This paper addresses the underexplored domain of hydraulic energy harvesters (HEH). Through a literature review, existing designs are identified, aiding in the categorisation of energy conversion technologies and fluid-mechanical interfaces. Recognizing a lack of standardized approaches to testing HEH, the paper proposes a re-configurable test platform. The platform, accommodating diverse configurations, operates at high pressures, aligns with existing hydraulic setups, and functions in static or dynamic modes. This tool aims to assist researchers further explore the implementation of HEHs.

Electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) have been accessed on various configurations over the past decade. This literature review deals with the issue of determining the appropriate design for an Autonomous Passenger Drone (APD). APDs have been compared with VTOLs on their pros and cons. The authors analysed aerodynamics and propulsion systems of multiple APDs. Further, the comparative analysis aids in designing the best framework for the exterior form of APDs based on human capacity, flying technology, fuel type, travel distance, door type, size, material, safety, cost, etc.

The design of large-scale engineered systems relies on the extensive use of models. Although there are few papers that study design review practices, we did not find any on model-based design reviews. Thus, we undertook a survey to collect current practices and challenges. We found that reviews are mainly synchronous co-located or remote meetings that involve various profiles who need to access and share models, but that they pragmatically give them up and prefer to comment on PowerPoint-like slides containing screenshots of models except when the meeting gathers only experts in model-based design.

The paper explores the differences between immersive and non-immersive collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) during design reviews. Based on ten reviews with one designer and two reviewers, the study shows that CVEs affect verbal communication structure. More specifically, teams usually talked less, and reviewers exchanged significantly more turn sequences in immersive than in non-immersive CVEs. Regardless of the environment, most turn sequences were related to the designer, who usually talked the most. These findings contribute to the understanding of CVEs in virtual teams.

Academics and practitioners have shown a growing interest in automobile reverse supply chain (RSC) management as a result of the rise of circular economy and the development of Industry 4.0. Accurate quantity prediction enhances the efficiency of all decision levels in automobile RSC, not only the recovery of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). Therefore, a comprehensive state-of-the-art review, evaluating ELVs quantity forecasting methodologies and summarizing the main variables influencing forecasting outcomes, is conducted to throw shed light on future research directions.

New design objectives as the digital twin encourage companies to replace the tradition document-based systems engineering approach by a model-centric one. All views of the system rely on different types of models that serve many objectives, especially to improve communication among stakeholders. However, the increasing number of heterogeneous models jeopardize communication at the end. Indeed, to get a holistic view of the virtual definition, engineers have no other alternative than to navigate through numerous models requiring domain-specific software and language. In this paper, we propose to use virtual reality to develop an immersive environment for a collaborative model-centric review of engineered systems. The virtual environment, which relies on a digital thread stored in a graph-oriented database, enables users to explore a model-centric design by navigating through the models in a unique virtual space. To illustrate our proposal, we use a model-centric design of a telescope and shows how our preliminary prototype supports the reviewing activity with data limited to the architecture and geometry. Future works will concentrate on the integration of data related to other perspectives on the system.

This paper presents a new VR interaction environment for the evaluation of digital prototypes, specifically in designer–client review sessions, and documents its implementation via experience mapping. Usability of VR controllers and basic manipulation remains a barrier for lay users, and a range of typical implementations are reviewed, highlighting the need for an easily accessible interface for this setting. The resulting interface configuration – the Control Carousel – demonstrates how the appropriate use of familiar mechanisms can increase VR accessibility. Three case studies using the Carousel in commercial design projects are described, and the subsequent interface refinements outlined. Finally, the development of an experience map describing the logistical, interactive, and emotive factors affecting the Carousel's implementation is documented. This provides insights on how experience mapping can be used as part of a human-centred design process to ensure VR environments are attuned to the requirements of users, in this instance delivering improved collaborative reviews.

This paper explores the notion of mentored reflective practice to describe design studio pedagogy. Students learn how to design by doing design in the studio. Design critiques are a key element in design studio pedagogy as they capture a moment where students get feedback from their tutors on their designs. The research questions addressed concern the roles of each participant during design studio reviews and their interactions with design representations. The protocol analysis methodology and the Function Behavior Structure ontology are utilized to convey our case study analysis.

This paper suggests that analysing the effect of visualisation technologies during design reviews should include variables related to design reviewers’ expertise and focus on the process variables rather than the outcomes. The experiment showed better averages in terms of design understanding for groups in desktop interface than for groups in virtual reality. However, the observed difference might also be due to experience with the technology. Finally, regardless of the visualisation technology, higher expertise group showed consistently better design understanding than lower expertise groups.

In this paper, we present the results of a survey of new product development practitioners regarding their design review experiences. We surveyed 128 product development professionals on their experience and preferences in design reviews. We found that the goals and type (location / synchronicity) of design reviews change over the course of a product development project. We found that the majority of design review meetings continue to be held as co-located, live, in-person meetings. For reviewing 3D models, we found that a native CAD package (rather than a viewer, or fixed views, or a physical prototype) is the most commonly used tool. We found a difference between Designers (more likely to be product engineers) and Non-Designers and their access to CAD software, as well as their preference for which tool to use at the design review for 3D model evaluation. We hope that our findings spark future work related to better understanding design reviews and design reviewers in context. Design reviews are an important part of industrial product development processes, so we believe future studies have a large potential to improve these design activities

Virtual reality shows to be of use in several domains of manufacturing as a complementary tool to CAD/CAM environment. Design review is one of the very first application of VR in product design, but assembly/disassembly studies are also existing though they require some more specific work. But it can also be useful beyond the scope of common CAD software such as ergonomic studies. We will show an example from the RNTL PERF-RV project where we study the ergonomics of a car dashboard and more specifically of a push-button. We will discuss the issues raised by studying ergonomics thanks to Virtual Reality and force-feedback systems which are both hardware and software.

Product development involves multiple phases. Design review (DR) is an essential activity formally conducted to ensure a smooth transition from one phase to another. Such a formal DR is usually a multicriteria decision problem, involving multiple disciplines. This paper proposes a systematic framework for DR using fuzzy set theory. This fuzzy approach to DR is considered particularly relevant for several reasons. First, information available at early design phases is often incomplete and imprecise. Second, the relationships between the product design parameters and the review criteria cannot usually be exactly expressed by mathematical functions due to the enormous complexity. Third, DR is frequently carried out using subjective expert judgments with some degree of uncertainty. The DR is defined as the reverse mapping between the design parameter domain and design requirement (review criterion) domain, as compared with Suh's theory of axiomatic design. Fuzzy sets are extensively introduced in the definitions of the domains and the mapping process to deal with imprecision, uncertainty, and incompleteness. A simple case study is used to demonstrate the resulting fuzzy set theory of axiomatic DR.