Collaborative Design System Research Articles

Design of intelligent human-machine collaborative robot-assisted craniotomy system

Design of intelligent human-machine collaborative robot-assisted craniotomy system

Examinations of search interactions, experiences and communication in collaborative search

PurposeThis study aims to explore the characteristics of collaborative information searching by comparing the differences in search experience and interaction between collaborative search mode and individual search mode and by analyzing the communication content and patterns during collaborative searches.Design/methodology/approachA user experiment was conducted using the Conference and Labs of the Evaluation Forum (CLEF)-Social Book Search platform, recruiting 16 individual and 18 collaborative participants. Each of the participants was required to complete two types of book search tasks in a lab setting. Interactions with the system were logged, and participants' experiences were captured through pre/post-search questionnaires. Additionally, the communication among collaborative participants was recorded and coded.FindingsThis study identified characteristics of collaborative information searching in three aspects. (1) Search experience: collaborative searchers showed a higher appreciation for the system’s functionality and aesthetics and were more engaged than individual searchers, despite experiencing slightly more mental strain. (2) Search strategies: in focus tasks, collaborative searchers made more decisions than individual searchers, indicating a need for book sorting. In open tasks, collaborative searchers take longer before making decisions, likely due to a higher level of interest and participation. (3) Communication content and pattern: collaborative searchers mainly discussed understanding and judgment of books and task plan. Searchers with same cognitive style talked more about search operations than those with different cognitive styles, while less about book judgment. Three communication patterns were identified: understanding-judgment, judgment-dominant and balanced. Judgment-dominant participants generally reported higher satisfaction with their search results than those in the other two patterns.Originality/valueThis study enhances understanding of collaborative search by comparing it with individual search and analyzing communication content, potentially inspiring collaborative search system and experiment design. Additionally, the coding table for communication between collaborative searchers offers valuable insights for future research.

Paradigm shift in mechanical system design: toward automated and collaborative design with digital twin web

AbstractAnalyzing multi-vendor mechanical system designs requires a significant amount of manual work, resulting in a design paradigm where analysis is conducted only after the design is locked and components are selected. This leads to a suboptimal design with compatibility issues, over-dimensioned components, inferior performance, poor energy efficiency, and a lack of collaboration between OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and system integrators. To overcome these issues, this paper proposes Co-Des (collaborative design) framework for automated and collaborative multi-vendor system design. The framework relies on standardized digital twin documents (DTD) of system designs, components, and analyses. The discoverability and distribution of these DTDs are enabled with digital twin web (DTW). Co-Des framework allows for finding suitable components for the design task by automatically running selected analyses employing component digital twins. In addition, OEMs can provide customized components for system integrators using the initial system design defined in the system design DTD. The use of the Co-Des framework was demonstrated with a windmill powertrain design use case, and the applicability of the automated assembly analysis for component selection was verified with performance measurements. The adoption of the proposed framework will lead to a paradigm shift from manual and siloed work relying on the exchange of PDFs to a more automated and collaborative design of mechanical systems. The adoption rate is defined by the willingness of system integrators to publish their initial system designs and OEMs their components as public digital twins.

π-π Stacking Network-Based Supramolecular Peptide Nanoprobe for Visualization of the ICB-Enhanced Ferroptosis Process.

The construction of coassembled peptide nanoprobes based on structural adaptation provides an effective template for stable monitoring of the molecular events in physiological and pathological processes. This also greatly expands their applications in biomedicine, such as multimodal combined diagnosis and treatment. However, the insufficient understanding of the physicochemical properties and structural features of different molecules still makes it difficult to construct the coassembled probes with mutually reinforcing functions, leading to unpredictable effects. Here, we showed how to utilize the π-π stacking network on β-sheets formed by PD-L1-targeting peptides to capture small molecules with ferroptosis functions, thus, coassembling them into a visual probe with synergistic effects. Compared with individual components, the coassembled strategy could significantly improve the stability of the nanoprobe, inducing stronger ferroptosis effects and immune checkpoint blocking effects, and track and reflect the process. This study provides new insights into the design of multicomponent collaborative coassembly systems with biological effects.

A Collaborative System Design for Avoiding and Removing the Unexpected Obstacles Encountered during Wheelchair Navigation

A Collaborative System Design for Avoiding and Removing the Unexpected Obstacles Encountered during Wheelchair Navigation

Interval-valued spherical fuzzy quality function deployment methodology: Metaverse collaborative system design application

The metaverse collaborative system (MCS) aims to assist users in working together, sharing resources, and participating in joint activities in the metaverse environment. As an interactive system, identifying essential design requirements (DRs) based on user requirements (URs) during the conceptual design phase of MCS is challenging as it directly affects the cost of subsequent optimization design and user experimentation, as well as user experience. Therefore, we propose a quality function deployment (QFD) method based on multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) in an interval-valued spherical fuzzy (IVSF) environment to establish a mapping relationship between URs and DRs and identify human-centered DRs to guide the conceptual design process of MCS. Firstly, we summarized the URs for MCS design and calculated their weights using IVSF based analytical hierarchy process (IVSF-AHP). Afterward, we determined DRs based on URs and established the UR-DR relationship in the house of quality of QFD. Next, we integrate the VlseKriterijuska Optimizacija I Komoromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method in the IVSF environment into QFD to determine the priority of DRs. The results indicate that system functional design, scene layout design, compatibility design, and multi-user collaborative optimization design are important DRs for designing MCS and should be carefully considered. We validated the applicability of this method through an urban planning MCS design example and provided a conceptual design case including functional blueprints. Sensitivity analysis and comparative analysis demonstrate the flexibility and reliability of the proposed method.

"That comes with a huge career cost:" Understanding Collaborative Ideation Experiences of Disabled Professionals

Collaborative ideation plays a vital role in driving creativity and innovation across various professional and educational contexts. This study investigates the experiences of disabled individuals within the collaborative ideation process, specifically examining their utilization of digital whiteboarding tools. Through interviews with 19 professionals and academics with disabilities, alongside a thematic analysis of online forum posts for two popular digital whiteboarding platforms (Miro and Figma), we delve into the access barriers encountered by disabled individuals and the strategies they employ to create access in collaborative ideation. Our findings illuminate the multifaceted nature of access barriers, encompassing issues such as inaccessible visual features, technology-induced discomfort, unstructured nature of freeform content, and complex communication setups. Furthermore, we uncover the intricate dynamics involved in negotiating diverse access needs and conflicts within teams involving people with different disabilities. Through this analysis, we highlight tensions around proficiency with inaccessible technologies stemming from ableist standards of professional success and discuss the implications of our findings for the design of accessible collaborative ideation systems.

On the Design and Implementation of a Mixed-Platform Collaborative Virtual RAS Planner

Robotic Assisted Surgery (RAS) represents an important step forward in the field of minimally invasive surgery. However, the learning curve of RAS is steep, and a systematic planning of surgical robot setups should be performed to leverage the features of RAS. For this reason, in this paper we show the design and implementation of a mixed-platform collaborative system, creating an interactive virtual shared environment that simulates RAS during the surgery planning phase. The proposed system allows one or more experts to plan together the different phases of an RAS-based surgical procedure, while integrating different levels of immersion to enhance computer-assisted training. We have tested our system with a total of four domain experts. Our results show that experts found the system excellent in terms of usability and useful to prepare and discuss surgical planning with RAS.

Conceptual Design of a 3D Visualization Platform for Ships Based on Digital Twin Technology

Addressing the challenges in the current ship’s lifecycle design process, such as high difficulty in information sharing and complex installation of design environments, this study proposes a concept design of a ship 3D visualization platform based on digital twin technology. It constructs a web-based ship 3D visualization platform with an interactive interface of realism. The aim is to avoid cumbersome client-side programs and provide a method to showcase and interact with ship 3D models on web pages. This method not only reduces the threshold for ordinary users but also significantly enhances the work efficiency of professional designers. Following the model construction theory of digital twin platforms, it utilizes WebGL technology and the Three.js library to build ship 3D scenes, achieving ship 3D visualization. Functional interaction among modules is implemented using JavaScript, establishing the digital twin of the ship. Test results indicate that the proposed concept design of the ship 3D visualization platform can preliminarily fulfill the basic requirements of achieving ship 3D display, rendering, and interaction on web platforms. The proposed method can support the development of ship online collaborative design systems based on front-end internet technologies.

A Collaborative Visual Sensing System for Precise Quality Inspection at Manufacturing Lines

Visual sensing has been widely adopted for quality inspection in production processes. This paper presents the design and implementation of a smart collaborative camera system, called BubCam , for automated quality inspection of manufactured ink bags in Hewlett-Packard (HP) Inc.’s factories. Specifically, BubCam estimates the volume of air bubbles in an ink bag, which may affect the printing quality. The design of BubCam faces challenges due to the dynamic ambient light reflection, motion blur effect, and data labeling difficulty. As a starting point, we design a single-camera system which leverages various deep learning (DL)-based image segmentation and depth fusion techniques. New data labeling and training approaches are proposed to utilize prior knowledge of the production system for training the segmentation model with a small dataset. Then, we design a multi-camera system which additionally deploys multiple wireless cameras to achieve better accuracy due to multi-view sensing. To save power of the wireless cameras, we formulate a configuration adaptation problem and develop the single-agent and multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based solutions to adjust each wireless camera’s operation mode and frame rate in response to the changes of presence of air bubbles and light reflection. The multi-agent DRL approach aims to reduce the retraining costs during the production line reconfiguration process by only retraining the DRL agents for the newly added cameras and the existing cameras with changed positions. Extensive evaluation on a lab testbed and real factory trial shows that BubCam outperforms six baseline solutions including the current manual inspection and existing bubble detection and camera configuration adaptation approaches. In particular, BubCam achieves 1.3x accuracy improvement and 300x latency reduction, compared with the manual inspection approach.

Kollaborative Geschäftsmodelle im Maschinenbau/Collaborative business models in mechanical engineering – Methodology for conceptual design of collaborative industrial product service systems

In der Maschinenbaubranche bieten Dienstleistungen eine wichtige Möglichkeit, sich vom Umfeld abzuheben und die eigene Leistungsfähigkeit zu steigern. Die stark produktorientierten Unternehmen der Branche stehen bei dieser Portfolioergänzung vor neuen Herausforderungen. Die Einbindung von Kollaborationspartnern bietet die Chance, diese Kompetenzlücke zu schließen. Auf Basis einer Mehrfachfallstudie wird eine Methodik entwickelt, um die entsprechenden kollaborativen Geschäftsmodelle zu erstellen.

Design and experiment of a sea-air heterogeneous unmanned collaborative system for rapid inspection tasks at sea

The incorporation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into sea surface inspection and complex water navigation tasks performed by Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) enhances the operational capabilities and task efficiency of heterogeneous systems. The autonomous docking of USV by UAV at sea serves as a foundational and vital element for facilitating collaborative tasks among unmanned systems. Faced with the problem that the UAV visual positioning USV deck is susceptible to interference from maritime meteorological conditions and the positioning accuracy of GPS is poor, this paper introduces the UWB positioning system and analyzes and solves the error disturbance term of its positioning array under the influence of sea sway for the first time. At the same time, due to the error problem caused by the small baseline of UWB installed on the deck, an adaptive Kalman filter that combines GPS speed information and UWB positioning data is proposed to reduce error. In light of the destabilizing effects resulting from the swaying of the USV deck during UAV docking, this study proposes a USV roll and pitch stability control strategy that incorporates environmental wind and wave data. Additionally, a UAV docking controller utilizing a fuzzy PID approach has been developed to facilitate secure and stable UAV takeoff and docking operations at sea. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm was verified through sea docking experiments under various working conditions. Finally, in the context of the multi-target maritime inspection mission of heterogeneous unmanned systems, an exploratory improved VRP algorithm is proposed, allowing UAVs to quickly and efficiently complete sea surface inspection operations.The feasibility and operational efficiency of the cooperative mission system are tested through joint simulation using Simulink and UE4 in a high-fidelity environment. This provides a reference solution for future applications of heterogeneous unmanned systems in real maritime environments.

A Data-Driven Human–Machine Collaborative Product Design System Toward Intelligent Manufacturing

A Data-Driven Human–Machine Collaborative Product Design System Toward Intelligent Manufacturing

Design and development of robotic collaborative system for automated construction of reciprocal frame structures

AbstractRobotic technologies have shown their potential to improve efficiency, precision, and safety for construction tasks. In this paper, the concept of design for robotic construction (DfRC) is introduced, and robotic collaborative systems are developed for the construction of load‐carrying structures. An automated structural assembly was achieved and demonstrated through robotics with a preference for reciprocal frame (RF) structures. Key innovations include the use of magnetic temporary connections to minimize offsets of mobile robots and linear actuators as temporary supports during construction. Furthermore, specific procedures are formulated to navigate the robots and to target and install the components using a fiducial marker system and simultaneous localization and mapping packages, with consideration of structural deformation during construction due to self‐weight. The successful assembly of a 4.5‐m span RF structure demonstrates the potential of DfRC and the proposed robotic collaborative system in the automated construction of load‐carrying structures.

Design of multi-arc collaborative additive manufacturing system and forming performance research

In view of the key issue of high-quality wire-arc-additive-manufacturing (WAAM) of large metal components, this paper has devised a suite of multi-arc collaborative additive manufacturing equipment endowed with functionalities for controlling arc behavior, managing melt pool dimensions, conducting 3D measurements, and executing subtractive machining. In the initial phase, a cutting-edge five-arc additive manufacturing head apparatus was meticulously engineered. This apparatus ingeniously blends two single-wire torches augmented by three-wire oscillating torches, synergizing deposition metal performance and forming effective. Subsequently, extensive research was carried out to explore a master-slave control-based method for orchestrating the synchronized movements of multiple robotic entities. This diligent investigation culminated in the seamless integration of a multi-arc collaborative additive manufacturing equipment, comprising five-arc high-efficiency additive units, a 3D measurement module, and a precision-driven subtractive machining unit. The influence of different horizontal distances between arc guns on the temperature field and mechanical properties of components was investigated through process experiments. The research results indicate that as the horizontal spacing between the arc guns increases, the cooling rate of the deposited metal gradually slows down, leading to an extended period of elevated temperatures. As a result, both tensile strength and yield strength gradually decrease, while elongation and impact absorption capacity first increase and then decrease. In the end, the developed equipment was utilized to fabricate large ship propeller bracket components, achieving a remarkable 4.7 times increase in manufacturing efficiency compared to single-arc additive manufacturing.

Design and simulation of a cross-regional collaborative recycling system for secondary resources: A case of lead-acid batteries

In emerging economies, a significant amount of secondary resources are recycled by the informal sector, which can seriously harm the environment. However, some previous studies of industry management policy design ignored geographical factors. This paper introduces Geographic Information Systems into an agent-based cross-regional recycling model, and employs lead-acid batteries as an example. The model quantitatively displays the evolution of recycling markets in 31 provinces in Mainland China. Results show that: (1) High subsidies can significantly increase the number of formal enterprises in the short term, but their effectiveness decreases when the proportion of government funds in subsidies is above 80% in the long run; (2) The number of illegal recycling enterprises increases by 294% in eight inland provinces (e.g., Ningxia, Xinjiang) when all funds are invested in supervision, but this number is quite small in subsidy policy scenarios; (3) In four eastern regions, including Beijing and Tianjin, the number of illegal recycling enterprises decreases by 84% if supervision is more favored than subsidy; (4) In the optimal case where spatiotemporal factors are considered in all 31 regions, illegal recycling enterprises and waste lead emissions can be reduced by 95.59% and 45.85% nationwide. Our proposed recycling model offers a detailed simulation of multiple regions and diverse stakeholders, and serves as a useful reference for targeted recovery policies. Governments in inland regions like Ningxia and Xinjiang should implement subsidy policies, while supervision policies should be implemented in developed regions like Beijing and Tianjin.

"Why do you need 400 photographs of 400 different Lockheed Constellation?": Value Expressions by Contributors and Users of Wikimedia Commons

Understanding the values that collaborators bring to a collaboration is important for the design of new systems. In collaborative systems understanding differing values could help design solutions to mitigate conflicts and more effectively coordinate collaboration. We review prior studies of Commons-Based Peer Production (CBPP) identifying four common value dimensions previously noted as present in CBPP: usage value, social value, ideological value, and monetary value. We use this synthetic framework to analyze a dataset of 32 interviews with contributors to Wikimedia Commons and editors of Wikipedia who use Commons resources. Our analysis supports the prior values categories while expanding how some dimensions are expressed by participants. We also highlight four additional value dimensions that were not previously identified in CBPP: cultural heritage value, rarity value, aesthetic value, and administrative value. We discuss the implications of our findings for the design of collaborative systems.

Effects of differential risk attitudes in collaborative systems design

AbstractCollaboration enables multiple actors with different objectives to work together and achieve a goal beyond individual capabilities. However, strategic uncertainty from partners' actions introduces a potential for losses under failed collaboration relative to pursuing an independent system. The fundamental tradeoff between high‐value but uncertain outcomes from collaborative systems and lower‐value but more certain outcomes for independent systems induces a bistability strategic dynamic. Actors exhibit different risk attitudes that impact decisions under uncertainty which complicate shared understanding of collaborative dynamics. This paper investigates how risk attitudes affect design and strategy decisions in collaborative systems through the lens of game theory. First, an analytical model studies the effect of differential risk attitudes in a two‐actor problem with stag‐hunting strategic dynamics formulated as single‐ and bi‐level games. Next, a simulation model pairs actors with different risk attitudes in a 29‐game tournament based on a prior behavioral experiment. Results show that outcomes collaborative design problems change based on the risk attitudes of both actors. Results also emphasize that considering conservative lower‐level design options facilitates collaboration by providing risk‐averse actors with a safer solution. By accepting that decision‐making actors are not all risk‐neutral, future work seeks to develop new design methods to strengthen the adoption of efficient collaborative solutions.

Semantic web-based collaborative design system in cloud computing environment

Semantic web-based collaborative design system in cloud computing environment

Design and Implementation of Intelligent Medical Mobile Collaborative Office Approval System

Medical affairs approval system is a hot issue in the field of smart medicine. The existing medical affairs approval process is unscientific and opaque, and the approval process is slow, resulting in untimely supply of medical resources. To address this issue, a design and implementation method of a smart medical mobile collaborative office approval system is proposed. Based on the Internet big data information collaboration method, it provides heterogeneous fusion and integration of smart medical mobile collaborative office approval data, strengthens the global efficiency of information data analysis and decision-making, and considers improving data security and privacy protection. The system provides multi-level and multi-type user permissions. The test results show that the proposed method improves the efficiency of medical emergency approval, reduces the approval process, and increases the transparency of the approval process.