scholarly journals Toward Automated Functional Modeling: An Association Rules Approach for Mining the Relationship between Product Components and Function

Author(s):  
Melissa Tensa ◽  
Katherine Edmonds ◽  
Vincenzo Ferrero ◽  
Alex Mikes ◽  
Nicolas Soria Zurita ◽  
...  

AbstractThe objective of this research is to support DfX considerations in the early phases of design. In order to do conduct DfX, designers need access to pertinent downstream knowledge that is keyed to early stage design activities and problem knowledge. Product functionality is one such “key” connection between early understanding of the design problem and component choices which dictate product performance and impact, and repositories of design knowledge are one way to archive such design knowledge. However, curation of design knowledge is often a time-consuming activity requiring expertise in product modeling. In this paper, we explore a method to automate the populating of design repositories to support the overall goal of having up-to-date repositories of product design knowledge. To do this, we mine information from an existing repository to better understand the relationships between the components, functions, and flows of products. The resulting knowledge can be applied to automate functional decompositions once a product's components have been entered and thus reliably provide that “key” between early design activities and the later, component dependent characteristics.

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin T. Ciavola ◽  
Chunlong Wu ◽  
John K. Gershenson

In this paper, we explore the possibility of reconciling and integrating practical affordance- and function-based design representations. We present a classic function-based design method and representation and argue for the benefits of augmenting it with affordance-based approaches. Building on existing function concept ontologies, we present an integrated approach to developing early-stage design representations. This approach combines the use of affordance and function representations to capture user needs across a device's life cycle. We demonstrate how affordances add rigor and expressiveness to the early stages of traditional design processes, and how traditional function-based tools provide affordance-based design (ABD) with structured methods for concept generation. The integrated approach is illustrated with an example, in which a use case is explicitly decomposed to demonstrate the structure of relationships between users, goals, actions, artifacts, functions, and affordances.


Author(s):  
Matt R. Bohm ◽  
Robert L. Nagel ◽  
Melissa L. Shirley

This paper describes the design, implementation, and usage of a tablet based application as a mechanism for concept exploration and function realization in early stage design. Specifically, this work reports on the transformation of a methodology, known as Form Follows Form, into an interactive, multi-touch iPad application that can be used to explore concept alternatives and as tool to increase student awareness and recognition of functionality. Users are able to specify an initial concept to an engineering problem by dragging, dropping, and connecting basic components that they envision as a potential solution. The application then leverages a database of reverse engineered products and algorithms to abstract the underlying functionality of the user specified solution. Students can use the abstracted functionality as a baseline for generating concept alternatives on their own, and also, explore concept and component alternatives suggested by the application. The goal of the application is to reduce design fixation and to provide multiple approaches for concept exploration activities.


Author(s):  
Michael Van Wie ◽  
Scott Flechsig

This work presents a method to incorporate the principles of verification and change management in order to address the quality control of engineering artifacts in early stage design. A refined definition of quality is presented and relates design quality to design iteration. A new model, the Decision Pathway Chart (DPC), is introduced to model decisions and iteration. A method and tool for incorporating this DPC model into a process for verifying and managing change through baselining is described and validated based on criteria for evaluating decision-based design methods. The contribution of this work is to introduce a practical technique for implementing quality control principles during design activities that typically lack such rigor toward quality assurance.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhurima Das ◽  
Maria C. Yang

Abstract Designers routinely create informal “thinking” sketches to explore a design space and “talking” sketches to communicate design ideas during the early phases of the design process. This study proposes a rubric for assessing the quality of novice designers’ early stage design sketches including line smoothness, proportion, and understandability. The study finds a positive correlation between sketch quality and understandability, which indicates the importance of sketch quality when using sketches as a communication tool. Results indicate that early stage sketch quantity is linked with design outcomes, though sketch quality does not have a strong correlation with design outcomes. The study also finds a link between frequency of sketching and having higher maximum sketch quality scores (i.e. at least one excellent sketch) as well as a correlation between individuals’ maximum sketch quality scores and their overall design outcomes. This study presents a new tool to capture what is learned by the designer after each iteration of a prototype. Preliminary results indicate that reflection on both the technical and emotional aspects of prototyping may be valuable and should be an area of further study. Finally, several results point to novice designers’ lack of consistent focus on users in their prototyping reflections and presentations.


2022 ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Madhurima Das ◽  
Maria Yang

Abstract Designers routinely create informal “thinking” sketches to explore a design space, “talking” sketches to communicate design ideas during the early phases of the design process, and “learning” prototypes to test potential concepts. This study presents two new tools to assess novice designers' sketch attributes and prototyping reflections in the context of an introductory design course. First, it proposes a rubric for assessing the quality of early stage design sketches including line smoothness, proportion, and understandability. Of particular note is the contribution of assessing understandability as a metric for sketches as communication tools. This study also presents a tool to capture designer reflections after each iteration of a prototype. Not only does this record what is learned about a design, but also personal and emotional reactions to the process. Sketching-related results show a positive correlation between sketch quality and understandability, indicating the importance of sketch quality especially when designers use sketches to communicate. Results also indicate that early stage sketch quantity, but not quality, is linked with design outcomes. The study also finds a link between frequency of sketching and higher maximum sketch quality scores (i.e. at least one excellent sketch) as well as a correlation between individuals' maximum sketch quality scores and overall design outcomes. Preliminary results around prototyping indicate that reflection on both the technical and emotional aspects of prototyping may be a worthwhile area of further study. Finally, several results point to novice designers' lack of consistent focus on users in their prototyping reflections and presentations.


Author(s):  
Michael Van Wie ◽  
Katie Grantham ◽  
Robert Stone ◽  
Francesca Barrientos ◽  
Irem Tumer

The concept of function offers a high potential for thinking and reasoning about designs as well as providing a common thread for relating together other design information. This paper focuses specifically on risk data by examining how this information is addressed for a design team conducting early stage design for space missions. Sample risk information is decomposed into a set of key attributes which are then used to scrutinize the risk information using three approaches from the pragmatics sub-field of linguistics: i) Gricean, ii) Relevance Theory, and iii) Functional Analysis. Based on the deficiencies identified in this analysis, the concepts of functional templates and a risk worksheet are used to suggest corrective actions for improving treatment of risk data by explicitly accounting for five risk attributes developed in this work.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
Owen Freeman Gebler ◽  
Mark Goudswaard ◽  
Ben Hicks ◽  
David Jones ◽  
Aydin Nassehi ◽  
...  

AbstractPhysical prototyping during early stage design typically represents an iterative process. Commonly, a single prototype will be used throughout the process, with its form being modified as the design evolves. If the form of the prototype is not captured as each iteration occurs understanding how specific design changes impact upon the satisfaction of requirements is challenging, particularly retrospectively.In this paper two different systems for digitising physical artefacts, structured light scanning (SLS) and photogrammetry (PG), are investigated as means for capturing iterations of physical prototypes. First, a series of test artefacts are presented and procedures for operating each system are developed. Next, artefacts are digitised using both SLS and PG and resulting models are compared against a master model of each artefact. Results indicate that both systems are able to reconstruct the majority of each artefact's geometry within 0.1mm of the master, however, overall SLS demonstrated superior performance, both in terms of completion time and model quality. Additionally, the quality of PG models was far more influenced by the effort and expertise of the user compared to SLS.


Procedia CIRP ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 125-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Colledani ◽  
L. Bolognese ◽  
D. Ceglarek ◽  
F. Franchini ◽  
C. Marine ◽  
...  

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