Collaborative Research - Creating a Computational Theory for Conceptual Design

The activity of concept generation is one of the cornerstones of engineering design. Until recently, the only resources available to a designer during conceptual design were personal experiences and innate abilities. While the designers resources have advanced significantly in the last three decades, there is still a lack of continuity between computational design tools and conceptual design methods. Many formal methods of conceptual design have yet to be realized as computational algorithms. The work proposed here between faculty from the University of Missouri at Rolla and The University of Texas at Austin combines new design representations and computational approaches to enable computational conceptual design. The design representations and computational methods leverage the constant increases in computational power and information retrieval reasoning algorithms. Just as pure computational power and algorithmic advances enabled IBMs Big Blue to defeat Kasparov in one of the last centurys most intriguing chess matches, descriptive methods, stored knowledge, and algorithmic reasoning provide the potential for a computational theory of conceptual design that could greatly benefit the designer during difficult stages of concept generation. The underlying theme of this proposal is the combination and formalization of function-based synthesis, constraint management and state space search. The primary objective of the work proposed here is to create a computational theory of conceptual design that can compute design alternatives. The computation will result in a comprehensive space of concept variants and search it for feasible candidates.

ITR: Collaborative Research - An Information Management Infrastructure for Product Family Planning and Mass Customization

This grant provides funding to investigate an information management infrastructure to support the planning and development of families of engineered products and systems for mass customization. The research will be conducted by a multi-university team comprised of faculty from Penn State University, Bucknell University, University of Missouri-Rolla, and Virginia Tech. The research will address three information technology challenges that include an information management infrastructure, a graphical modeling environment, and an agent-based synthesis framework for product family planning and customization. A generalized information management infrastructure will be developed to facilitate capturing information regarding component sharing and reuse within a family of products. A graphical modeling environment will be created to facilitate product family construction and visualization, requirements specification, and customer preference capture. Finally, an agent-based synthesis framework will be developed for the configuration of platform concepts and customized variants within a product family. The research will be conducted in collaboration with industrial and government partners that include Pratt Whitney, General Motors, Apprentice Systems, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

If successful, the results of this research will expand the utilization of information technology across engineering by developing a novel approach for managing design information related to product family planning for mass customization. The work will extend current representation and interoperability standards for product design repositories. The theoretical foundation developed for information management for product family planning will provide the basic framework for the development of an experimental prototype graphical modeling environment to test the validity of proposed representation and agent-based synthesis methods. We envision that this modeling environment will also contribute to the development of integrated and interactive solution procedure for product family synthesis and planning. The research will also have an educational impact. The grant will foster undergraduate and graduate student exchanges between the four universities, and projects based on the proposed research will be integrated within six undergraduate and six graduate courses at the four universities that are involved in this research.

A Function-Based Modeling Approach to Failure Analysis in Design

The proposed research extends previous function-based design research to identify and design out failure at the earliest part of the conceptual design stage even when only the functionality of the product or component is known. By starting with the component function, we can remove the requirement for form information prior to performing failure mode analysis. Knowing the link between function and failure modes, a designer can identify possible failure modes of new (or redesigned) components and processes much earlier in the design cycle. This information can guide designers to select the appropriate analysis to perform for concept selection and embodiment design activities. From a systems-level perspective, if failure modes are related to component functions, then the possible failure modes may be explored at varying levels of functional specification. Interactions between failure modes may be discerned as well.

Initial research into the link between function and failure mode explored rotorcraft components. Focusing on the Bell 206 helicopter (and its military counterpart, the OH-58) engine and power train components and a set of 1000 accident reports (NTSB, 2001), an initial mapping of function to failure modes was derived. During this research study, several areas requiring future work were identified. A consistent set of failure modes that describe more than mechanical failure is needed. Also, the current mapping of function to failure mode, recorded in a matrix format, could be augmented to include failure occurrence data. With these points in mind, the overall research objectives of this grant are: (1) to demonstrate that the consideration of function in failure mode analysis gives the designer a more broadly applicable tool than traditional failure mode and effects analysis; (2) to formalize the list of failure modes and component names such that they are more exhaustive and representative of current design practice; (3) to incorporate statistical information about component failure (i.e., a history of the failure modes observed for each component).

Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Smart Marking System

On the battlefield, the US military needs to mark hazardous sites and route military traffic safely around these sites. Current marking devices are outdated and dumb, in the technological sense. Research conducted as part of this grant addresses this problem by designing and fabricating the next-generation smart marker. The current marker was developed nearly fifty years ago with a small triangular-shaped flag attached to a two-foot metal post. The markers identify three contaminants, biological, chemical and nuclear and are color coded blue, yellow, and white, respectively. The marker is dropped from a protected vehicle to identify each region. The problems with these markers are the small size, legibility, and lack of information. The posts are too short to be seen at any extended distance; the writing on the flags is too small; and the only information conveyed by the flag is the type of hazard.

The goal of the project is to update the marker so that it will store data, transmit the information wirelessly to the military vehicle, make it more visible using flashing lights, and have a taller mast. Student researchers worked on this project for two semesters and developed new concepts. The three designs consisted of a balloon-based mast, a vertical stabilizer with a spring hinge, and an adjustable webbed base. Each of these designs needs to maintain the original deployment method, which limits the dimensions of the design. In May 2002, the students presented three beta prototypes to the Army Personnel for testing. The results of the testing will guide the Armys specifications for the next generation smart marker.

Striking a Balance between Engineering Science and Engineering Design: Development of an Engineering Systems and Design Program

The core goal of this project is to develop an undergraduate engineering curriculum that prepares students to work as design engineers at the boundaries of two or more traditional engineering disciplines. The proposed interdisciplinary program, focusing on engineering systems and engineering design, encompasses the study of theories and methodologies that develop creative solutions to open-ended engineering design problems. Graduates of this program, called Engineering Systems and Design (ESD), will use modern design methodologies, simulation, analysis and optimization techniques to develop safe and functional solutions to complex interdisciplinary design problems while adhering to constraints involving economics, reliability, durability, aesthetics, ethics and social impact (including legal and environmental issues).

A key component of the proposed program is flexibility in selecting engineering and science courses to define the program of study for each student. We provide this flexibility through specialty tracks 21 credit hours of Engineering/Science electives selected to meet certain concentration and depth requirements. These courses provide exposure in at least two areas of engineering or one area of engineering and one area of science. The unifying element of the ESD program is a set of five new courses that teach systematic approaches to design in addition to the freshman d esign course that is common to all engineering students. These required courses are taken during the sophomore through senior years. Topics include design representations, mathematical and physical modeling of systems, teamwork, interdisciplinary engineering and design methodology. The final three courses are project-based, focusing on the application of pertinent knowledge to the solution of practical problems.

The impact of the proposed ESD program will be twofold: 1) it will attract students into engineering that are not satisfied by a traditional, less flexible engineering discipline; and 2) it will meet high-tech industry needs. We believe that the increased flexibility incorporated in the ESD program will appeal to a large number of bright students who are not interested in traditional engineering programs with rigid requirements. The ESD program will also meet increasing industry demands for broad-based product and systems designers capable of immediately working in interdisciplinary engineering areas such as mechatronics, nanosystems and bioengineering.

Architecting Design Repositories: Product Modeling, Exchange and Reuse

The objective of this research project is to create, develop, and disseminate a design-repository framework that advances industry's and the design research community's ability to model, exchange, and reuse product design information. In contrast to traditional design databases, design repositories serve not only as archives, but also serve as repositories of heterogeneous knowledge and data that support representation, capture, sharing, and reuse of corporate design knowledge. To create the repository framework, basic research will be performed in the representation and modeling of design function, product architectures, and form through a fundamental and systematic study of 100-200 current products. The National Institute of Standards and Technology will disseminate the research results within a computational, application-neutral format.

If successful, the results of the research will contribute fundamental knowledge in the form of function and product-architecture representations to the design community. Most importantly, the results will improve product design in industry in two ways: (1) by developing a basic technological infrastructure to support the creation and use of design repositories in industry, and (2) by providing industry with access to design information in order to demonstrate the value of these repositories before they have to invest significant effort in their development. Thus, in addition to contributing basic research results in the area of design repositories, the research will produce sets of domain-specific prototype repositories that will be made available online via the world wide web. The results also open the doors to using design-by-analogy, product architecting, and design-for-assembly and manufacturing techniques early in the design and development process.

An Analytical Method for Design and Manufacturing to Capture Potential Failure Modes in High Risk Aerospace Applications

In this work, we propose to identify variation considerations that lead to unacceptable failure modes in high-risk aerospace component operation and provide this information as feedback to the designer. Specifically, we concentrate on a novel, matrix-based approach which uses previous failure modes and defects experiences to identify components and functions that are prone to degrade performance and present safety hazards. The underlying premise of the proposed work is that failure modes ultimately correlate back to the function that a particular component solves. If the link between failure mode and function can be established, then we speculate that component solutions for each function can be designed to eliminate or significantly reduce a given failure mode. Thus this approach offers the potential of building failure analysis and prevention methods into the conceptual design process. The power of this method will be to identify similarities between components, their functions, and potential failure modes, and use these similarities to prevent failures in existing and future designs.