Industrial Design Research Articles

A generative toolkit to help raise industrial design students’ awareness of low metal recycling rates

AbstractEducation for Sustainable Development requires raising individuals' awareness of problems relevant to the environment. We designed a Generative Toolkit that supports industrial design students carrying out a Speculative Design task and through this process initiates greater problem awareness of low metal recycling rates. In this paper we give insights into the Toolkit's theoretical derivation and the design process. Findings from testing suggest that there are several opportunities for improvement, such as considering further content-related competencies in the Toolkit's design.

Are Local Heat Transfer Quantities Useful for Predicting the Working Behavior of Different Pulsating Heat Pipe Layouts? A Comparative Study

Despite a continuous effort devoted by the scientific community, a large-scale employment of Pulsating Heat Pipes for thermal management applications is still nowadays undermined by the low reliability of such heat transfer systems. The main reason underlying this critical issue is linked to the strongly chaotic thermofluidic behavior of these devices, which prevents a robust prediction of their working behavior for different geometries and operating conditions, consequently hampering proper industrial design. The present work proposes to thoroughly compare data referring to previous infrared investigations on different Pulsating Heat Pipe layouts, which have focused on the estimation of heat fluxes locally exchanged at the wall–fluid interfaces. The aim is to understand the beneficial contribution of local heat transfer quantities in the prediction of the complex physics underlying such heat transfer systems. The results have highlighted that, regardless of the considered geometry and working conditions, wall-to-fluid heat fluxes are able to provide useful quantities to be employed, to some extent, to generalize Pulsating Heat Pipe operation and to improve their existing numerical models.

Comparison of Latest 3D Content Generation Models with Minimal Input Images

Three-dimensional (3D) content generation has become a popular topic in recent years. It can be widely used in movie scene generation, video games 3D modeling, industrial design, and even pharmaceutical 3D structure characterization. Before artificial intelligence (AI), it can be difficult. People need to be trained to use various industrial 3D model applications and spend plenty of time building and refining a model. With the development of virtual reality and artificial reality, the demand for 3D content is rising rapidly. Traditional 3D content production cycles cannot fit the needs. Recently, the Text-to-Image technology has got great success. With the help of artificial intelligence, people can use a limited set of descriptive words to generate images. Typically, the model generates multiple images of the same category for users to choose from. Some fundamental techniques like Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) and Diffusion Model can generate 3D scenes, avatars, and other 3D content using a couple of images. This progress marks the possibility of creating 3D content using text. Based on the technologies available today, there will be more applications for generating 3D content in the future. Selecting the core technologies will be a crucial issue in this regard. This essay mainly talks about three of the most popular models or technologies that use a minimum number of images to produce 3D content. The goal is to find the most suitable technology based on criteria such as quality, applicability, and other indicators.

Unveiling the Function of Oxygen Vacancy on Facet-Dependent CeO2 for the Catalytic Destruction of Monochloromethane: Guidance for Industrial Catalyst Design.

Secondary pollution remains a critical challenge for the catalytic destruction of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs). By employing experimental studies and theoretical calculations, we provide valuable insights into the catalytic behaviors exhibited by ceria rods, cubes, and octahedra for monochloromethane (MCM) destruction, shedding light on the elementary reactions over facet-dependent CeO2. Our findings demonstrate that CeO2 nanorods with the (110) facet exhibit the best performance in MCM destruction, and the role of vacancies is mainly to form a longer distance (4.63 Å) of frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) compared to the stoichiometric surface, thereby enhancing the activation of MCM molecules. Subsequent molecular orbital analysis showed that the adsorption of MCM mainly transferred electrons from the 3σ and 4π* orbitals to the Ce 4f orbitals, and the activation was mainly caused by weakening of the 3σ bonding orbitals. Furthermore, isotopic experiments and theoretical calculations demonstrated that the hydrogen chloride generated is mainly derived from methyl in MCM rather than from water, and the primary function of water is to form excess saturated H on the surface, facilitating the desorption of generated hydrogen chloride.

A Study of Design Concepts in Artificers Record

Artificers Record is an important part of the Confucian classic Zhou Li and the earliest extant Chinese document on handicraft technology. It encompasses various categories and has a wide range of disciplines, especially rich in design and artistic thoughts. Currently, there is an incomplete condensation and generalization of the design theory of this book, and a lack of research on the linkage between Chinese and Western, ancient and modern design history. Through consulting Artificers Record and a large number of literature, this paper summarizes three fundamental design concepts that run through the entire book: Following Nature, Using Fine Materials and Skilled Craftsmanship, and People Oriented. Finally, combining with the current status of industrial design and exemplifying some mainstream design concepts, this paper explores and reflects on the deep-level resonance of thought consciousness spanning millennia.

Impulsive Control Discrete Fractional Neural Networks in Product Form Design: Practical Mittag-Leffler Stability Criteria

The planning, regulation and effectiveness of the product design process depend on various characteristics. Recently, bio-inspired collective intelligence approaches have been applied in this process in order to create more appealing product forms and optimize the design process. In fact, the use of neural network models in product form design analysis is a complex process, in which the type of network has to be determined, as well as the structure of the network layers and the neurons in them; the connection coefficients, inputs and outputs have to be explored; and the data have to be collected. In this paper, an impulsive discrete fractional neural network modeling approach is introduced for product design analysis. The proposed model extends and complements several existing integer-order neural network models to the generalized impulsive discrete fractional-order setting, which is a more flexible mechanism to study product form design. Since control and stability methods are fundamental in the construction and practical significance of a neural network model, appropriate impulsive controllers are designed, and practical Mittag-Leffler stability criteria are proposed. The Lyapunov function strategy is applied in providing the stability criteria and their efficiency is demonstrated via examples and a discussion. The established examples also illustrate the role of impulsive controllers in stabilizing the behavior of the neuronal states. The proposed modeling approach and the stability results are applicable to numerous industrial design tasks in which multi-agent systems are implemented.

Urban approach to design in various aspects of design

This article discusses in detail the concept of an urban approach to design in various aspects of design. The design issues associated with the urban lifestyle, as its integral part, urban structure are considered. 10 principles of modern urbanism are considered. The urban approach to design includes consideration of the urban environment as a whole and taking into account its features when creating new objects. One of the important aspects of design in an urban environment is space planning taking into account the principles of urbanism. Many aspects of design take into account the principles of urbanism in full, some partially. Urban environment design and fashion design strive to create a comfortable environment for a person, following an urban approach. Various fields of design, such as urban environment design, graphic and industrial design, as well as fashion design have a common goal - to create functional and aesthetically attractive objects. Designers in all areas must take into account the needs and preferences of users, as well as technical and economic constraints.

Knowledge-Augmented Mutation-Based Bug Localization for Hardware Design Code

Verification of hardware design code is crucial for the quality assurance of hardware products. Being an indispensable part of verification, localizing bugs in the hardware design code is significant for hardware development but is often regarded as a notoriously difficult and time-consuming task. Thus, automated bug localization techniques that could assist manual debugging have attracted much attention in the hardware community. However, existing approaches are hampered by the challenge of achieving both demanding bug localization accuracy and facile automation in a single method. Simulation-based methods are fully automated but have limited localization accuracy, slice-based techniques can only give an approximate range of the presence of bugs, and spectrum-based techniques can also only yield a reference value for the likelihood that a statement is buggy. Furthermore, formula-based bug localization techniques suffer from the complexity of combinatorial explosion for automated application in industrial large-scale hardware designs. In this work, we propose Kummel, a K nowledge-a u g m ented m utation-bas e d bug loca l ization for hardware design code to address these limitations. Kummel achieves the unity of precise bug localization and full automation by utilizing the knowledge augmentation through mutation analysis. To evaluate the effectiveness of Kummel, we conduct large-scale experiments on 76 versions of 17 hardware projects by seven state-of-the-art bug localization techniques. The experimental results clearly show that Kummel is statistically more effective than baselines, e.g., our approach can improve the seven original methods by 64.48% on average under the RImp metric. It brings fresh insights of hardware bug localization to the community.

Legal Challenges of Intellectual Property Rights for Quantum Computing

Quantum computing is a very multidisciplinary field, a blend of materials science, electronics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, quantum physics and the corresponding mathematical framework. The study aimed to evaluate the existing scenario of the choice of the intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection mechanisms for quantum computing, choice of best applicable type, and suggesting some key alternative innovation protection mechanisms. The methodology used in this research consists of general scientific and specific legal (historical-legal, formal-legal) methods besides law interpretation and legal modelling. We critically analyzed the norms for IPR protection of quantum computing from the viewpoint of obtaining protection of inventions and increasing the innovation activity in quantum computing. One of the regulatory mechanisms for every disruptive technology is offering it IP protection. Currently quantum computing hardware is protected by patents while software is mostly protected as copyright besides protection by industrial design and trade secret exist as complementary mechanisms for this revolutionary technology. All available approaches were considered, and amendments are suggested in current IPR legislation to correspond to the reality. This interdisciplinary research revealed the uncertain nature of quantum computing and the difficulty in selecting one type of IPR as the best choice. The best way to establish a sufficient IPR mechanism is to acknowledge quantum computing as an emerging technological cocktail, and to sustain the innovation cycle of this technology. The conclusions of this study can be used to overcome the lacunas in existing IPR system for the quantum computing. This research can be used as torchbearer when preparing proposals for making revisions and additions to the existing legislation.

Effects of industrial design properties of game controllers on player experience

Researchers frequently state that game controllers, affect the Player Experience (PX). We also conducted this study to examine the effects of controllers on PX dimensions, including industrial design features that are missing in the field. In our study with 34 participants, we implemented four directionally mapped controllers using a PC game. We also used controller-specific experience questions in our study, using Player Experience Inventory (PXI) and Core Elements of the Gaming Experience (CEGE) models. In addition, we conducted a comparative analysis of all data using AttrakDiff2 to evaluate the designs of the products. Implications of the results regarding controllers' design features are discussed regarding PX. The participants' experience level and familiarity with the device were effective in evaluating their experience. A correlation was observed between the controller's enjoyment and the game's enjoyment. There is also a relationship between enjoyment and the hedonic qualities of the controllers. The features of the controllers, such as ease of use and challenge are related to PX dimensions.

Integrating AIGC into product design ideation teaching: An empirical study on self-efficacy and learning outcomes

BackgroundThe emergence of artificial intelligence-generated content (AIGC) in the realm of education, notably in product design, signifies a watershed moment, heralding significant enhancements over conventional pedagogies by potentially catalyzing unparalleled innovation. AimsThis investigation assesses the ramifications of assimilating AIGC into product design instruction, focusing on its advantages, constraints, and consequent influence on students’ design cognition across a spectrum of proficiency levels. SampleThe study encompassed 119 scholars with a focus on product or industrial design, delineated into three distinct echelons of proficiency. MethodsUtilizing Technology-mediated Learning Theory, an empirical field study was initiated to explore AIGC's impact on self-efficacy, ideation volume, innovation, diversity, and the aggregate quality of outcomes, taking into account the divergence in pedagogical strategies and student competency tiers. ResultsAIGC notably augmented students' self-efficacy, ideation, novelty, and variety, albeit with a potential diminution in ideational quality. Disparities in self-efficacy, volume of ideas, and their caliber were discernibly evident across varying tiers of competency. ConclusionsAIGC markedly fosters innovation within product design pedagogy, demonstrating its ascendancy over traditional instructional methods in catalyzing scholastic innovation. However, orthodox teaching methodologies retain their critical role in the cultivation of problem-solving acumen. Personalized support, particularly for those demonstrating lower self-efficacy, is paramount in amplifying their creative ideation through bespoke pedagogical strategies, thus maximizing the utility of AIGC integration.

A mechanistic model for industrial workplace design based on inherent safety and health concepts

AbstractThis study aims to establish a mechanistic model of using inherent safety and health concepts to conduct industrial workplace risk reduction strategies during the project planning stage. Accordingly, a dedicated implementation tool termed inherently safer and healthier design model for industrial workplaces (ISHDM‐IW) is developed. First, the safety and health by design checklist is adapted to derive industrial workplace safety and health risk indicators. Then, the risk indicators are rated and weighted using the methods of risk matrix and precedence chart. Subsequently, the risk indicators are aggregated via fuzzy risk representation with the indicators' risk values and weights. Last, the inherent safety and health principles are used to do risk‐based baseline design optimization. The case study demonstrates the capabilities of the proposed ISHDM‐IW to upgrade the workplace design scheme from risk level II to risk level I, thus generating a more satisfactory workplace design alternative. The proposed ISHDM‐IW offers a novel design mechanism of inherent safety and health for industrial workplaces, which can be expected to ensure employees' safety, health, and well‐being with fundamentally better ergonomics of industrial work environments.

China industrial design award evaluation: Explicit features, implicit values, and participation experience

This study examines China Excellent Industrial Design (CEID) through structural equation modeling, analyzing 209 participants’ evaluation data on explicit features, implicit values, and participation experience. Findings guide organizers in enhancing strategic approaches, maintaining high-level features, fostering unique elements, and addressing developmental shortcomings. The research offers a quantitative evaluation framework for CEID advancement and a reference for other developing countries’ design award assessments.

Concept and Application of Industrial Heritage Planning Decision in Big Data Era

With the rapid development of big data technology, more and more fields are realizing the importance of big data and applying it to various decision-making processes. Industrial heritage planning decisions are no exception. This article will explore the concept and application of industrial heritage planning and decision-making in the era of big data, aiming to emphasize the importance and application value of big data in industrial heritage planning and decision-making. This article analyzes the development relationship between the construction and transformation of urban industrial utilization and the theory and practice of industrial heritage. Through theoretical and practical technical analysis of specific regions, the value utilization of industrial simulation design has been improved. Through in-depth data mining, the government found that the industrial structure of the region is dominated by traditional manufacturing, lacking support from high-tech industries, and the pollution problem of the surrounding environment is also relatively serious. In response to these issues, corresponding planning plans have been formulated, including measures to introduce high-tech industries, optimize industrial structure, and improve environmental quality. By implementing these measures, the comprehensive strength of the region has been significantly improved and the economic transformation and upgrading have been successfully achieved.

Towards a definition of ‘empathic understanding’ in industrial design practice

Empathy is often not well defined, particularly in design. While the practice of designers developing a deep understanding of the people who use their products is recommended, the details of how to do this are limited. This problem of vagueness about empathy in design makes it difficult for product designers to take suitable actions to produce best results for the users. Through a strategic examination of a body of literature, across seven databases relevant to design, the systematic literature review adds to a discussion on empathy within the designing process. Study limitations included the complex nature of empathy itself, and multiple uses of the terms design and product. Findings indicate a contradiction of internal and external factors affecting empathy in design, and are considerably more complex than just an ‘accepted’ part of the design process. Shifting towards user-centred design in industrial design means that a considerably more nuanced understanding of empathy is needed, for implementation in design practice. By better understanding the concept of empathy as a duality, all stakeholders can manage expectations around empathy ‘behaviour’, and empathy as part of the design process. Empathy needs to be recognised as a complex phenomenological relationship between process (external) and person (internal) within industrial design. Practical, theoretical and societal implications of this concept are discussed.Transdisciplinary contribution: Empathy in product design practice represents several fields, related to human behaviour and interactions. This review’s contribution is to confirm areas for further research and the importance of developing theory to address the complexity of design practice.

An integrated design concept evaluation model based on interval valued picture fuzzy set and improved GRP method.

The objective of this research is to enhance the precision and efficiency of design concept assessments during the initial stages of new product creation. Design concept evaluation, which occurs at the end of the conceptual design phase, is a critical step in product development. The outcome of this evaluation significantly impacts the product's eventual success, as flawed design concepts are difficult to remedy in later stages. However, the evaluation of new product concepts is a procedure that encompasses elements of subjectivity and ambiguity. In order to deal with the problem, a novel decision-making method for choosing more logical new product concepts is introduced. Basically, the evaluation process is outlined in three main phases: the construction of evaluation index system for design concept alternatives, the calculation of weights for evaluation criteria and decision-makers, the selection of the best design concept alternatives. These stages are composed of a hybrid method based on kano model, multiplicative analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, the entropy of IVPFS and improved grey relational projection (GRP) under interval-valued picture fuzzy set (IVPFS). The novel approach integrates the strength of interval-valued picture fuzzy number in handling vagueness, the advantage of multiplicative AHP and the merit of improved GRP method in modelling multi-criteria decision-making. In final, the effectiveness of the proposed model is validated through comparisons with other models. The potential applications of this study include but are not limited to product development, industrial design, and innovation management, providing decision-makers with a more accurate and comprehensive design concept evaluation tool.

Magic NeRF lens: interactive fusion of neural radiance fields for virtual facility inspection

Virtual reality (VR) has become an important interactive visualization tool for various industrial processes including facility inspection and maintenance. The capability of a VR application to present users with realistic simulations of complex systems and immerse them in, for example, inaccessible remote environments is often essential for using VR in real-world industrial domains. While many VR solutions have already been developed to support virtual facility inspection, previous systems provide immersive visualizations only with limited realism, because the real-world conditions of facilities are often difficult to reconstruct with accurate meshes and point clouds or typically too time-consuming to be consistently updated in computer-aided design (CAD) software toolkits. In this work, we present Magic NeRF Lens, a VR framework that supports immersive photorealistic visualizations of complex industrial facilities leveraging the recent advancement of neural radiance fields (NeRF). We introduce a data fusion technique to merge a NeRF model with the polygonal representation of it’s corresponding CAD model, which optimizes VR NeRF rendering through magic-lens-style interactions while introducing a novel industrial visualization design that can support practical tasks such as facility maintenance planning and redesign. We systematically benchmarked the performance of our framework, investigated users’ perceptions of the magic-lens-style visualization design through a visual search experiment to derive design insights, and performed an empirical evaluation of our system through expert reviews. To support further research and development of customized VR NeRF applications, the source code of the toolkit was made openly available.

DESIGN OF AUTOMATIC VIBRATING CHAIR WITH ECCENTRIC-AND-PITMAN FOR PROLONGED SEDENTARY ACTIVITIES

Sedentary behavior has become one of main inducted cause of physical decline. The pressure of modern life has further increased more working or studying time at home or office, contributing to the growing population of sedentary people furthermore. Prolonged sitting will affect people’s physical health, injuring our muscles, and causing physical discomfort. Seriously, it will lead to death. The purpose of this paper is to design a small convenient automatic vibrative chair for sedentary groups, which are driven by eccentric-and-pitman drive system, producing vibration and body movement to relieve physical problems. Double diamond design thinking method was used to find out the health problems including sedentariness and isolation. As a solution, design of the vibrative automatic chair was set as the theme of this study. The automatic vibrative chair was designed with biomimetic method, combining with industrial design principles and mechanical theories throughout structural design. The vibrating performance of the chair was verified using simulation method by adopting SolidWorks software.

Heat integration, simultaneous structure and parameter optimisation, and techno-economic evaluation of waste heat recovery systems for petrochemical industry

Energy conservation in the petrochemical sector holds the key to its financial viability. The pervasive application of Heat Exchanger Networks (HEN) exemplifies the industry's efforts in heat recovery. Yet, despite its widespread adoption, an alarming quantum of low-grade heat remains squandered, underscoring the potential for augmenting energy savings through more effective utilization of this heat. Recognizing the pivotal role of the synergistic interaction between the process and the heat recovery system in maximizing energy retrieval, an innovative approach is proposed. This methodology initially entailed the development of a process model and an enhanced heat recovery system, the latter embodying the integration of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) with HEN. Subsequently, a strategic diagnostic was proposed to incorporate these sub-systems into a cohesive, optimisation framework. Following this, an array of energy, exergy, and economic analyses were conducted to appraise the system's performance. The findings suggest a considerable improvement in heat recovery and an amplification in ORC efficiency from a mere 7.64%–11.38%. The enhanced heat recovery further translated into a reduced need for cold utility, thereby minimizing cooler deployment. Given the substantial exergy destruction associated with coolers, their lesser usage bolstered the system's exergy efficiency. Moreover, the optimised ORC manifested in heightened net power generation, consequently elevating electricity revenues. Despite a nominal surge in equipment costs, the aggregate profit witnessed a substantial hike from 165.19 M$/year to 178.79 M$/year. The proposed system substanitally improved thermodynamic and economic performance. This study offers valuable guidance for the design and operation of petrochemical industries, serving as a roadmap to energy conservation and enhanced profitability.

Optimizing industrial transport with a connected automated vehicle demonstrator for assembly systems and end-of-line production

In recent years, the automotive industry has witnessed significant progress in the development of automated driving technologies. The integration of advanced sensors and systems in vehicles has led to the emergence of various functionalities, such as driving assistance and autonomous driving. Applying these technologies on the assembly line can enhance the efficiency, safety, and speed of transportation, especially at end-of-line production. This work presents a connected automated vehicle (CAV) demonstrator for generating autonomous driving systems and services for the automotive industry. Our prototype electric vehicle is equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and systems for perception, localization, navigation, and control. We tested various algorithms and tools for transforming the vehicle into a self-driving platform, and the prototype was simulated and tested in an industrial environment as proof of concept for integration into assembly systems and end-of-line transport. Our results show the successful integration of self-driving vehicle platforms in the automotive industry, particularly in factory halls. We demonstrate the localization, navigation, and communication capabilities of our prototype in a demo area. This work anticipates a significant increase in efficiency and operating cost reduction in vehicle manufacturing, despite challenges such as current low traveling speeds and high equipment costs. Ongoing research aims to enhance safety for higher vehicle speeds, making it a more viable business case for manufacturers, considering the increasing standardization of automated driving equipment in cars. The main contribution of this paper lies in introducing the general concept architecture of the integration of automated driving functionalities in end-of-line assembly and production systems. Showing a case study of the effective development and implementation of such functionalities with a CAV demonstrator in a more standardized industrial operational design domain.