An approach to user knowledge acquisition in product design

As the world increasingly moves towards a knowledge-based economy, user requirements become an important factor for enterprises to drive product collaborative design evolution. To map user requirements to the product model, user requirements are generally extracted into knowledge that can be used for design decisions. However, because users are interest-driven participants and not professional design engineers, the effect of user knowledge acquisition is not ideal. There are significant challenges for rapid knowledge acquisition with dynamic user requirements. This paper presents an approach to user knowledge acquisition in the product design process, which obtains the tangible requirements of users under the premise that users are adequate for participation. In this approach, the typical information flow is divided into four stages: submission, interaction, knowledge discovery, and model evolution. In the submission stage, natural language processing technology is used to transform text form solutions into data, so that computer technology can be applied to manage large-scale user requirements. In the interaction stage, users are helped to improve their solutions by the iterative recommendation process. In the knowledge discovery stage, after less concerned partial solutions are removed and vacant items are predicted to be supplemented, the final collection of user design information is obtained. Finally, based on rough set theory, design knowledge can be extracted to support the decision of the product model. The washing machine design project is used as a case study to explain the implementation of the proposed approach.     

Design and implementation of an agent-based collaborative product design system

The evolution of computer science and technology has brought new opportunities for multidisciplinary designers and engineers to collaborate with each other in a concurrent and coordinated manner. The development of computational agents with unified data structures and software protocols contributes to the establishment of a new way of working in collaborative design, which is increasingly becoming an international practice. In this paper, based on the analysis of the dynamic nature of collaborative design process, a new framework for collaborative design is described. This framework adopts an agent-based approach and relocates designers, managers, systems, and the supporting agents in a unified knowledge representation scheme for product design. In order to model the constantly evolving design process and the rationales resulted from design collaboration, a Collaborative Product Data Model (CPDM) and a constraint-based Collaborative Design Process Model (CDPM) are proposed to facilitate the management and coordination of the collaborative design process as well as design knowledge management. A prototype system of the proposed framework is implemented and its feasibility is evaluated using a real design scenario whose objective is designing a set of dining table and chairs.     

基于集成化知识的产品概念设计技术研究

从用户知识出发，通过对用户内隐性知识的获取、表征、传递、运用的研究，探讨了“用户意象与设计知识”的映射以及“特征基、特征和风格”三层表达体系；建立了用户内隐性知识的获取、表征与运用模型，设计知识的表达模型，用户知识与设计知识的整合模型；提出了基于集成化知识的产品概念设计理论，以手机设计系统为例进行了验证，支持用户和设计师在同一个平台上协同工作，为产品协同设计、网络化设计提供一致的知识体系。     

Knowledge management of product design: A requirements-oriented knowledge management framework based on Kansei engineering and knowledge map

For the knowledge management of product design, knowledge innovation is the foundation and motivation for the independent innovation and enhancing the core competitiveness. Most of the product knowledge exists in the brain of designers. How to obtain the required knowledge accurately in massive knowledge database becomes the key to knowledge innovation. However, the design knowledge based on consumer’s requirement has not been extensively studied. There is no consensus on the reasonable and effective implementation of the knowledge management framework to select the optimum design knowledge based on the consumer’s requirements. In this study, to efficiently realize the knowledge acquisition and knowledge selection, a requirements-oriented knowledge management model is established, with the advantage of Kansei engineering in knowledge acquisition and multi-objective decision-making in knowledge selection. Finally, the outdoor leisure chairs design is used as a case study to explain the implementation of the knowledge management framework. To reveal the advantages of the framework, it was compared with other frameworks. The results show that the proposed knowledge management framework is more efficient and provided a method of designers to acquire design knowledge based on the consumer’s requirements.     

A process-based automotive troubleshooting service and knowledge management system in collaborative environment

In automotive industry, manufacturers expand their duties in the product's service life by means of providing the car troubleshooting services to end users. Moreover, product service system (PSS) has turned into a significant study issue in the recent decade, it focuses on stressing the specific requirements in the new service model. Hence, generation of a PSS-oriented automotive troubleshooting mode not only enhances the service quality, but promotes thoroughly the values of business and its products. Besides, under the support of network communication mechanism, it becomes easily to manage the knowledge and process of automotive troubleshooting in collaborative environment. This study explores the different relationships among car enterprises, focusing on the decision-making processes as well as communication and management of knowledge in automotive troubleshooting. This study also investigates the potential utilization of improved content management architectures in the automotive engineering field that is controlled by conventional engineering information modes. A framework of collaborative troubleshooting procedure is presented, constructed and evaluated by using an instance automobile problem, which reveals the meaningful efficiency could be reached and the module of content management has several benefits than the conventional engineering information modes in conducting the information of automotive inspection, maintenance, repairing and service involving unorganized and dynamic knowledge.     

Knowledge integration and sharing for collaborative molding product design and process development

This study presents a systematic approach to developing a knowledge integration and sharing mechanism for collaborative molding product design and process development. The proposed approach includes the steps of (i) collaborative molding product design and process development process modeling, (ii) an ontology-based knowledge model establishment, (iii) knowledge integration and sharing system framework design, (iv) ontology-based knowledge integration and sharing methods development, and (v) ontology-based knowledge integration and sharing mechanism implementation. The mechanism can support collaborative molding product design and process development by providing functions of knowledge integration and sharing. Results of this study facilitate the knowledge integration and sharing of collaborative molding product design and process development to satisfy the product knowledge demands of participants, and thus increase molding product development capability, reduce molding product development cycle time and cost, and ultimately increase molding product marketability.     

Research on an active knowledge push service based on collaborative intent capture

The quality of a knowledge service influences the quality, efficiency and innovation of product conceptual design. Existing approaches lack intelligence and individuation when providing a knowledge retrieval service via rules and cases. In this paper, we propose a framework of an active knowledge service based on collaborative intent capture to assist product conceptual design. First, a collaborative intent capture model is constructed through the study of the expression and capture of collaborative intent; second, a framework and a process of active knowledge push based on collaborative intent capture are designed after analyzing the method of knowledge resources acquisition based on the constraint satisfaction theory. Finally, match algorithms for text content are studied. Based on the above research achievements, a prototype system of a collaborative design and active knowledge service platform (C-AKSP) has been developed for providing a knowledge service and assisting product conceptual design. An example, the conceptual design of a machine tool spindle system, is used to validate the proposed theories for the model, the framework and the algorithm. As a result, C-AKSP can provide a superior knowledge service that meets the designer's knowledge needs.     

基于综合集成法的复杂产品协同设计过程模型及框架研究

建立过程模型及框架,将设计过程有效地表达出来,是协同设计的基础。 论文针对复杂产品设计过程的特征,根据综合集成法,建立了一个以时间、粒度、并行度三 维分布的多层次复杂产品协同设计过程模型。该过程模型在时间维强调多阶段综合,在并行 度维强调多专业综合,在粒度维强调分解与综合的迭代。在该过程模型基础上,结合专家体 系、知识体系、机器体系,提出基于综合集成法的复杂产品协同设计过程框架。该框架中, 机器体系依靠知识体系中的知识,给专家群体提供帮助,专家群体在机器体系提供的项目管 理、群体研讨、协同决策、三维可视化等支持工具帮助下,实现人机结合、多专业结合、多 阶段结合的协同设计过程,以提高复杂产品的协同设计效率。最后介绍了相关原型系统。     

桥梁协同设计系统数据动态管理模式

针对桥梁协同设计中群体间的信息共享需求,从协同设计的数据动态管理模式角度对信息共享的理论与方法进行了研究,分析了结构设计群体与抗震设计群体之间的协同工作过程,完成了含原子数据、组合数据、构件、有限元模型、子结构、结构等设计信息的数据表达模型.研究了含数据变换和动态激励的数据管理方法,满足了协同工作群体间信息共享的需求.以某连续梁桥为例,模拟分析结构设计群体与抗震设计群体间的协同工作过程,对动态管理模式的可实施性进行了验证.     

An Internet-based intelligent design system for injection moulds

The rapid growth of Internet and information technologies in recent years provides a solution to support and facilitate collaborative product developments among different geographically distributed enterprises. An effective and feasible tool to aid the collaborative development of injection moulds can be realized by developing an Internet-based mould design system as one of the modules of a collaborative product development system. This paper presents a prototype Internet-based intelligent design system for injection moulds. The architecture of the system consists of an interactive KB mould design system embedded in an Internet environment. A Java-enabled solution together with artificial intelligence techniques is employed to develop such a networked interactive CAD system. In this system, the computational module, the knowledge base module and the graphic module for generating mould features are integrated within an interactive CAD-based framework. The knowledge base of the system would be accessed by mould designers through interactive programs so that their own intelligence and experience could also be incorporated with the total mould design. The approach adopted both speeds up the design process and facilitates design standardization which in turn increases the speed of mould manufacture. A practical case study is presented to illustrate the operations of the Internet-based mould design system.     

Adapting groupware systems to changes in the collaborator’s context of use

Owing to the dynamic nature of collaborative environments, the software intended to support collaborative work should adapt itself to the different situations that may occur. This requirement is related to the concept of “context of use”, which has been considered as an important aspect in the design of interactive systems. Nevertheless, two main problems about this concept have been identified by current research in context-aware computing: (1) most of the studies have mainly focused on the context of a single user, so the context of multiple users involved in a common endeavor remains little explored, and (2) adaptability in context-aware systems generally takes into account a reduced number of contextual variables (mainly the user’s location and platform). In this paper, we firstly re-conceptualize the notion of “context of use”, in order to consider the main characteristics of collaborative environments. Based on this new notion, we then design and implement a framework that allows application developers to specify the adaptability of groupware systems in terms of the state of activities, roles, collaborators’ location, available resources, and other typical variables of working groups. This framework has been generalized from scenarios that highlight dynamic situations presented in real collaborative settings. Finally, we validate our proposal by a set of applications that are able to adapt their user interface and functionality, when significant changes are produced in the environment, the working group, and/or the used devices.     

Towards a framework to manage formalised exchanges during collaborative design

New organizational frameworks for companies dealing with product development are required for the new market rules as for the rising pressure and complexity in product and process development. Thus, the new stake is to examine new methods of leading design activities as the cooperative design that deals with the sharing of various interests and resources among various actors, with the aim of reaching a common purpose. The latter lay on the development of products by means of knowledge sharing and interactions with a certain level of coordination between these varied activities. Embedded into the IPPOP research project perspectives, this paper focus on the particular collaborative situation of conflict management occurring during design activities. From an analysis of the conflict management domain, we shall specify a collaborative design framework dedicated to conflict handling thanks to one specification method based on the UML language. The specified solving process is applied on a real-life industrial case: a windmill stator sheet design. The design context of the artefact is exposed and the met conflicts are explained. Extracts of IPPOP demonstrator's graphical user interfaces, illustrating these collaborative aspects of the software application are then presented. They show the ability of the demonstrator to run the conflict solving process and to subscribe relevant actors in this process as well as filers to track pertinent past solutions suitable for the current problem.     

A framework to integrate design knowledge reuse and requirements management in engineering design

This paper presents a framework to integrate requirements management and design knowledge reuse. The research approach begins with a literature review in design reuse and requirements management to identify appropriate methods within each domain. A framework is proposed based on the identified requirements. The framework is then demonstrated using a case study example: vacuum pump design. Requirements are presented as a component of the integrated design knowledge framework. The proposed framework enables the application of requirements management as a dynamic process, including capture, analysis and recording of requirements. It takes account of the evolving requirements and the dynamic nature of the interaction between requirements and product structure through the various stages of product development.     

Hypermedia Design Methodology in World Wide Web Applications

One approach to instruction based on a "learner-centered" view of learning is to provide rich environments in which learners can actually build their own knowledge. Therefore only educational software, carefully designed, can improve the efficiency of courseware. Within this framework, the World Wide Web provides a unique support for course material. Using a generalized hypermedia instructional design methodology, we integrated a hypermedia instructional module with simulation additional tools into an academic information system. This academic information system is a computer-supported environment in which collaborative discourse is the primary medium for knowledge advancement in the area of power electronics. It can be explored by learners in that they have both contextual access to knowledge displayed in a hypertext format and access to real experiences by means of simulation. In this article, we present an object-orientated approach that integrates the complete graphic user interface development.     

Personalization and Context Management

Supporting the individual user in his working, learning, or information access is one of the main goals of user modeling. Personal or group user models make it possible to represent and use information about preferences, knowledge, abilities, emotional states, and many other characteristics of a user to adapt the user experience and support. Nowadays, the disappearing computer enables the user to access her information from a variety of personal and public displays and devices. To support a new generation of contextualized and personalized information and services, this paper addresses the problem of context management. Context management is a new approach to the design of context-aware systems in ubiquitous computing that combines personalization and contextualization. The presented framework for context management integrates user modeling and context modeling, which can benefit from each other and give rise to more valid models for personalized and contextualized information delivery. The paper will introduce a base framework and tools for designing context-aware applications and decompose the underlying framework into its foundational components. As two illustrative application cases, the paper discusses implementations of an intelligent advertisement board and an audio-augmented museum environment.     

A trajectory-preserving synchronization method for collaborative visualization

In the past decade, a lot of research work has been conducted to support collaborative visualization among remote users over the networks, allowing them to visualize and manipulate shared data for problem solving. There are many applications of collaborative visualization, such as oceanography, meteorology and medical science. To facilitate user interaction, a critical system requirement for collaborative visualization is to ensure that remote users will perceive a synchronized view of the shared data. Failing this requirement, the user's ability in performing the desirable collaborative tasks will be affected. In this paper, we propose a synchronization method to support collaborative visualization. It considers how interaction with dynamic objects is perceived by application participants under the existence of network latency, and remedies the motion trajectory of the dynamic objects. It also handles the false positive and false negative collision detection problems. The new method is particularly well designed for handling content changes due to unpredictable user interventions or object collisions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method through a number of experiments.     

Platform-based product design and development: A knowledge-intensive support approach

This paper presents a knowledge-intensive support paradigm for platform-based product family design and development. The fundamental issues underlying the product family design and development, including product platform and product family modeling, product family generation and evolution, and product family evaluation for customization, are discussed. A module-based integrated design scheme is proposed with knowledge support for product family architecture modeling, product platform establishment, product family generation, and product variant assessment. A systematic methodology and the relevant technologies are investigated and developed for knowledge supported product family design process. The developed information and knowledge-modeling framework and prototype system can be used for platform product design knowledge capture, representation and management and offer on-line support for designers in the design process. The issues and requirements related to developing a knowledge-intensive support system for modular platform-based product family design are also addressed.     

Analysis of quality standards for industrial collaborative robots based on user-centered design framework

Industrial collaborative robots have become increasingly important in recent years due to their ability to work safely and efficiently alongside humans. As a result, there is a growing need for evaluation standards to ensure the quality of collaborative robots. However, existing studies only consider system-centered and technical aspects of collaborative robots, and there is a lack of research on user-centered quality evaluation. In this study, we identified 21 user requirements based on a user-centered design framework and confirmed the limitations of existing quality standards by reviewing the standard clauses for collaborative robots. It was found that user needs to be related to performance, safety, and even usability and enjoyment are already being expressed according to the user-centered design framework, but the quality standards for these needs only present design principles or do not consider them at all. This study provides information on the quality attributes that need to be fulfilled to satisfy user requirements and suggests the need and direction for further research on the user-centered evaluation of collaborative robots. Accordingly, the user's perception and experience of collaborative robots are expected to improve.     

An Exploratory Study: Supporting Collaborative Multimedia Systems Design

Multimedia systems design generally requires a collaborative effort from a group of designers with a variety of backgrounds and tasks, such as content experts, instructional designers, media specialists, users, and so forth. However, currently available design tools on the market are mainly designed for a single user. Tools intended to support a collaborative design process should coordinate independent activities of individual designers.This research investigated support for work groups engaged in designing multimedia systems. Specifically, it discussed a new collaborative design environment, called the KMS (Knowledge Management System)-based design environment, in which multimedia designers could share their design knowledge freely. Through two experimental groups, the research investigated impacts of the KMS-based design environment on their collaborative design activities (knowledge creating, knowledge securing, knowledge distributing, and knowledge retrieving activities). The research findings showed that the KMS-based design environment was a promising environment for collaborative multimedia systems design. More specifically, the research findings indicated that the KMS-based design environment supported creating, securing, and retrieving knowledge, but it did not support distributing knowledge. In addition, the research found that the social interactions between group members played important roles in the success of the collaborative multimedia systems design and that the KMS-based design environment did not support the socialization of group members. Furthermore, the research found that the inability of the KMS-based design environment to support the socialization was linked to its low performance level in supporting the knowledge distributing activity. The research explored the desired features of a collaborative support tool for multimedia systems design.     

A distributed problem-solving approach to collaborative facility engineering

A framework for collaborative facility engineering is presented. The framework is based on a distributed problem-solving approach to collaborative facility engineering and employs an integration approach called Agent-Based Software Engineering as an implementation vehicle of this approach. The focal entity of this framework is a Multiagent Design Team (MDT) that comprises a collection of software agents (e.g. design software applications with a certain standard communication interface) and a design specialist, which together perform specific design tasks. Multiagent design teams are autonomous and form an organizational structure based on a federation architecture. Every multiagent design team surrenders its autonomy to a system program called facilitator, which coordinates the interaction among software agents in the federation architecture. Facilitators can be viewed as representatives of one or more teams that facilitate the exchange of design information and knowledge in support of the design tasks they perform. In the federation architecture, design specialists collaborate by exchanging design information with others via their software agents, and by identifying and resolving design conflicts by negotiation. In addition to a discussion of the framework's primary components, its realization in an integrated distributed environment for collaborative building engineering is described.