technology Capstone Project: Electrical Go-kart

Project based learning (PBL) is a dynamic classroom approach in which students actively explore, solve real world problems and gain knowledge through developing real products. In our Engineering Technology program, a project based capstone design class is offered that provides graduating seniors a hands-on opportunity to experience team-based design under conditions that closely resemble current industry practice. In this paper, we introduce a capstone project, an electrical go-kart. A group of 20 students spent 15 weeks and around $600 designing and building a working electrical go-kart. This multidisciplinary project allows students to integrate knowledge from across the core curricula, and take a systems approach to product design and problem solving. Student learning outcomes are assessed using a survey and the grades of their final projects. The results are compared with other semesters in which relatively simple projects were assigned. We have observed an overall improvement of student learning outcomes in nearly all aspects. Hence we believe the multidisciplinary projects, such as the electrical go-kart, help students learn valuable knowledge of product development that are usually only acquired through real world working experiences

Workforce Development Strategies in Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D Printing (3DP), is one of the newest manufacturing technologies with growing utilization in our daily life. Parallel to this growth, new materials, machines, and specific processes are being developed to produce parts in better-finished quality, at lower cost, and with shorter production time. However, workforce education in this evolving field has not advanced at the same pace as the technology, lacking proven curriculums, high-quality/accredited degree programs, and specialized advanced degrees. In this paper, some best practices established by the authors are introduced. The list is far from exhaustive but is proven to be effective in practice

MAKER: Candy Crane Robot

Candy Crane is a custom-made robot that looks like a traditional tower crane and is used to pick candies by the young users for fun and for learning mechatronics product design. The tower structure is made from either aluminum C-channels or plastics made from 3D printer. Two 12V DC motors and several limit switches are used to control the movement of the crane. A miniature crane to be held by the user is equipped with a linear potentiometer and rotary potentiometer and is used to control the movement of the big tower crane wirelessly through a blue tooth module. An Arduino microcontroller is used as a master to send the movement commands from the miniature crane to the Lego Mindstorm’s NXT Brick mounted on Candy Crane. The NXT Brick serves as a slave to relay the commands to drive the DC motors to place the hook to proper location. Once the hook is in the right position, the user can send the hook down to pick up the candy of his/her choice. The user can learn mechanical design, electronic design and programming from the mechatronic toy

Senior Design Case Study: Application of System Engineering Concepts in the Design of a Router

System engineering (SE) is a multidisciplinary approach for the design, management, and realization of a complex system. In product development, SE is utilized on structuring a product development process into simple and collaborative activities that proceed throughout the entire product life-cycle, while at the same time, supporting engineers’ decision making. Project based engineering design classes are suitable for undergraduate students to study and practice the concepts of SE while solving real-world design problems. In this paper, we document the product development process, especially the structured design methodologies used in an undergraduate Senior Design project. Student learning outcomes are assessed and compared with previous semesters. We have observed overall satisfying student learning in nearly all aspects. Hence, we believe the multidisciplinary project helps students learn valuable knowledge of SE that is usually acquired through real world working experiences

Sliding Window Based Feature Extraction and Traffic Clustering for Green Mobile Cyberphysical Systems

Both the densification of small base stations and the diversity of user activities bring huge challenges for today’s heterogeneous networks, either heavy burdens on base stations or serious energy waste. In order to ensure coverage of the network while reducing the total energy consumption, we adopt a green mobile cyberphysical system (MCPS) to handle this problem. In this paper, we propose a feature extractionmethod using sliding window to extract the distribution feature of mobile user equipment (UE), and a case study is presented to demonstrate that the method is efficacious in reserving the clustering distribution feature. Furthermore, we present traffic clustering analysis to categorize collected traffic distribution samples into a limited set of traffic patterns, where the patterns and corresponding optimized control strategies are used to similar traffic distributions for the rapid control of base station state. Experimental results show that the sliding window is more superior in enabling higher UE coverage over the grid method. Besides, the optimized control strategy obtained from the traffic pattern is capable of achieving a high coverage that can well serve over 98% of all mobile UE for similar traffic distributions

A Hands-on Robotics Concentration Curricula in Engineering Technology Programs

This paper discusses the creation of a robotic concentration with four courses to meet the industry demands for qualified graduates in product design and services. Advances in computer technology and electronics have created a new field called mechatronics. Nowadays almost all high tech products are mechatronics in nature. Products such as automotive subsystems (such as anti-lock braking systems and automatic steering systems), medical devices, environmental monitoring systems, service and surgical robots are all mechatronic products. The robotic concentration focus on one of the most popular and visible area of mechatronics: robotics. The creation of the four courses: Embedded Systems Fundamentals, Actuators and Sensors, Control Systems, and Robotic Design and Applications is aimed at addressing the important issues of proper scaffolding for the engineering technology students in three engineering technology departments so that students will be able to engage in product design and development using integrated concurrent engineering and multidisciplinary approach

MAKER: Twisted Sister Rover

The Twisted Sister is a four-wheel mobile robot that can twist its front wheels to navigate the rough terrains. Each wheel is driven by a DC motor. The front wheels can be raised by a DC gearmotor which is connected to a worm gear system. The rover chassis is made of sheet metal cut from water jet. An Arduino robot controller is mounted on the Twisted Sister Rover. A remote controller is equipped with two tiny joysticks. One joystick is used to control the movement of the rover and the other joystick to used to either raise or lower the front wheels. Wireless communication is through Xbee radio modules, one mounted on the rover and one mounted on the remote controller. The project teaches the students on how to integrate mechanical design, electronic design, and software design (programming) into producing new products. It helps the students to realize the importance of hands-on multidisciplinary approach to product design

Collaborative multidisciplinary decision making in distributed environment

Ph.D.Farrokh Mistre