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Engineering design: A systematic approach

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Abstract

Due to the complexity of contemporary technology, product and system design efforts often require intensive organization and communication within teams; the design venture must accordingly be carefully planned and systematically executed, integrating the various aspects of the design process into a logical and comprehensible whole. The present comprehensive and systematic treatment of this methodology proceeds by clarifying the design task, establishing the function structures of a conceptual design, and finally determining the definitive layout embodying the design. Illustrative examples of actual product design processes and their results are presented and evaluated.

Chapters (8)

In the previous two chapters we examined the fundamentals on which design work should be built to best advantage. They form the basis of a systematic approach which practising designers can follow, regardless of their speciality. The approach is not based on one method but applies known and less well known methods where they are most suitable and useful for specific tasks and working steps.
In the planning and product development process (see 3.2), many methods are used. They can be divided into general methods and problem-specific methods. The former are not linked to a specific design phase or type of product, but support the search for solutions and the evaluations that take place throughout the design process. The latter, on the other hand, can only be used for specific tasks, for example to calculate stiffnesses or to estimate costs.
Assignments are set not only by clients but increasingly, and especially in the case of original designs, they originate in the special planning departments of companies. In that case, designers are bound by the planning ideas of others. Even then, however, the special skills of designers will prove most useful in the medium- and long-term planning of products. The senior staff of the design department should therefore maintain close contacts not only with the production department, but also with the product planning department.
Conceptual design is that part of the design process in which, by the identification of the essential problems through abstraction, by the establishment of function structures and by the search for appropriate working principles and their combination, the basic solution path is laid down through the elaboration of a solution principle. Conceptual design determines the principle of a solution.
Embodiment design is that part of the design process in which, starting from the working structure or concept of a technical product, the design is developed, in accordance with technical and economic criteria and in the light of further information, to the point where subsequent detail design can lead directly to production (see 3.2).
Size ranges provide a rationalisation of design and production procedures [8.35].
Achieving product quality appropriate for the market (see 2.1.8 and 7.2) starts with the design process [9.1, 9.9]. Quality cannot be achieved simply though testing and developing a product — it has to be built-in from the beginning of the design process and maintained throughout the production process. Just as design commits a large proportion of a product’s costs (see 10), up to 80% of all faults can be traced back to insufficient planning and design work [9.12]. Furthermore, up to 60% of all breakdowns that occur within the warranty period are caused by incorrect or incomplete product development.
It is important to identify cost factors as early and as accurately as possible in the design process. This is true for all types of design, including the development of size ranges and modular products. It is well known that the majority of costs have been committed when the solution principle has been selected and its embodiment completed. During the production and assembly stages there are relatively few opportunities to reduce costs. It is important, therefore, to start cost optimisation as early as possible since any design changes that have to be made during production are usually very costly. This might prolong the design process, but overall it is more economical than a retrospective drive to reduce costs [10.18].
... Introduction Pahl & Beitz (2007) define engineering design as 'the process of creating and optimizing solutions in the form of technical systems for problems within the design space spanned by needs, requirements and constraints that are set by material, technological, economic, legal, environmental and human-related considerations'. The needs, requirements and constraints are usually specified in text documents written in natural language, and are often referred to as system specifications (Hull, Jackson & Dick 2017). ...
... It is common practice to relate needs, requirements and constraints to technical aspects of the system (Pahl & Beitz 2007;Hull et al. 2017). Therefore, engineers need methods to structure, visualize and analyze the relations between system architecture, needs, requirements and constraints. ...
... Many scientists advocate the usage of separate decomposition trees for the system's components, functions and variables (see, e.g., Suh 1998;Dym & Brown 2012;Pahl & Beitz 2007) and the subsequent manual mapping of components to functions and variables. Crilly (2013) shows, however, that obtaining such a mapping is far from trivial. ...
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This article presents a domain-specific language for writing highly structured multilevel system specifications. The language effectively bridges the gap between requirements engineering and systems architecting by enabling the direct derivation of a dependency graph from the system specifications. The dependency graph allows for the easy manipulation, visualization and analysis of the system architecture, ensuring the consistency among written system specifications and visual system architecture models. The system architecture models provide direct feedback on the completeness of the system specifications. The language and associated tooling has been made publicly available and has been applied in several industrial case studies. In this article, the fundamental concepts and way of working of the language are explained using an illustrative example.
... The third criterion (Cr3): A design method that allows for creating the final design as systematically as possible. By "Systematically", it means that the design process follows the four steps outlined above (adapted from the one in [23]), which may also be called a white-box rather than a black-box process [28]. ...
... • The third criterion (Cr3): A design method that allows for creating the final design as systematically as possible. By "Systematically", it means that the design process follows the four steps outlined above (adapted from the one in [23]), which may also be called a white-box rather than a black-box process [28]. ...
... The engineering design process proposed by Pahl and Beitz[23]. ...
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Soft robots present resilient and adaptable systems characterized by deformable bodies inspired by biological systems. In this paper, we comprehensively review existing design methods for soft robots. One unique feature of our review is that we first formulate criteria, which enables us to derive knowledge gaps and suggest future research directions to close these gaps and go further. Another distinctive feature of our review is that we pivot on the general engineering design process for soft robots. As such, we consider three criteria: (1) the availability of design requirements to start with the design of soft robots, (2) the availability of the so-called concept design or architecture design for soft robots, and (3) the systematic process that leads to the final design of soft robots. The review is conducted systematically, especially when searching for and selecting relevant publications in the literature. The main contribution of this review includes (i) identifying knowledge gaps and (ii) suggesting future research directions to close these gaps and go further.
... Derived from stakeholder needs, regulatory standards, and engineering codes, setting requirements is critical to establishing and constraining the design space in which engineers make decisions. Design texts, from fields like engineering, human factors/ergonomics and human centered design (Marek et al., 2010;Pahl & Beitz, 2007;Spirochkin, 2023;Steinfeld, 2012;Wilson & Sharples, 2015;Zenios et al., 2009) referenced in courses across engineering disciplines foreground engineering requirements (which are also known as design specifications, design requirements, product specifications) as a critical early stage of design (Ogrodnik, 2019;Pahl & Beitz, 2007;Towler, 2022;Ullman, 2010;Ulrich & Eppinger, 2011). As the design process progresses, requirements govern development decisions and must ultimately be verified and validated as described by standards of practice set forth by organizations like the International Council on Systems Engineering, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and NASA (Health, 1997;International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 2015;NASA, 2007;Project Management Institute, 2017;Walden et al., 2015). ...
... Derived from stakeholder needs, regulatory standards, and engineering codes, setting requirements is critical to establishing and constraining the design space in which engineers make decisions. Design texts, from fields like engineering, human factors/ergonomics and human centered design (Marek et al., 2010;Pahl & Beitz, 2007;Spirochkin, 2023;Steinfeld, 2012;Wilson & Sharples, 2015;Zenios et al., 2009) referenced in courses across engineering disciplines foreground engineering requirements (which are also known as design specifications, design requirements, product specifications) as a critical early stage of design (Ogrodnik, 2019;Pahl & Beitz, 2007;Towler, 2022;Ullman, 2010;Ulrich & Eppinger, 2011). As the design process progresses, requirements govern development decisions and must ultimately be verified and validated as described by standards of practice set forth by organizations like the International Council on Systems Engineering, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and NASA (Health, 1997;International Organization for Standardization (ISO), 2015;NASA, 2007;Project Management Institute, 2017;Walden et al., 2015). ...
... • Solution independent: ERs should provide solution agnostic framing; they specify what a solution should provide, but not how to provide it. Ideally, ERs are developed prior to concept development to avoid bias and/or artificially constraining the solution space (Pahl & Beitz, 2007;Ulrich & Eppinger, 2011). • Valid: Designers ensure that outcomes of a solution meet stakeholder needs (NASA, 2007;Walden et al., 2015); it is important that stakeholder needs articulated during elaboration inform the development of ERs and are ultimately traceable in the qualitative to quantitative transformation of problem framing. ...
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Undergraduate engineering students are commonly introduced to design in their first year and tackle a more authentic design challenge during senior year, with intervening courses focused on technical problem solving. Along this trajectory, students should acquire skills related to the development of engineering requirements, which are important to the technical framing of design problems. Through the lens of framing agency, this mixed-methods study explores first-year and senior students' knowledge of engineering requirements as they engaged problems within their respective courses. Findings suggest that learning about requirements as a framing mechanism was not well-supported across the curriculum. Implications include a need to engage students in requirements development during the middle years and improve support for iterative framing and solving activities.
... Design involves identifying problems from stakeholders in the form of needs and requirements and solving them (Pahl and Beitz, 1996). The process involves four broad stages: Task Clarification, Conceptual Design, Embodiment Design, and Detail Design. ...
... The process involves four broad stages: Task Clarification, Conceptual Design, Embodiment Design, and Detail Design. Problems primarily lie in the Task Clarification stage (Pahl and Beitz, 1996;Ulrich and Eppinger, 2003;Roozenburg and Eekels, 1995). Design Problems are initially ill-structured i.e., some of the goals, criteria, and constraints are unknown or unclear when given to the designers to solve (Dorst, 2003). ...
... Literature proposes various definitions and characteristics of a design problem. According to (Pahl and Beitz,1996), a design problem has three components -an undesirable initial state: i.e., the existence of an unsatisfactory situation; a desirable goal state: i.e., the realization of a satisfactory situation, and obstacles that prevent a transformation to happen from the undesirable initial state to the desirable goal state at a particular point of time (Pahl and Beitz, 1996). In a design process, Problems get translated via needs to requirements which can be technical, functional, aesthetic, etc. ...
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Design problems are wicked in nature. Wicked problems are difficult to understand, formulate and solve. The literature focuses mainly on the characteristics of wicked problems, very little is available to how wicked problems (synonymous to ill-structured) should be formulated to make them well structured. Assessment of wickedness can help designers formulate problems into well-structured. This work proposes a metric for (lack of) structuredness as a measure for the degree to which a design problem is ill-structured. A Delphi-based method as benchmark for validating the metric is also proposed.
... Here are a bunch of examples including optimal aircraft design 1-3 , chemical process optimization 4,5 , optimal design of stabilizers in power system 6,7 , optimization for energy storage and use 8 , etc. The development of real-time calculation in large-scale optimal design processes is valuable, as it may considerably promote iterative design and innovation, boost customized design, and augment adaptability to technological and market shifts [9][10][11] . Numerous large-scale optimal design problems, however, are still difficult to be tackled in practical applications with real-time requirements [12][13][14] . ...
... Because of the wide convergence region of the Padé approximation 38 , it is possible to select an aggressive step length to reduce calculation. In order to determine whether the point that has taken one step is qualified for being a new expansion point, we define a measure formula (9) and make an error predicting, which is the key criteria for adaptive segmentation. This stage actually divides the interval into different segments adaptively and constructs the approximate solution for each segment. ...
... Parametric design (PD) entails utilizing a CAD system to automatically adjust a design as parameter values change, resulting in corresponding modifications to the CAD model throughout the design process. 12 A fundamental characteristic of the PD approach is the distinct separation of geometry elements and their associated parameters within the CAD model. 8 As the design process unfolds, parameters are introduced to define the dimensions of an object and potentially specify its physical properties for subsequent construction. ...
... This assessment relies on the examination of their physical representations and inherent characteristics. 12 The purpose of analysis is not only to result in a conclusion whether the solution fulfills the specific requirements or not but also in a comparison of its performance with other solution alternatives. Since the development of the best possible product means evaluating as many solution alternatives as possible, these two stages are intertwined with iterations moving back and forth until a satisfactory design is achieved. ...
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Design solution space (DSS) exploration is a pivotal process for comprehending design challenges and identifying diverse solution alternatives based on varying requirements. Computer-aided design (CAD) approaches, such as parametric design, knowledge-based design, and generative design, have proven successful in DSS exploration. However, a comparative study evaluating their performance is lacking in the technical literature. This paper addresses this gap by conducting a comparative analysis of these approaches regarding their performance in exploring DSS. The research begins by providing an overview of parametric design, knowledge-based design, and generative design, establishing the foundation for the study. Six evaluation criteria are identified based on the DSS exploration process. A qualitative analysis is then conducted, considering these criteria, to objectively assess the performance of each modeling approach. The results highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, revealing that DSS exploration success is directly tied to the quantity of implemented knowledge. The results also emphasize the complementarity of those approaches, as their strengths and weaknesses are based on different problem-solving logics, demonstrating the synergy that can be achieved through strategic combinations of them. Additionally, the paper discusses open issues related to DSS exploration, contributing valuable insights for future developments in this field.
... O desenvolvimento de produtos inovadores é fundamental não apenas para atender às crescentes demandas dos usuários, mas também para impulsionar a competitividade econômica em setores estratégicos, como a agricultura (Pahl et al., 2007). Na América Latina, onde a agricultura é uma das principais bases econômicas, garantir a segurança alimentar e o desenvolvimento sustentável são prioridades que dependem diretamente do uso eficiente de tecnologias e da modernização do setor (Gerval, 2023). ...
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O trabalho teve como objetivo sistematizar os Fatores de Influência no Projeto (FIP) de semeadora-adubadora relacionados ao escopo do projeto. Com o avanço das tecnologias e a crescente demanda por precisão e integração digital, os processos de projeto de máquinas agrícolas precisam ser organizados. Os FIP, definidos na fase inicial do projeto, servem como diretrizes para as decisões técnicas ao longo do ciclo de desenvolvimento. A pesquisa adotou uma abordagem exploratória, com revisão bibliográfica e inspeções de campo, para mapear e classificar os FIP aplicáveis ao escopo do projeto. Os resultados sistematizam esses fatores em classes e propriedades, garantindo a rastreabilidade das informações e permitindo ajustes durante o desenvolvimento do produto. A sistematização dos FIP contribui para um desenvolvimento mais eficiente e inovador de máquinas agrícolas, promovendo maior produtividade e sustentabilidade no contexto da agricultura moderna.
... Mainly, several design process theories aim at characterizing design into related sections: the design problem, the design process, and the design outputs [25]. Pahl and Beitz [26] proposed a systematic design process that contains various phases such as task clarification, conceptual design, embodiment design, and detail design. After clarifying the task and elaborating on respective specifications, problem identification, concept variant generation, and design optimization will be carried out. ...
Article
Design knowledge in the vast amount of design reports and documents can be an excellent resource for designers in their practice. However, capturing such domain-specific information embedded in long-length unstructured texts is always time-consuming and sometimes tricky. Therefore, it is highly desirable for a computer system to automatically extract the main knowledge points and their corresponding inner structures from given documents. In this study of document understanding for design support (DocUDS), a design-perspective knowledge extraction approach is proposed that uses phrase-level domain-specific labeled datasets to finetune a Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformers (BERT) model so that it can extract design knowledge from documents. The BERT model finetuning attempts to blend in the domain-specific knowledge of well-recognized domain concepts and is based on the datasets generated from design reports. The model is utilized to map the captured sentences to the main design entities , , and . In addition, this approach uncovers inner relationships among the sentences and constructs overall structures of documents to enhance understanding. The definitions of design perspectives, inter-perspective relations, and intra-perspective relations are introduced , which together capture the main design knowledge points and their relations and constitute an understanding of the design domain knowledge of a text. The case study results have demonstrated the proposed approach's effectiveness in understanding and extracting relevant design knowledge points.
... Pada tahap ini, tim desain dan pengembangan produk harus mengembangkan desain rinci dari konsep desain yang terpilih. Proses ini melibatkan pembuatan gambar teknis, spesifikasi komponen, dan proses manufaktur(Pahl & Beitz, 2013). Tim juga harus melakukan simulasi dan analisis untuk memastikan bahwa desain memenuhi persyaratan fungsional dan struktural. ...
... The framework outlines the integrated practice enabling design of complex products to augment people's capabilities for high performance (e.g., Paralympic rowing). The HcED framework follows 3 specific phases, but as design requires refinement based on learning, phases can, and most likely will, be re-iterated based on insights gained later in the process (Beitz et al., 1996). ...
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This article introduces a Human-centred Engineering Design (HcED) practice, which values human aspects. This practice engages deeply into (1) human geometry and motion for specific tasks, (2) product and manufacturing complexities through rapid prototyping, and (3) the broader human task context. This cross-disciplinary method combines ergonomics, AM, sensor applications, and multiple design practices. The framework provides concrete tasks to drive innovative designs in engineering. The study, grounded in design research case studies, led to five new Paralympic Rowing world records.
... In the context of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), new trends point towards reducing the product development time [6]. For industrial components, this poses the challenge of further integration between the different design stages, specially between what Beitz et al. [7] call the embodiment design stage (i.e. where the product architecture is shaping up) and the detail design stage, where the final product specifications are defined and validated with respect to the product requirements. ...
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Gerotors are a family of mechanical pumps used for cooling, lubrication and fuel transfer in aerospace, medicine, etc. Modern industry demands to shorten the development time of products. This means further integration between the different design stages. As in any hydraulic machinery, an important bottleneck in the design process is the simulation time to validate designs. This is due mainly to the fact that Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) remains the go-to tool to perform simulations of hydraulic phenomena. One way to reduce this bottleneck is to adopt approximate yet fast simulation routines to refine the design before entering a precise simulation stage. This manuscript presents an interactive design tool that estimates the efficiency response of gerotor pumps using fast simulation routines. The presented tool intends to shorten and accelerate the design cycles of Gerotor pumps by providing the engineer with an estimation of the effect of geometry changes in the pump’s efficiencies in real time. The software tool integrates 2D and 3D design capabilities with real-time simulation response. The resulting efficiency estimations differ from the CFD models in maximum 8% in the case of volumetric efficiency. For mechanical efficiency the error ranges between around 20% and 45%, but the pump’s internal forces is estimated within a 1% accuracy. Future work focuses on refining the accuracy of the efficiency estimations and further integration of the design tool with physical data.
... Engineering design is a systematic process that is used to develop solutions to problems that have multiple constraints. While there are many versions of the phases involved in engineering design [1], the fundamental stages are: ...
... From a more technical perspective, design-and-build projects require students to improve problem definition, develop and evaluate conceptual solutions, perform embodiment design, and finally construct/realize their design [2,3]. By doing so, students improve their spatial reasoning skills, recognition of cost of design decisions, and they realize the iterative nature of engineering design [2,4,5]. ...
Article
In the contemporary era of engineering education, the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs), offers a novel perspective on enhancing the design process. This study investigates the impact of ChatGPT-3.5 on mechanical engineering design education, focusing on concept generation and detailed modeling. By comparing outcomes from AI-assisted groups to those without AI assistance, our research reveals that AI significantly broadens concept generation diversity but also introduces bias for existing popular designs. Additionally, while AI aids in suggesting functions for CAD modeling, its textual nature and the occurrence of unreliable responses limit its usefulness in detailed CAD modeling tasks, highlighting the irreplaceable value of traditional learning materials and hands-on practice. The study concludes that AI should serve as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, traditional design education. Additionally, it highlights the necessity for further specialization within AI to enhance its effectiveness.
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Purpose: Water pollution is a major concern to human life, and periodic monitoring of water quality parameters across water reservoirs such as lakes, ponds, dams and rivers is necessary to examine the water contaminants. The present work focused on developing an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) to collect water samples in remote water body locations. Design/Methodology/Approach: A solenoid-actuated water sampling system with an automatic cutoff of storage was devised. In addition, an onboard water quality monitoring system consisting of pH, turbidity, electrical conductivity, and dissolved oxygen sensors was integrated with USV. Findings: The USV mounted with a water sampler and sensor unit was tested in a lake near our institute. 1200 ml of water samples from the six polyethene terephthalate (PET) storage containers were collected and tested in a laboratory, and their contamination levels were estimated. The spatial distribution maps of water contaminants were generated based on the water quality analysis. Originality: The in-situ water quality measured using the Internet of Things (IoT) enabled USV is an efficient choice for online monitoring of water quality parameters. The USV was also tested for its stability on the water surface under various wind loads, and it was able to withstand the wind conditions for effective water sampling and in-situ water quality measurements.
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Mixed Reality enables individuals to visualise and interact with artefacts and environments through a combination of physical and virtual assets. It has received increased interest from the design community as a means to accelerate, enrich and enhance prototyping activities. This article concerns MR’s ability to deceive an individual through the combination of virtual and physical assets and their underlying traits (e.g., mass, size), and a user’s cognitive ability to ‘join the dots’. If properly implemented, MR could save time and resources by reducing the required prototype fidelity and the need to fully realise variants. However, there is a gap in understanding how the traits of physical and virtual assets and cognition combine to form reality. This article presents a study investigated the role mass, virtual and physical model size played on users perception of an MR prototype. The relative impact of these factors was determined by varying these parameters and assessing the user’s perceived change. The key finding from this study was that the virtual model size had a far greater influence on prototype perceived by the user. This suggests that the required physical fidelity of an MR prototype can be lower than the virtual. Furthermore, exploring size design variants can be achieved exclusively through changes to the virtual model.
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Under the umbrella concepts of upscaling and emerging technology, a wide variety of phenomena related to technology development and deployment in society are examined to meet societal imperatives (e.g., environment, safety, social justice). The design literature does not provide an explicit common theoretical and practical framework to clarify the assessment method to handle “an” upscaling. In this nebulous context, designers are struggling to identify the characteristics to anticipate the consequences of emerging technology upscaling. This article therefore first proposes a structuring framework to analyze the literature in a wide range of industrial sectors (energy, chemistry, building, etc.). This characterization brought to light five prevalent archetypes clarifying the concepts of upscaling and emerging technology. Then, a synthesis of invariants and methodological requirements for designers is proposed to deal with upscaling assessment according to each archetype, based on a literature review of existing design methods. This literature review process showed a disparity in treatment for some archetypes, regarding the industrial sector. A discussion is consequently proposed in the conclusion to guide design practices.
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To obtain innovative concepts in design, designers often need to retrieve and use interdisciplinary knowledge. Concept-Knowledge (C-K) theory emphasizes the role of knowledge and introduce the Knowledge (K) space and Concept (C) space, employing operators to transform the contents between these spaces. Some studies, based on this theory, have successfully provided designers with different forms of knowledge to stimulate concept generation. However, the amount of knowledge provided in these studies is limited, and they fail to offer convenient methods for knowledge retrieval and reasoning, making it challenging to meet the needs of conceptual design across different fields. This paper proposes an enhanced C-K method leveraging large language models (LLMs) to help designers retrieve knowledge and uncover potentially new concepts. Our method redefines the C space and K space within the context of LLMs, dividing the properties of Concept into function, appearance, and technology, and requiring the knowledge to correspond to these properties, thereby facilitating a structured connection between concepts and knowledge. Based on this definition, we achieved flexible knowledge retrieval and concept ideation leveraging LLMs. We also conducted a case study on wearable devices to validate our method. The results showed that our method helped designers to retrieve professional knowledge and inspired them to create feasible and innovative concepts.
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This paper investigates the relationship between brain activity, measured by Electroencephalography (EEG) data, and the performance assessment result of engineering design activities involving different cognitive processes. Employing a novel signal processing pipeline, we analyzed EEG variations of 37 subjects during two design tasks that mostly leverage, respectively, convergent and divergent thinking: the Design with Morphological Table (DwMT) task and the Problem-Solving (PS) task. The EEG recordings underwent meticulous artifact removal, allowing for a comprehensive investigation into the statistical relationships between frequency bands, channels, and design outcome performance metrics. The developed models linking better design outcomes with brain (de)synchronization demonstrated remarkable accuracy, precision, and recall across performance metrics for both tasks. Notably, the EEG data in theta band measured from the frontal area at both hemispheres and a left parietal/occipital channel were essential for estimating better design performance with brain desynchronization. On the contrary, the model based on brain synchronization produces precise estimations of design performance with alpha band and channels in temporal and parietal areas. These findings highlight EEG variation as a viable proxy for design performance, paving the way for more effective performance prediction models with fewer sensors. Overall, this research contributes to the emerging field of neurocognitive design assessment and underscores the potential for EEG-based predictions in engineering design tasks.
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By means of its facilities, AM brings several advantages in comparison with the classical manufacturing technologies. Nowadays, there are a huge number of unexplored directions, which assure AM will become a very powerful manufacturing process in the next period, with an undoubted low cost and reduced material consumption, as well as optimal stiffness and competitiveness technology. Between the unexplored (or less-explored) directions, one has to mention the dimensional methods’ involvement in gaining an optimal, highly competitive final product. This means that instead of the real structural element, named the prototype, the engineers will perform high-accuracy tests on the attached reduced-scale models, whose experimental results are extended to the prototype by means of the deduced model law (ML). The authors, based on their previous theoretical research as well as experimental investigations, offer a new approach, which is less implemented in AM technologies. Based on the obtained results, these dimensional methods are very promising, especially the last one, the so-called Modern Dimensional Analysis (MDA), conceived by Thomas Szirtes and described in the following paper. Starting with the nowadays-applied dimensional methods’ critical analysis, the authors will present evidence for the advantages of MDA, especially on the polymer-based AM technology. They will prove that MDA represents a very promising, as well as easy approach, which through its implementation can offer a higher competitiveness for AM technologies. As an illustration of the advantages of MDA, the authors conceived several MDA approaches for a given structural element’s case (a cantilever beam, with an internal-ribbed structure loaded at its free end by means of a vertical concentrated load), which, through their high accuracy in experimental-validated MLs, offer very good accuracy in model–prototype correlation. The deviations between the effective measured values of the displacements on the prototypes and those predicted, based on the values of the measurements on the models assigned to the prototypes by the validated MLs, were 1.06, 1.60, and 2.35%, respectively. In the authors’ opinion, MDA can represent a starting point for conceiving a highly competitive product with an optimal filling, as well as the deposition of layers using AM technologies. Based on the authors’ best knowledge, up to this moment, it seems that this engineering area does not fully apply the advantages of MDA, only in few limited cases, analyzed in the following.
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Design plays a crucial role in satisfying unmet or underserved needs of resource-constrained individuals and societies. This chapter presents an overview of various design and engineering approaches, such as appropriate technology, design for the real world, base of the pyramid, frugal innovation, and social innovation, aimed at designing and developing appropriate solutions adapted to specific conditions and deprivations encountered by resource-constrained population. It highlights the critical need of designing and developing integrated solutions that address multidimensional challenges such as weak infrastructure, limited resources, and poor literacy levels, while taking into account strengths of these resource-constrained societies. The chapter then outlines ten guidelines for devising such integrated solutions and presents an integrated methodology by mapping these guidelines over a design process.
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Power Electronics (PE) is pivotal in fostering renewable energy. However, focusing on usage efficiency shifts environmental impacts across its life cycle, leading to excessive resource extraction and waste accumulation. Integrating environmental impact indicators in PE development is crucial for informed design decisions. Nevertheless, the current literature lacks the provision of adequate understanding of the PE product development process for successful ecodesign in PE industry. To effectively tackle the industrial integration aspect of ecodesign that enable functional and system innovation, this study employs empirical research, combining literature analysis with in-depth interviews with PE designers. Requirements for an ecodesign support to integrate ecodesign practices into the Product Development Process (PDP) of PCB-based Power Electronic Components (PECs) is proposed in this paper based on the interview results. These specifications are delineating the necessary working and decision-making steps. Subsequently, a parameterized Functional Block-based Life Cycle Analysis (FB-LCA) model is proposed under the requirement. A five-step methodology is proposed to operationalise the implementation of the FB-LCA model, aiming to supporting the definition of functional structure, configuration of technical solutions and choice of hardware components by considering environmental impacts generated all along life cycle, from manufacturing, transport, use, circularity scenario, end-of-life .The case study of a PCB-based boost converter design is conducted in collaboration with a PE engineer to test the practical implementation of FB-LCA model.
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Rationale In the era of burgeoning digital technology, healthcare is a challenging transformative change towards virtual and digital platforms. Internet‐based healthcare services are emerging as a popular trend within the medical area. User experience (UX) is paramount for the healthcare service, as it significantly influences experience satisfaction and fosters user viscosity. Gaining a profound understanding of users' demands and crafting services that align with their expectations is essential. Methods Consequently, exploring an effective design approach for the digital healthcare service that prioritizes UX along with utilizing a comprehensive evaluation methodology to handle UX data, is of profound importance. This study introduces a design methodology for Internet‐based healthcare products grounded in the UX and mental (UX‐M) model. Aiming to refine the Internet‐based healthcare product design by integrating insights from the experience data, it employs the Delphi‐ANP and the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation to determine evaluation indexes and conduct experiential assessments. Results The UX evaluation results of existing schemes are compared with the proposed design scheme of the intelligent guidance and internet hospital. The findings indicate that the UX evaluation of Internet‐based medical services with the proposed method outperforms the existing schemes. Conclusions On the one hand, UX research of Internet‐based healthcare products can significantly enhance service satisfaction for patients utilizing online medical treatments. On the other hand, the analysis of experience‐based evaluation empowers designers to refine and improve UX design of Internet‐based medical services. Such research endeavors are critical for enhancing the overall quality of service offerings and elevating user satisfaction in the digital healthcare landscape.
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Product-Service Systems (PSS) design is far from reaching maturity when dealing with early concept generation and selection tasks. Several methods and models for Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) are proposed in the literature to augment the ability of the design team to identify, early on in the process, the most valuable solution option(s). The aim of this chapter is to review how MCDM is applied today to guide design concept selection activities in PSS realm. It lists and discusses the most popular techniques used by the research community to deal with the choice, ranking and sorting problems for design decision making, pointing to application cases across several industrial sectors. Building from the results of a multiple case study analysis, it further proposes 5 ‘questions to be asked’, reflecting on the selection and usage of the MCDM techniques when approaching PSS design vs. classical product development and systems engineering.
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