Implementations of discovery methods to get design solutions are reported based on the three approaches proposed in the former paper in 1999. The first one follows the traditional way of direct problem solving and here hierarchical approaches as named multi-scale-modeling are developed. The second one belongs to the inverse problem solving and is used as tentative steps to get solutions. Synthetic methods through combining these direct and indirect approaches are proposed.

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This paper is a preliminary report of the "Research into Artifacts" agenda and shapes the outline of artifactual engineering. It point out that abduction as a core of creation serves also as a core of integration plays crucial role in understanding and modeling of synthesis. Similarly, artifactual engineering that aims at decompartmentalization should integrate various theories about activities of design, manufacture, and other life cycle stages based on ontologies about activities based on abduction. Finally, it is argues that such activities are understood in the context of service engineering that looks at services, as opposed to traditional engineering that focuses on function.

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This paper describes digital watermarking methods for vector maps, which can be widely used as the basis of geographic information systems. When vector maps are distributed via the Internet, the protection of the copyrights is very important, because vector maps can be very easily copied and modified without the loss of quality. In this paper, we discuss a combination approach of multiple digital wartermarking methods.

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In a large-scale engineering project it is difficult for one engineer to cover any part in detail. Differences of background knowledge between engineers in each part of the design process can cause fatal failures. In this paper, such problems are inspected in terms of pragmatics and cognitive semantics. Through an analysis of the log in which experts and general public discussed a policy of Japanese atomic energy, it is discussed how differences of background knowledge affect the understanding of speaker's intension.

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Electronic multi-dimensional information, given by internet technology, has been deeply related to our life. It is very important by filtering and classification methods to extract characteristic of information. In this paper, the search for genes which show gene expression values peculiar to AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) and ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) is discussed. The data set contains 28 patients and each patient data has the expression values of 7129 genes obtained by using DNA microarrays. Literary information of 10 papers is also classified and visualized on three-dimensional space.

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In General, Mg-alloys show a low load for environment, but a high chemical activity of Mg often prevents the products of Mg-alloys from recycling. It is necessary as a first step to clarify the mechanisms of material degradation with age, in order to realize the reuse. The purpose of this research is to study corrosion mechanism and the rate of Mg-alloy (AZ91D; table. 1) in 0.9% NaCl aq.sol. with the help of optical microscope, μ-X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and profile meter. The acquired mechanisms are described as follows. (1) the corrosion of Mg (α phase) begins at just steeping. α phase becomes MgCl_2・4H_2O, etc. (2) the corrosion of Al_<12>Mg_<17> (β phase) gradually increases, and β phase becomes Mg-Al-O, etc. How to apply the acquired mechanisms to life cycle assessment will be discussed in the near future.

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Quantitative evaluation on the manufacturing and supplying situation of the rare-earth materials given and the predicting method on market requirements is proved in this paper on the constructed database of the resource, supply and consumption of the material. The manufacture and profits of the material under different demand models are also simulated. It is concluded that the materials supply strategy can be predicted and determined quantitatively based on some suitable model combining sociological, economic and mathematical knowledge and methods.

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It seems that there are some rules in patterns of colors people use, in relation to personality, cultures, the trend of the times and so on. To deepen our understanding of the beauty of colors, we try to extract such patterns from several Japanese and European paintings and traditional colors by statistical analysis. Then a method is proposed for manipulating colors by numerical values in accordance with intuitive notions.

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This paper presents a novel distributed control scheme of multiple robotic vehicles. Each robotic vehicle in this scheme has its own coordinate system, and it senses its relative position and orientation to others, in order to make group formations. Although there exists no supervisor and each robotic vehicle has only relative position feedback from the others in the local area around itself, all the robotic vehicles are stabilized. Each robotic vehicle especially has a two-dimensional control input referred to as a "formation vector" and the formation is controllable by the vectors. The validity of this scheme is supported by computer simulations.

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In this paper, we will propose a representational model of artifacts which reflects interactions between human and artifacts base on the discussion of alothic, deontic and temporal aspects of the interaction. From these three types of modalites, we will define three layers to represent the interaction. These three layers tightly interact with each other which explain the interaction of designers, operations and environment.

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Recently, rapid prototype technique becomes to be used many fields, and the stereo lithograph method or other methods are interested in. However, these methods can produce only plastic parts, it is difficult to produce metallic or ceramic parts. And, it limits the application of these methods. Therefore, new rapid prototype methods that can form metal or ceramic powder are desired. The laser sintering method is one of the methods that can form the metallic parts. In this method, the metal powder is sintered by laser beam and the powder is combining each other by melting the powder surface. Though, the parts obtained by this method are porous. Also, it is difficult to apply this method to the sintering of ceramic powder. To overcome these difficulties and actualize the rapid prototype of metallic and ceramic parts, a new method using FDM (Fused Deposition Method) is investigated.

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The authors have been studying a new fabrication method termed "refrigerative stereolithography" which uses a gel resin layer instead of a liquid layer used in conventional stereolithography. In this paper, we propose the "direct masking method" in which a masking pattern is drawn directly on a gel layer surface to block harmful light exposure of photopolymer resin. With such masks, we can avoid surplus growth only in the regions where it is unnecessary to improve height direction accuracy and resolution. The possibility of surplus growth in the width direction caused by light reflection from the mask surface is pointed out, and the effect is analyzed and confirmed by simulation and experiment. This new surplus growth is termed "reflective surplus growth". Also, we can solidify the required section shape selectively using the masks and a lamp instead of laser scan patterns. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is discussed and confirmed by some experimental results.

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Authors tried the education of 3D CAD in addition to rapid-prototyping by using the stereolithography system which introduced it for the research intended for some faculty students, and confirmed the effectiveness, the possibility, and the problem which had to be considered. Then, the direct manufacturing with the rapid-prototyping was introduced into the subject of the 3D CAD education for the third grade pupil at the semester of winter from 1999 academic year. This paper reports on the passage, the result, and the obtained finding.

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The technique which can visualize distortion or the oscillating mode quickly and easily has been developed using the technique for making hologram easily and automatically with photo-conductor plastic processed by solvent vapour. A hologram can be made in several minutes by the compact optical system constructed on an optical rail base which prevents vibration, in the twilight room. Distortion or the oscillating mode are easily observed on real time by the technique of visualization using this method. Moreover, using this technique, we can visualize the vibration, distortion by heat or defects, such as a structure defect or a crack of the plat which is not visible without touching.

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A problem of impact between a structure and a cylindrical falling body is analyzed in this study using three different types of finite element models. A good estimation of the overall displacement of the structure is obtained using two-dimensional simple beam models. To know the local deformation of the structure more accurately, a three-dimensional model is made using beam and shell elements. It is seen from the results of 3-D model that the total displacement of the structure increases due to its local deformation, but it takes a very big CPU time compared to other simple models. This study may, therefore, help to decide and use a suitable analysis model according to the requirement of a particular impact problem.

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The 1995 Hyogoken Nanbu Earthquake caused enormous damage to Container Crane of Kobe Harbor. It was reported that a behavior of container crane under strong earthquakes involved uplifting and slipping of their legs. However, such behavior is not taken into consideration in the seismic design of crane, because of difficulty due to its nonlinearly. The purpose of this study is to establish the method of the seismic design of container crane by verifying the analysis method which are compared the result of vibration test of 1/15 scale model. This report describe the seismic isolation method to make verification by the nonlinear transient analysis of 3-D FEM model and vibration test.

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This paper proposes a cumulative function approximation method based on Voronoi diagram for engineering optimization. It consists of a function approximation by blending local information at sample points based on the spatial structure of Voronoi diagram, an estimation method of function gradients and an integrated optimization scheme over approximated functions. The algorithm can gradually improve the fidelity of optimal solution by adaptively arranging new samples and cumulatively updating approximations based on tentative optimization results. After describing the approximation method and optimization scheme, this paper demonstrates optimization computation of a two-dimensional optimization problem and discusses its promise.

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A structural optimization method is proposed for designing energy supply systems in consideration of their multi-period operation. The structural optimization problem is formulated as a large-scale mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem with binary variables for selection and on/off status of equipment, and continuous variables for capacities and energy flow rates of equipment. A decomposition method with a strategy for partitioning variables finely is applied to solve the large-scale MILP problem. Through a numerical case study, the validity and effectiveness of the structural optimization method proposed here is clarified in term of solution optimality and computation time.

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The final purpose of this study is to produce safety structures for human friendly robots. It is useful for the structures to absorb kinetic energy when the robots contact with person. Therefore, this paper proposes the rectangular tubes consist of corrugated-core sandwich skin (double skin) plates^<(1)> as a kind of safety structures, which is made up of aluminum sheet and paper. Their buckling-collapse behaviors and ultimate loads are discussed with FEA and experimental investigation with a Moire topography system.

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The final goal of this study is to produce safety structures for human friendly robots. This paper describes an experimental study on collapse and reversible behaviors of the specimens of polycarbonate circular pipe that are indented by round-shaped indenter at the midspan. From the experimental results, the load-displacement histeresis has a wide loop, namely high energy-absorbing ratio. The collapse loads and the energy-absorbing capabilities depend on the diameter of the pipes. The energy absorbing mechanism of the circular pipe is discussed.

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This paper proposes a novel approach to the determination of structural shapes that satisfy the requirement for high stiffness, lightweight and strength. In this method, the final shape is determined by the BEM-based fully stressed design. The shape is iteratively changed in such a way that the von Mises stress of all the material elements, σ_i (x_i), lies within an allowable stress region defined as σ_(lower) ≦ σ_i (x_i) ≦ σ_(upper). By making an appropriate choice of σ_(lower) and σ_(upper), this algorithm allows us to derive a lightweight structural shape with high stiffness and enough strength. As an example, this method was employed for the determination of the shape of a hook.

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As energy-absorbing structural elements in railway and other, this paper proposes 'square tubes with openings at corners', which can control maximum load and displacement independently. In order to elucidate axial crush behaviors and characteristics, we carried out static compression tests and FEA, and discussion the way to improve energy-absorbing efficiency of these structural elements. Further, dynamic crash behaviors were simulated with dynamic analysis of FEA.

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In the advanced industrialized countries, facing to the almost matured society with various products and technology, it is essential to take into consideration of various personal and social requirements, fully take care of preservation of global natural resources and environment, in process of New Products & Technology development. Therefore, the difinition of "Total Value" including "Humanity & Sociality Value" is proposed and the assessment is come to be required. And following to the definition of "Humanity & Sociality Value", some what in detail assessment of example products and technology is presented.

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A method for supporting industrial design with special attention paid to the diversity of Kansei was proposed to respond to the quickly diversifying customers' requirements. As Kansei is very individualistic in nature, a new approach is needed to accommodate the difference from person to person to really reflect the customer's preference in terms of Kansei or his or her personal evaluation Kansei feature. Therefore, such a method was developed which creates a different Kansei space for each different user, by applying a semantic differential method and a principal component analysis to the impression words. A prototype system was developed with cellular phones as samples and the usefulness of our method was demonstrated.

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At present, many seat functions for railway vehicles have been designed for assuring comfortable sitting posture. However, the priority of those seat functions has not been determined clearly. Moreover, since railway vehicle seats are public artifacts, the existing seat design under diverse conditions results in a low evaluation for the passengers. The objective of this study is to design for railway seat to assure comfortable sitting posture under diverse conditions. Firstly, we used Fuzzy AHP to determine the priority of the seat functions on the diverse subjects' evaluations of them. Secondly, the selected seat functions were optimized by using Robust Design Method for Diverse Conditions. As a result, we found that the forward-tilt function for the seat back and the swing-seat function were the most effective functions to assure comfortable sitting posture. In addition, under diverse conditions, an optimum design solution of relationships between back angle and cushion angle was proposed.

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In general, even the artifacts used in diverse conditions are designed for average condition. The diversity of conditions may cause low evaluation of those artifacts under any conditions. The present study attempted to construct a design method intended for diverse conditions. As a solution, we proposed a robust design method for diverse conditions. The distinctive features of the method from conventional robust design method are application of modeling of conditions, and simulation using the model. We applied this method to the design of swing-seat function. Through the application, we obtained the ideal relationship between the back angle and the cushion angle of the seat. This result corresponded to the experimental results measured the hip-sliding force and sensory evaluation. Thus, we verified the validity of this design method and showed the possibility of application of this design method.

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In this study, we will try to quantify kansei by using image processing. First, we will make image of rgb level of 2 dimension into 1 dimension and assume it as time series data. Then we will go through signal processing like FFT and derive 1/f deviation or dimension of fractal to quantify the image. Then, we will compare these values with kansei key words and derive some relationship between them to design a new product. In this study, we use this system to inside door for apartment house.

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Reaction constants are optimized by an artificial brain model including Genetic Algorithm (GA) and intuition model.

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The authors have been developing a large scale parallel CAE system. This paper describes the solver, named MPCluster, along with the viewpoint of Domain Decomposition Method (DDM) and the parallel CG method and the 11 million DOF's stress analysis of a railway bogie on a PC cluster. We obtained remarkable results of the stress distribution, and the performance of the solver is clarified.

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This paper is to introduce the method to acquire the static dynamic characteristic of Hydraulically damped rubber mount (HDM). First, an accurate constitutive model of elastic rubber material from test data. Uniaxial tension and compression tests of vibration isolation rubber for HDM are done. Then a FEM model of HDM is established. At last, the obtained static characteristic is verified by experiment.

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This paper describes the simulation scheme of the sloshing phenomenon using the Trefftz-type boundary element method. The phenomenon is governed by the Laplace equation with respect to the velocity potential. The governing equation is solved with the boundary conditions to determine the velocity components on the fluid surface. The surface is moved according to the velocity vector at each time step. Since, in the Trefftz method, the potential is approximated with the linear combination of the regular T-complete functions, the direct differentiation of the approximate expression leads to the velocity vector. Moreover, the acceleration vector is also estimated easily in the same way. This paper describes that the acceleration vector, in addition to the velocity vector is employed for the simulation and thus, the computational time can be reduced fairly. Finally, the present scheme is applied to the simulation of the sloshing phenomenon on the fluid in a rectangular vessel.

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We have depended the structure optimization program 3D Final Design. The CLAY MESH is the function of 3D Final Design and makes Basis Vector. There papers report verification about practicability of The CLAY MESH using some example of mesh.

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In the initial design stage, it is necessary to evaluate the products from various aspect, because the majority of the performance and the cost of the products are decided. In this paper, the authors suggests the framework of the integrated system for design and analysis, in which the design model is expressed by the concept of "Entity and Attribute Model", and the analysis model is expressed by the concept of "Analysis Module". The design engineers can arrange the integrated system by assembling the "Models" and "Modules" visually. The authors also implemented prototype system applied for the Project based Learning of Human Powered Vehicle in University of Tokyo, which supports the trial-and-error designing and helps the overall understanding of the students.

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In the very beginning of the motivation of FOA, I heard that it is used as design process with analysis whose models are easy enough to grasp overall tendency of the design for any of engineer and to obtain good design results it use optimization process. By using FOA, any engineer can share the basic concepts so that it might be possible to use as a tool for negotiation in the design. In this paper, I would like to consider the situation of design using CAE and show how important it is to use FOA as design negotiation tool.

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Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) has been widely accepted in many mechanical industries such as automotive industries. However, most mechanical designers, in fact, cannot utilize CAE applications by themselves because of the sophisticated operations and a huge amount of time for the analysis. Recently, the concept of a new CAE, First Order Analysis (FOA), has been proposed in order to overcome these problems. In this paper, we present the topology optimization method based on beam and panel elements for FOA. First, an approach to embody the concept of FOA is described. Next, a multi-objective optimization problem to deal with the multiple loading problem is formulated, and the optimization procedure is developed based on the ground structure approach and sequential convex programming. Finally, some examples are provided to confirm the optimization method proposed here.

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CAE numerically estimates the performance of automobiles and proposes alternative ideas that lead to the higher performance. However, most automotive designers cannot directly utilize CAE since specific well-trained engineers are required to achieve sophisticated operations. Moreover, CAE requires a huge amount of time and many modelers to construct an analysis model. In this paper, we propose a new concept of CAE, First Order Analysis (FOA), in order to overcome these problems and to quickly obtain optimal designs. The basic ideas include (1) graphic interfaces using Microsoft/Excel (2) use of sophisticated formulations based on the theory of mechanics of material, (3) the topology optimization method. Further, some prototypes of software are presented to confirm the method for FOA.

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The elastic properties of a torsion beam suspension determine the kinematic performance of the suspension. In the design phase, the numerical analysis such as the finite element analysis is usually utilized in order to estimate this suspension performance. However, most automotive designers cannot directly perform this analysis because specific skills are required to achieve sophisticated operation. In this paper, we apply a new concept of CAE, First Order Analysis, to the suspension design in order to overcome this problem. Further, we introduce a design program of the torsion beam suspension based on this concept, and confirm the usefulness of this program using simple examples.

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Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) has been widely utilized in automotive industries in ten years. CAE makes it possible to quantitatively estimate a variety of automotive performance, and to propose an alternative idea to improve it. However, most automotive designers cannot directly utilize CAE since specific well-trained engineers are required to achieve sophisticated operations. In order to overcome this problem, a new concept of CAE, First Order Analysis (FOA), is proposed. In this paper, A new optimization method based on the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is developed for the shape optimization in FOA, and its validity and effectiveness are confirmed using a simple numerical example.

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We shall reconstruct two or/and three dimensional geometry from the image data obtained by X-ray CT scanning equipment for reverse engineering. To this end, instead of using Bezier and B-splines, as well as NURBS, we shall introduce a new method to approximate geometry by using the finite element approximation applied in FOA (First Order Analysis) that has been developed in design of, for example, automotive body structures. Furthermore, FOA approach is applied not only to approximate a given geometry but also to generate a finite element mesh of a curved shell.

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The urgent issues for an automobile company today are how to reduced the time and cost required for developing a new car. CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) has been regarded as an efficient way to solve these issues, and as a numerical experiment to replace prototypes and experiments. Recently the necessity for FOA (First Order Analysis) is under discussion. This refers to CAE that covers processes such as project planning and grand design, which have not been paid much attention so far. FOA is expected to help designers create basic design and eventually, to reduce time for the entire production.

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