We have been developing the methodology for planning and designing new products based on voice of the customer (VoC). Increasingly, customers desire products that embody new values and they are not satisfied merely by improvements of existing functions. A systematic technology and support environment are indispensable in order to extract requirements adequately and efficiently from a huge number of VoC and various abstract levels of VoC, and to increase the quality of the understanding of requirements. We have developed LIVEVOICE^<TM>, a powerful requirement extraction tool that provides these functions and operates. Requirement trees generated by it provide project members with powerful support to facilitate understanding of the whole structure of customer requirements (CR) and to analyze requirement extraction processes. The project members can record ideas and concepts for reuse systematically and automatically during the process of requirement extraction. Use of this methodology enabled us to reduce Quality Function Deployment (QFD) errors, and consequently, establish agile and competitive product planning that achieves higher customer satisfaction (CS).

View full abstract

In order to perform the planning and the designing new products based on the customer requirements (CR) accurately and systematically, we had developed QFDNavi^<TM> to support QFD (Quality Function Deployment) process, which relates the CR to the engineering metrics systematically. To set up the design target specification based on the CR, we introduced the evaluation method of the cost-weight (importance rating) and of the customer satisfaction (CS) impact. Using these methods, we did the quality deployment efficiently and improved the design quality. Consequently, we verified the validity of this method equipped with the function that reduces QFD errors and that navigates QFD activity, and this tool is utilized in many internal projects.

View full abstract

This paper proposes a computerized method of industrial design aid by suggesting combinations of shape- and color- characteristics different from existing designs as hints for new design. First, feature indices to represent and quantify shape- and color- characteristics of industrial designs are mathematically defined. Then, the feature indices are calculated for an existing industrial design case obtained as 3-D CAD data or 3-D shape scanning data of real product. The calculated feature indices represent the design case in a feature index space. By collecting such feature index vectors for existing design cases and finding new points in the space which are as far from any of the existing vectors as possible, new combinations of shape- and color- characteristics different from existing designs should be obtained. The proposed method is implemented as a program using simulated annealing and applied to designs of "card stands".

View full abstract

In a mature marketplace of mass-produced products, most industrially manufactured consumer goods cannot be easily distinguished simply on the basis of their engineering. Given only small differences in product engineering, customers increasingly base their purchasing decisions on the degree to which their aesthetic and emotional preferences are fulfilled, not how well the product functions. Current designers must consider users' personal preferences and sensibilities, if they are to offer well-designed and appealing products in a competitive marketplace. This paper proposes an analytic method for extracting criteria relating to human sensibilities and product aesthetics that reflect the demands of potential customers and environments that the products will be used at. Two aspects are analyzed: the "self-assertion" of the product, and its "environmental fit". The analysis also suggests a method for applying these criteria in order to maximize a given product's human appeal, rather than its technical superiority.

View full abstract

It is said that 1/f deviation is good for relaxation of human life. On assumption of that, we try to make a kansei design tool to introduce 1/f deviation to designing product. In this study, we make up a system that can calculate 1/f deviation in an image, and that can fill 1/f deviation in some image to the other image. As an example, we fill 1/f deviation to some simple image to make up something like natural wood pattern to show the effectiveness of the method.

View full abstract

An industrial design supporting system where customer can join the design process was proposed to respond to the quickly changing and diversifying customers' requirements. Our system was based on Interactive Evolutionary Computing (IEC) technique so a customer can exteriorize his or her requirement through a Kansei image by interacting with the system. We applied our system to a shape design of an eyeglass frame. The design of the Eyeglass frame was determined not only by itself but also in harmony with the customers' face. In our system, the user evaluates samples suggested by the system, and then he or she can obtain the desired design gradually. The systems' effectiveness was showed by experimentation of user operation and additional questionnaires.

View full abstract

People become familiar with almost all the contents of S/T through browsing of digitized world, then will have a feeling on S/T, and sometimes will get the insight on it too. They will co-create "something" by chance, not only in the direction on the so called leading edge" but also in another direction in a holistic environment conscious way with a human-centered view rather than a earth, S/T and economy-centered view. Decision making sequences by people for different subjects are analyzed to extract common features of engineering decisions. Co-creation engineering will focus on understanding of a certain kind of mature creativity by people there and on its implementation as a system to help people for their own adventure to find out values and solutions by themselves for the society. This paper is one of draft plans which will lead to explore a new field by people, namely, co-creation engineering for such ill-structured problems as environment issues, landscape design and maintenance, engineering of complex systems.

View full abstract

In this paper, we propose a research methodology for increasing service values, mainly based on customization that adapts service contents to the need of customers. We call this research as engineering for digital value, because the essential part is based on digital technology. First, we discuss problems that most products and their technology have failed to generate long-term economic values, although the high quality and low prices have been achieved. Since this tendency can be very widely observed, we believe that it is important to investigate a new value-creation mechanism for mature or maturing technology. Our basic approach is developing technologies for designing customizable products, and modifying services according to customers' needs. For realizing such environment, we itemize basic components of customizable products, and describe research topics to be solved.

View full abstract

This paper proposes the concepts of service modeling. First, the paper discusses the motivation and background of focusing on services and identifies the primary methods for servicification. It then tries to define service and categorize services according to this categorization, followed by identification of service design engineering, service manufacturing engineering, and service development engineering. Lastly, the paper tries to outline what service modeling should consider and what the elements of a service modeling tool are.

View full abstract

Service Enginerering is a new engineering idea which aims at increasing service and knowledge contents of added values generated in prpduct life cycle. Under pressures from global environmental problems, this is a critical concept for dematerialization of economy and manufacturing activities. In this report, we reconside the concept of Service Engineering and make the required specifications of channels in service engineering clear.

View full abstract

As a place for co-creation, one interactive WWW site is under construction so as to prepare a freedom of design. This site consists of products from such projects as "Data & Engineering", "Landscape Materials", "Virtual Engineering", "Materials Design" and "Dream Driven Artifacts", and three subjects, which are now under browsing of solution spaces and formulation as inverse problems, are introduced as milestones for establishing key technologies for Da Vinci Factory, namely, multi-scale modeling, multi-operational manufacturing and multi-criteria solution. These preparations are to be abstracted into a new engineering field, i.e., co-creation engineering.

View full abstract

The data exchange through network is required for widely using 3D geometric data so that geometry compression is very important for the geometric data transferring. This paper proposes a new efficient compression method for NURBS surfaces. In our method, a NURBS surface is encoded using its boundary curves and two types of difference data. The differences are represented using distances only, or distances and orientations according to the accuracy needed by receivers. The boundary curves and the differences are compressed using Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). Types of difference data and DCT parameters can control the tradeoff between the compression ratio and the accuracy.

View full abstract

In engineering activities, management of designers' knowledge is becoming crucial to share and reuse it efficiently. Toward this issue, we are studying a methodology to capture the designer's thought process, and to semi-automatically arrange it into a refined document, which addresses a particular objective with particular thought patterns. The key issues of this methodology are to acquire the thought patterns and to define relations among them. This paper reports our algorithm to acquire thought patterns from a record of designer's thought processes and any other types of documents including patent documents and academic papers. We employ a knowledge discovery approach which is recently discussed in data mining research.

View full abstract

The developed in recent years efficient subdivision technique has certain advantages of other modeling methods. We describe here our new results on application of Modified Butterfly interpolation subdivision scheme to triangular finite element mesh generation. The surface of an initial object is represented by a scanned data or in a NURBS form. Our computer programs illustrate the methods.

View full abstract

The development of the high performance computer and network, and accumulation of information contents, such as data and software attained development of the advanced design system. However, in order to make this possibility actual, development of large-scale and complicated software is indispensable, and the new architecture of the software for a design is needed. In this paper, the new architecture, which integrates the existing information contents on a high performance computer and network environment, is proposed. This new architecture is called taskflow. While establishing the concept of a task flow, the taskflow was applied to the materials design, and the virtual experiment system for materials design was developed. The concept of taskflow and virtual experiment system are explained. The efficiency of the new architecture of the software for a design was confirmed.

View full abstract

Finite element method using SO(3), which is named special orthogonal group, is formulated by decomposing deformation gradient tensor into SO(3) and stretch tensor. Then, tangent stiffness' using four types of stress rates, which are Truesdell, Jaumann, Green and Linear stress rates, are obtained. Next, euler-buckling analyses and post-buckling analyses using beam elements of this formulation are made. As a result, the buckling loads of the beam element using Linear stress rate are perfectly the same as Timoshenko's theoretical solutions and the results of post-buckling analyses of the beam element using Linear stress rate are also perfectly the same as the solutions of elastica.

View full abstract

The Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method has been developed as one of meshless scheme for astrophysical problems and now has been widely used in practical engineering problems. SPH implemented in a commercial nonlinear software LS-DYNA was applied to the drop simulation of aluminium can containing fluid and the water jet nozzle simulation and realistic results were obtained.

View full abstract

Numerical simulation is an efficient tool to investigate oceans and atomospher phenomena. It is desirable to use observation data in the simulation. Data assimilation is used to get proper initial and boundary conditions for forecasting and producing four-dimensional (time and space) data of weather and climate. In this study four-dimensional variational method was used to obtain initial conditions and surface fluxes for an ocean general circulation model which produces a dynamically consistent seasonally varying climate data set.

View full abstract

This paper describes very high performance parallel FEM solver for large structural problems, which we named CGCG (Coarse Grid based CG) method The algorithm is based on coarse grid based domain-decomposition and the parallel CG method. The solver is incorporated with ADVentureCluster, which has been developed based on ADVENTURE system.

View full abstract

Design optimization in mechanical engineering has been very popular nowadays and number of algorithms and softwares are proposed. However, it is not so widely recognized that before finding improved optimum solution, finding and establishing feasible region is necessary. And,in some cases, it would be hard work rather than improving objective function. Most of non-linear programing algorithms need initial design point being set within constraints or just allow a little violation of constrains. Popular meta-heuristic algorithms, such like Genetic Algorithm(GA) and Simulated Annealing(SA) , are in same situation regarding demand of constraints satisfaction. So, to success optimization in such infeasible problem, it is necessary to establish feasible region before starting. We proposes non linear discriminant analysis as such method. Discriminant analysis is one of common methods in multi-valiate analysis in statistical analysis.

View full abstract

MSC.GS-Mesher is a standalone meshing tool that requires no manual geometry cleanup prior to meshing, and the mesh itself is applied to the native geometry, removing the need to translate the CAD model into another environment. With MSC.GS-Mesher, the time taken to mesh CAD models is greatly reduced, and the process much simplified. This paper describes the new meshing technology with MSC.GS-Mesher and includes several application examples.

View full abstract

Based on the improved mode superposition method proposed by Z. D. Ma and I. Hagiwara, a high precision and high efficiency mode synthesis method is developed. The calculation procedure is discussed in detail and the truncation error is also analyzed. By comparison, it was shown that this method has a higher accuracy and a less calculation time than the general used ones.

View full abstract

The target of "Design Engineering" is to feed back its research activities into actual design process. However, the gap between research activities and actual design is not so small Introduction of "Actual Design" should be accelerated. This paper presents "Vibration Isolation Design for Space Equation" and tries to make "Actual Design" clear.

View full abstract

This study aims to investigate a possibility of a 3-D human model constructed by using FEM to simulate the dynamic behaviour of human body seated in such as a car seat. The configuration of the FEM model and the properties of the finite elements composing the human model were empirically defined through trial-and-error method. Firstly, the dynamical behaviours of the FEM model under periodic vibrations were simulated with harmonic analysis to compare with the actual behaviours experimentally measured under the same vibration conditions. Next, the same FEM model also was applied to transient response analysis to compare the simulated results with the actual behaviours measured in the actual running test of a car. As a result, it was clarified that the dynamical behaviour of the upper parts of the human model were almost consistent with the actual behaviour, while the behaviour of the lower parts were quite different to the actual lower parts behaviour.

View full abstract

Laboratory simulation of sound and vibration in cars have been used to investigate the effect of infra-sound on ride comfort caused by steady vibration and impact harshness. In the first experiment using steady vibration, subjects sitting on a seat attached to vibrators were asked to evaluate the magnitude of discomfort caused by sound. The results showed that audible sound and vibration reduced the discomfort caused by infra- and low frequency sound. In the second experiment using shock due to impact harshness, subjects were asked to judge the magnitude of shock caused by transient vibration transmitted to subjects' bodies and total discomfort caused by both shock and sound. It was shown that sound did not affect evaluations of the magnitude of shock, but that evaluations for total discomfort were influenced by sound, and in particular by infra-sound.

View full abstract

In order for the prediction of radiation noise from vane pump for hydraulic power steering system, an analysis of vibration in actual operating condition caused by internal pressure fluctuation was conducted. From the investigation of the relation between near field noise and vibration in actual operating condition, source of noise was made clear. Also, from the measurement of eigen mode and order tracking analysis, principal modes and frequency, order number and rotating speed were made clear. From the vibration analysis of the pump and high pressure hose, mechanism to generate radiation noise and the effects of structure modification was clarified.

View full abstract

An important issue in noise suppression of structures, machinery such as automobiles and aircrafts is found by the precise information on source locations and noise radiation characteristics and to work out the countermeasure plans effectively. In the point of view of noise reductions, noise source identification has to be the basic issue. Experiment data of Nearfield Acoustical Holography (NAH) include all kinds of noise. Therefore it is impossible to get precise result without removing noise. In this paper, the basic theory of discrete wavelet analysis and techniques to identify the multiple noise sources are investigated. And the validity of the system of NAH method are made sure by comparison of Hanning Window method with Fast Wavelet Transform (FWT).

View full abstract

The pressure on development cycles in the automotive industry forces the acoustical engineers to create awareness of sound quality in the early stages of development, perhaps even before a physical prototype is available. Currently, designers have few tools to help them listen to their "virtual" models. For the design of a synthesis platform of in-vehicle binaural sound, the sound should be modeled with almost identical sound quality perception. A concept is presented where the total sound of a vehicle is split in a number of components, each with its own sound characteristics. These characteristics are described in a signal model that allows the analysis of an existing sound into a limited number of signal components: orders-frequency spectra, time envelopes and time recordings. The introduction of this sound synthesis concept in a hybrid model consisting of networks of transfer paths, force inputs and noise sources will allow the evaluation of the impact of changes to structural components on the sound quality of invehicle sound. This publication will report on the experience gained and the progress made in these fields.

View full abstract

Nowadays, regulations and consumer awareness concerning the environment have caused product manufacturers to design and manage environmentally conscious supply chains. This paper provides a simulation-based approach to designing such an environmentally conscious supply chain involving reverse logistics (I.e., logistics of the collection and recovery of discarded products and materials.) This approach evaluates a supply chain from two viewpoints: the environmental load and the economical aspect (cost, benefit, and profitability) of every company's business included in the supply chain. To evaluate it, the approach models and simulates the material and money flows between and in the companies and/or factories, by using colored petri nets. The simulation reveals: whether each of the companies obtains a profit; how heavy the environmental load is; whether the capacity of each company or factory is enough; and how much capacity of a factory is required if the factory is planned to be built and its capacity has not been determined. As the validation example, we applied the approach to the location allocation problem of disassembly factories, in which we assumed that the other components of the supply chain have been determined. As a result, we found the optimal number, locations, capacities of disassembly factories.

View full abstract

Closing product life cycles without economic and environmental disadvantages is one of the important techniques to realize inverse manufacturing. Reuse of used products is one of the promising approaches to achieve these closed-loop life cycles. But it is difficult to secure a necessary amount of the used products, because when and how many products are disposed are entirely dependent on consumers' behaviors. To address this problem it is indispensable to deal with the flow of discarded products. In this paper we illustrate the life cycle simulation system assuming the model of consumer and discuss the strategy of facilitating reuse of used products considering the simulation result about the distribution of discarded product.

View full abstract

This paper describes a methodology to support product life cycle management based on evaluation of service value. In addition to life cycle costing and environmental impacts analyses, service value is introduced. Usage modes, product structures and life cycle scenarios are modeled for simulating life cycle management. A life cycle scenario is defined considering usage modes and referred for controlling the circulation of products and executing maintenance and other processes. Life cycles of products are simulated with modifying management scenarios and product configurations under the constraint of usage modes and product structures. Finally a scenario that can achieve the highest service value is selected.

View full abstract

Conventional products tend to be thrown away because of functional obsoleteness before reaching the end of physical life of the products. This is one of the main causes of the mass disposal problem. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a design methodology for upgradable products. Especially, this paper discusses a method dealing with uncertainty of long-term planning in the design methodology. The proposed method deals with uncertainty as ranges of parameter values, and derives a design solution that realizes required upgrades, while adapting to estimated uncertainty. This method makes a design object robust and tolerant against the uncertainty and, therefore, makes design for upgradability more feasible.

View full abstract

Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) are widely accepted in many mechanical industries such as automotive industries. However, CAE applications are not utilized in the design phase 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 research, we develop a structural topology optimization methodology in FOA. This optimization method is constructed based on beam elements. The cross sectional dimensions such as the cross sectional area and rotational angle with respect to the principal axis, and the topological configurations of beams are simultaneously treated as design variables. The optimization procedure is developed based on the ground structure approach. Finally, some examples are provided to confirm the optimization method proposed here.

View full abstract

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. Moreover, the cross-section generation tool is added to easily create FOA model from FEM data and to easily evaluate the yielding state.

View full abstract

An integrated system with both Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) has been developed. Most of these systems mainly focus on the effectiveness of constructing Finite Element (FE) model In these systems, a FE model is automatically constructed and calculation is automatically carried out. But a good design candidate cannot be obtained since some analysis tools for finding out it effectively are not included. In this paper, firstly some problems in current CAE systems are made clear. Secondly, in order to overcome these problems, two new analyses, that are FOA( First Order Analysis) in a concept design phase and a optimization tool based on a reduction technique in detailed design phase, are presented. Finally, in order to perform these analyses in a integrated system, a few concepts of necessary technique are proposed.

View full abstract

When machine product designs are determined, numerous and disparate design alternatives concerning design parameters such as shapes, dimensions, materials and other properties of each part must be considered. In order to achieve successful design solutions, criteria values must be calculated using this plethora of design alternatives. But the extent and number of such calculations create severe inefficiencies and lengthen the design development process that, ideally, should be as brief as possible. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes an efficient method for selecting alternative designs that are preferable for the given set of criteria weightings, focusing on the influence the alternatives have on each criterion.

View full abstract

This paper introduces "Mechanical Engineering Design Project" offered to the junior class students of the department of mechanical engineering and science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, since 1993. This is a very challenging subject to seek and establish a new style of education on design engineering. In every year, over 80% junior students of the department take the subject. At first, every student proposes a new machine based on his/her own unique idea. Five proposals are accepted. Then, all students join to one of the five design teams. Each team makes all its members' efforts to design and produce a unique machine. Design drawing and cost accounting are required. One of the most important aims of this subject is to let students experience the enjoyment and the difficulty of designing machines.

View full abstract

This paper reports the experiences of the Delta design game, which was invented by Bucciarelli for educating the meaning of team-cooperation, the role of design representation and so forth through a short and small design exercise. After discussing the form of design knowledge under its formalism, the contrast between articulated one and tacit one, and its dynamism, the content of the game is summarized, and then protocol analysis of three cases of game playing is partially executed. It reveals some characteristics of design knowledge dynamism such that active communication accelerates conceptual design and discovery of effective heuristics. Based on these results, the importance and necessity of education of process knowledge is posed for discussion.

View full abstract

This paper describes a trial of design education using CAE on stress concentration problems, in which GUI and automatic mesh generation capabilities of CAE software such as "NASTRAN for Windows" have great power for students to comprehend mechanics of material and to be interested in design engineering. In CAE approach, inaccuracy of values at stress concentrated parts has been discussed and improved by some researchers. Here, the author proposes the idea, called "method of extrapolation of mesh size to zero", and evaluates its adaptability and limitation.

View full abstract

Conceptual design in the upper stage of design process, namely creativeness design is the most difficult process of thinking done in the first stage of a design of product manufacturing. When it is introduced into design of a university education, it is accompanied with various kinds of difficulty. At first, in design drawing education in mechanical engineering, a curriculum is to be finished only by all kinds of specification, drawing by an satisfy of strength calculation and interference check to satisfy with a function. It is actually that there is no enough time considering the conceptual design. Furthermore, there is not a teaching method, and it is necessary for systematization of a leader to teach this field to. So, in this report, it is introduced problems and this of concept design into university education and describes the present policy to think about automation of this field in society more. It is necessary at first to measure acquirement of the database design concept which changed into it with education on the basis of knowledge engineering and this in a small group in teaching design in a current university without a custom to think about by oneself from the time of a child. It is for the present impossible to do generating of a product from if there is nothing at all.

View full abstract

This paper describes 3D-CAD design education for mechanical engineering students in Kochi University of Technology. After 4 design examples are given and designed by 3D-CAD, one free design is required in one quarter of 3^<rd> year. Based on the design exercise, a real product which was actually manufactured was the design target. The product is a small-sized wind power generator using rare earth magnet materials, which was expected to show higher power generation capability than the conventional power generator. By making the design target a real production one, the design education is considered to be realistic even if the target is simple.

View full abstract

It is discussed that our conventional design education seems to have been of agricultural type. We have been endeavoring to obtain better quality products from the same field. But to cope with the quickly changing and widely diversifying needs from the customers, our design education needs to be changed from this agricultural type to hunting type, where strategy plays a more important role than tactics. In the upcoming design situation, we have to first define a goal which must be adequately determined between the producer and the customer. In this sense, communication between the producer and the customer is very important. Project Based Learning should be understood in such a way and we should make efforts to integrate more communication aspects into our design education.

View full abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate a remote laboratory on electric motors using high-speed networks between Japan and the U.S. A client situated at Stanford University (California, U.S.A.) accessed the remote lab system set up in Japan. Through this client, the remotely located user operated the motors and conducted experiments. The remote lab was conducted over a high quality digital video conference system, making it possible for both sides to communicate smoothly with each other, and for the remote user to observe close-up details of the lab including the motor's fine movements. Using a network bandwidth of 15-30 Mbps, the authors were able to demonstrate the validity of the remote lab experiment.

View full abstract

Our experience from shared class with Stanford University over the network is described. What we have learned from this shared class are the importance of goal identification, the difficulty of negotiating with the constraints, the difficulty of communicating concepts or intents and the difference of team working. Lessons learned are described.

View full abstract

In this paper, we will develop a new type of adaptive range genetic algorithms (ARange GAs) for scheduling problem. Within the scheduling problem, we wifl treat so called traveling salesman problems. These problems are very classic type of the problem but it is very important in bringing the product to the customers especially in the industry like daily use products. In TSP problem, GAs has been successfully used and its effectiveness is so well known. However, we need exhaustive computational time to obtain global optimum solution. Which means that it is only effective in some small case of the problem. In order to overcome such situation, we use the essence of ARange GAs that has been effectively developed for mixed valuable case. We applied the proposed method in some problem and showed the effectiveness of the method.

View full abstract

Genetic Algorithm consisted of three genetic operators, 〜reproduction, crossover and mutation〜, is called simple GA Simple GA may be applied to many optimization problem which includes discrete variables or/and functions, but sometimes it does not work well. This paper explains the several innovations that were proposed to improve the reliability and efficiency of simple GA. They are growth operator for combinatorial problem, column remedy of missing bits for also combinatorial problem, big mutation for both of combinatorial and scheduling problem, coding method for the problem that includes both of the combinatorial and the scheduling problem, and also coding method for the scheduling problem in which the preceding operations are included.

View full abstract

In case it moves in the underground passage which became intricate in three dimensions, maintenance of the sign environment of a guidance display board or a guidance map influences the convenience of the whole underground passage. Then, by this research, the display information on a guidance display board is observed, and the system which supports construction of more intelligible sign environment is devised by changing display information. It thinks that action of a man and sign environment are in the state from emergence in an underground passage, and the simulation of the crowd in an underground passage is carried out using AL technology. The simulation is made into an evaluation function, and it carries out GA execution, using "the display information on a guidance display board" as a gene.

View full abstract

This paper proposes new design parameter CD (curvature deviation) that indicate complexity of the total shape with a single value. By this parameter, Designers can express the relation between the shape (free form surface) and it's attribute (manufacturability) as the equation with ease. In general, the bigger CD is, the worse manufacturability is, and so, CD will be criteria of this attribute. Besides, designers can make new free form surface to the smooth direction by CD value. As an example, this method was employed for generating the relational expression between section shape of the hook and the maximum load of die forging.

View full abstract