Computer tools are commonly used to assess designs. We develop a toolchain using open source code libraries in Python to provide an open source, interactive robust design improvement toolchain. A reference folder contains a script that reads an input parameter value file and runs the simulation. The toolchain executes uncertainty quantification steps by replicating the reference folder. This is repeated for design points, and mean and sigma graphs generated versus each design variable. This fits within a workflow of defining variation modes, design variables, and toolchain execution.

Innovation projects are characterized by numerous uncertainties. Typical concepts in development management like the application of safety coefficients imply limitations of the solution space. In contrast, explicit handling of uncertainties can support engineers in understanding the problem space and in utilising the full potential of the design space along iterative product development steps. As a result from literature analysis, there is a lack of a support for product development that addresses the specific problem of uncertainty and risk in the context of requirement changes. The aim of the contribution at hand is to enhance the efficient development of complex interdisciplinary systems by enabling uncertainty handling in requirements change management. Based on a classification of uncertainty types resulting in a descriptive model, risk management measures are identified to support requirements engineers. The proposed method includes identification & modelling, analysis, treatment and monitoring of risks and counter-measures. By applying this method, engineers are supported in adopting agile approaches and enabling flexible Requirements Engineering.

The challenge of user requirements for maintenance scheduling design in large asset-intensive industries suffers from lack of academic and empirical studies. Therefore, using a representative case study, this paper aims to: (1) identify the current practices and complex scheduling requirements; (2) propose a design support tool to optimize the maintenance scheduling process; and (3) report the gained benefits. The results reveal that the proposed tool can decrease the resource requirements, increase the capacity utilization, and reduce the cost while addressing the complex user requirements.

Multi-functional design has high potential to overcome e.g. increasing weight and costs of products. However, the possible solution space for integrating functions is hardly manageable. This paper presents an approach to assist in the identification of multi-functional approaches. Therefore, hybrid design principles are developed that are combinable to complex structures including specific manufacturing routes. By this, multi-functional solutions can be provided on different resolutions in order to identify the most promising approach and position for the integration of additional functions.

Additively manufactured final products and components are not always tailored to the additive manufacturing (AM) process, but they need to be in order to exploit the many advantages and potentials that AM provides. Therefore, an appropriate AM design should be targeted, which reduces the necessary iterations in the developing process of AM products. Although there is a large number of existing literature on the Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), designers usually lack criteria in order to assess AM-conformity in conceptual design. In this paper, we provide a basis for the assessment of solution principles regarding their conformity for additive manufacturing.

First, existing literature on DfAM and AM products is reviewed comprehensively to derive criteria for the AM-conformity of solution principles. Subsequently, the correlations between these criteria are identified including the interdependencies to be considered when assessing AM-conformity. A basis for assessment is created, which offers designers early support in the development of AM-conformal designs.

The maker movement has garnered interest from many disparate fields, from engineering to business management, to behavioural science, to city planning. The reason for this interest no doubt stems from the promised potential of the maker movement to revolutionize not only product creation and manufacturing, but in extension the economy around it. This paper examines existing literature across disciplines for evidence of what the maker movement has achieved so far, with a focus on implications for the field of Industrial Design.

In low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), diagnostics are not always available in remote areas. Hospitals and healthcare centres are often too far from the community, and waiting times are up to a few hours even for relatively simple procedures. Moreover, travelling to the healthcare centre and taking the diagnostic test is frequently unaffordable. Point of Care Tests (POCTs) can improve the availability, accessibility and affordability of the diagnostics by providing the test at the time and place of patient care. Although many POCTs have been developed already, there remain challenges to enable the healthcare workers (HCW) and the patients to use the device in practice. In this paper, we aim to provide a systemic overview of the barriers and opportunities for the adoption of use and acceptance of the results of POCTs based on the literature. The barriers and opportunities were clustered into six themes and used to draw out recommendations for the future design.

Designing products with a focus on self-explanatory assembly can reduce the use of procedural instructions and the associated problems. This paper describes how different groups of students, in two different design-engineering courses designed or redesigned products in an attempt to make the assembly of the product self-explanatory. The design outcomes are discussed in relation to the design context and linked to existing theory on design for meaning.

This paper is contextualized in a research project that aims to create a new paradigm to support the design process, substituting the sequential nature of design process models by a flexible structure. To implement this paradigm, we must identify the final and intermediate results of the design process, such as documents, models, artefacts, among others. However, design research is wide and multidisciplinary, resulting in non-uniformity of the terminology across research communities, what hinders the results identification by means of a literature review. This paper aims to identify the terms employed by different research communities to refer to the intermediate and final results of the design process, structuring synonym terms across research communities and establishing how those terms interrelate in the design ontology. Using literature review, the following terms were analysed: design objects, elements, deliverables, entities, information, components, data, and artefacts. The results provide a holistic view of how the terms are employed throughout research communities, supporting the creation of search strings and pointing out opportunities for improving the design ontology.

For an optimal preparation of mechanical engineering students for their future work life, the use of problem-based methods in design teaching is investigated. Therefore an intelligent tutoring system for computer aided design education will be developed, which can automatically evaluate computer aided design models of design students. A knowledge-based engineering system will be used to assistance the design students in the execution of design tasks. Using a practice-oriented example, the application and the advantages for teaching will be verified and discussed.

It is of vital importance to explore and understand future users' needs and requirements in the early phases of the product development process. However, in times of social distancing meeting users might not be possible. The project reported on in this paper has investigated the possibilities of conducting advanced user studies online. In total 30 small experimental studies have been conducted. Common digital tools that were used were e.g. Zoom, Teams, Mural, Miro, Snapchat, and Instagram.

The data was analyzed in a thematic content analysis by the authors on Mural. Identified challenges were excluding not tech-savvy user groups, missing out on interpersonal interaction and observations, as well as difficulties creating participant commitment and trust. On the positive side were perceived efficiency, a more levelled power distribution between participants, and ease of engagement and data retrieval for tech-savvy users.

Identified best practices included lowering social barriers through warm up activities and techniques to support open discussion during workshops. Furthermore, engagement could be supported through private social media groups, regular reminders, as well as clear communication of purpose and goal of the activities.

A low cost robotic-assisted prototype for finger and hand rehabilitation of people affected by a stroke is presented. The system was developed by a team of undergraduate students led by a Design lecturer in collaboration with the Rehabilitation Unit of the Peñablanca Public Hospital in Chile.

The system consists of a flexion sensor equipped glove, a hand exoskeleton and an Arduino control unit. The patient wears the glove in his healthy hand. When s/he performs movements with the healthy hand, the sensors register the flexion of the fingers and send this information to the servo motors installed in an exoskeleton attached to the affected hand. In this way, the affected hand reproduces the movement of the healthy hand. The system uses a combination of the mirror therapy (the patient sees his/her affected hand moving in the same way that the healthy hand does) and passive exercising (as the exoskeleton produces the movement of the hand affected by the stroke). The combination of two types of therapy in a single low cost system makes the present work unique. In the near future, the developed prototype will be used to validate the effectiveness of the new proposed robotic therapy.

The remote management of equipment is part of the functionalities granted by the design principles of Industry 4.0. However, some critical operations are managed by operators, machine setup and initialization serve as a significant illustration. Since the initialization is a repetitive task, industrial robots with a smart vision system can undertake these duties, enhancing the autonomy and flexibility of the manufacturing process. The smart vision system is considered essential for the implementation of several characteristics of Industry 4.0. This paper introduces a novel solution for controlling manufacturing machines using an embedded camera on the robot. This implementation requires the development of an interactive interface, designed in accordance with the supervision system known as Manufacturing Execution System. The framework is implemented inside a manufacturing cell, demonstrating a quick response time and an improvement between the cameras.

Makers have proven to be skilled at prototyping and therefore present a unique opportunity for companies, who seek to improve their capabilities, to learn from them. In this study, a mixed methods approach was used to understand possible benefits to both companies and makers from collaborating in prototyping, and to identify a set of design considerations to guide the future development of a tool to facilitate such collaboration. Despite challenges to collaboration, a tool designed to help companies engage with makers in prototyping could be beneficial to both and should be developed.

The digital transition refers to the fact that information technology (IT) tools are used in all our activities on a daily basis. In this article, we will study the use of IT tools in engineering activities. It is possible to say that today IT tools accompany engineers in their professional practices. This presence of computing has also enabled the development and considerable changes in human-technologies interactions. Moreover, the socio-economic context has evolved considerably, and environmental issues have taken on an important role in engineering. We ask whether and to what extent these two contexts (digital and ecological) have changed the expectations of design professionals with regard to IT tools. Should the way of addressing the type of human-machine interaction in engineering tools be modified in depth? The objective of this paper is to understand what types of human-computer interaction would allow a more satisfying user experience for those future engineers who are using new technologies and marked by the ecological urgency. To do so, we will focus on a particular engineering context (design for sustainability) and a particular engineering practice (LCA practice).

A digital twin is the mapping of a physical twin between hybrid spaces. The lifecycle of digital and physical twins occurs through the concepts of foetal, child, and adult twins. This technology can be used to assist clients and designers with real-time data. The use of digital twin technology in architectural design can be realised at various stages, from design to operation. Designers will be able to gain knowledge of the past, present, and future using this technology. This will reveal possible design scenarios. In this study, a hypothetical scenario is designed, in which designers build a building while already having a digital twin template. To do this, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is used as a reference model for digital twins, along with the fidelity levels of digital twins and the level of detail-development of BIM. When designers want to design a new project related to their predecessors, they already use the same type of digital twin-building portfolio they can use for their new design. A digital twin will help optimise the new process. Therefore, the digital twin of a building with a similar building type can be used to extract relevant data for the design process.

Industry 4.0 is expected to change competitiveness of manufacturing firms. However, to completely achieve this goal, firms should manage barriers and complexity issues that my hinder its adoption or its effects. For this reason, the study explores, through a literature review, whether and how design theory may be a supporting theory to manage Industry 4.0 adoption and implementation to maximise the opportunities and minimise the risks. The results shows that these research questions require a design approach to innovate not only adopting technologies but reinventing the business practices.

The overall strategy of designing is addressed. The design decisions that have a major impact on the direction in which the process evolves are termed “strategic”, and here we study them from the perspective of abduction. The aim is to clarify the role of abduction (in the sense of inference to the best explanation) in strategic decision making in design. Four cases are used for demonstration and discussion: functional decomposition in novel situations; the ordering of subfunctions in a function structure; the order of development of design tasks; and managing the design iterations. We focus on two specific design strategies: systematic design and parameter analysis, and show that strategic abductions often take place within the chosen strategy for the sake of efficiency of the process. Such abductions are often triggered by rules (like focusing first on the issue with greatest uncertainty in the total design task) that derive from Peirce's principle for economy of research. It is found that strategic abductions may have a decisive impact on the outcome of a design process. Two potential ways of improving design strategies and related strategic abductions are discussed.

Contrary to all agreement that methods can efficiently support design activities in the product development process, it can still be heard that notably complex methods often find little acceptance in industrial practice in terms of consistent use. Therefore, this concept paper aims to identify factors influencing the formation of acceptance to support a successful design and implementation of methods in product development. For this purpose, the first necessary step is to clarify the conceptualization of acceptance within this domain. Furthermore, the influencing variables, which are described in the acceptance models having been identified as development-relevant in a literature review, are first extracted and second newly structured using a behavioural model reflecting the mental stages from stimulus to behaviour. Third, the insights gained towards the factors' relevance throughout these stages are applied to the conditions of method application in engineering and design. In a subsequent step, basic assumptions towards central fields of action for concrete measures to increase acceptance concerning the use of methods in product development are derived.

The paper presents the application of non-specialized lexical database and semantic metrics on transcripts of co-design protocols. Three different and previously analyzed design protocols of co-creative sessions in the field of packaging design, carried out with different supporting tools, are used as test-bench to highlight the potential of this approach. The results show that metrics about the Information Content and the Similarity maps with sufficient precision the differences between ICT- and non-ICT-supported sessions so that it is possible to envision future refinement of the approach.