In recent years we have seen in such areas as product design the increasing importance of the level of sensibility that enhances such added values as design onto engineering scale. In sync with this, Interactive Genetic Algorithm (IGA) has drawn attention. IGA is an optimization method using a genetic algorithm (GA) where the evaluation of the individuals is performed by a user. IGA is optimized by a pseudoconversation by the one to one of man and the computer. In this paper, we propose Global Asynchronous Distributed Interactive Genetic Algorithm (GADIGA) as an algorithm for creating better design solutions with many people without synchronization.

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To respond recent diversifying customer's needs of a product, one of the most vital work is to figure out customer's evaluation criterion of a product. Furthermore, emotional needs such as styling and user-friendliness, which is difficult to quantify, have been important factors with multitude of products having similar performance. Truly effective evaluation criteria often hide in customer's subconscious level, which is not easy to extract with frequency based statistics of conscious interviews, which is commonly used. In this paper, we propose an experimental method to externalize latent customer's evaluation criteria for product design. In this method, first, conscious perspectives for evaluating a product are extracted with evaluation grid method. Next, the extracted evaluation perspectives are mutually reviewed among the subjects and find effective latent evaluation criteria. We carried out an experiment based on the proposing method with a shape of pet bottle. With the experimental result, we show that there are more effective perspectives in the minority one than in the majority one and the effectiveness of unexpected perspectives extracted from another subject.

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In the process of design, contributions of various factors such as forms, colors and materials to a product impression are analyzed by kansei (i.e., feeling, emotion and sensitivity) evaluation experiments to obtain design guidelines or strategies. To clarify influences of information presentation styles on kansei evaluation, we the authors conducted kansei evaluation experiments using different image presentation styles, such as sketch rendering, shading, cartoon (non-photo-real) rendering and photo-real rendering, and different image sizes, such as images of smaller size than the actual product on a computer display and images of the actual product size on a projection screen. In this paper, the method and results of the experiments are described and possible influences of information presentation styles on kansei evaluation results are discussed.

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In many cases, 3-dimentional curved surface is used for the exterior design of the car and the home electrical appliances, and industrial designer produces main surface of the products based on his own feeling and experiences. In this research, we pick up the single element of the curved surface design which composes the surface of the product and we try to make quantitative evaluation from the technological viewpoint of the Kansei-Engineering. Specifically, we investigate how the impression changes between two samples, one has curved surface with a single section changes and the other doesn't have. Taking questionnaires to the examinee about the impression of compared samples, we analyze the results by the SD method. Through this experiment, we want to build the quantitative evaluation algorithm of the influence which the shape curvature gives the feelings of the human being. The evaluation objects are 3 types, and the adjective words which evaluate an object are 12 pairs. We had 12 examinees that are very determinative.

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In this research, we study quantitative evaluation of how the impression is affected by changing curvature in the axial direction on the side of circular cylinders. This study is motivated by considering the shape design of containers such as drink cans. Experiments are conducted by showing three types of objects in two different manners: first the objects are presented one by one and next the three objects are presented simultaneously. The examinees are asked to choose appropriate measure expressed by a pair of opposite adjectives in the questionnaires. These responses are numerically analyzed by the SD method frequently used in psychological metrology. Some tendencies are clarified in the factorial analysis.

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Aluminum bottle cans with caps are containers that can be resealed again and again as well as PET bottles. Aluminum bottle cans have a feature to recycle better many times than PET bottles. To improve drinking ease of aluminum bottles, three kinds of bottle calibers including familiar two kinds of dimensions are investigated based on a method of kansei engineering and numerical fluid analysis.

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This paper studies the opening characteristic of aluminum bottles with screw caps. In order to examine the opening characteristic, opening experiments and measurements of friction coefficient and contact state between the bottle and cap have been performed. An analysis technique of estimating the 1st torque when unscrewing the cap is proposed in consideration of the experimental results. The estimation agrees with the measurement of the 1st torque in general. It is necessary to take the relation between the friction coefficient and contact pressure into consideration to improve the estimation accuracy. This studies result was able to show the directivity for good openability of an aluminum bottle.

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In recent years, many kinds of sign sounds have come into use in our daily life. The purpose of sign sounds is to communicate a message. However the ease of message understanding and listening comfort have rarely been taken into consideration. Because people have different tastes and attach a different "image" to sign sounds according to their individual sensibility, it is important for each person to be able to make melodies freely and easily, and customize sign sounds. We propose a sign sounds design system using an Interactive Genetic Algorithm (IGA). The proposed system produces a melody of two bars based on this IGA. A melody is considered to be a sort of "organism," whose chromosome consists of genes indicating the length, pitch, and velocity of the notes of the melody. Experimental results showed that this system is effective for generating sign sounds.

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In the early process of design, not "optimal design" which derives a unique design solution by local search which passes through the top-down process but "emergent design" which derives diverse design solutions by global search which passes through a bidirectional process (top-down process and bottom-up process) is mainly performed. Based on the viewpoint of a multilevel design model, this paper describes the positioning of the "emergent design" in design process, the possibility of "emergent design" as the design method, and the outline of the emergent design system using the cellular automata which embedded the mechanism of morphogenesis.

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Diverse satisfactory design ideas of form and structure must be obtained under the constraint of unclear design conditions in conceptual and preliminary design. Designers depend on either their experience or their knowledge for obtaining diverse ideas. In the past study, we proposed an emergent design method that was able to obtain the diverse solution candidates was proposed. In the present study, this system was applied to development of the artificial hip aiming at the construction of the emergent design system that generates diverse three dimension form based on the proposal method. The possibility of utilizing this system for the artifact design is shown by comparing with the solutions derived from this system and past optimization method.

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The body lightening of the car is an important problem in the development of a new car. Conventional optimum design methods are difficult to apply in the early process of design referred to as conceptual and preliminary design, in which many design conditions are not completely defined. We applied the proposed emergent design system that can obtain diverse design ideas under the constraint of a few design conditions by globally searching within the solution space to the body in white vehicle and compared with the conventional optimum design methods. The proposed system produced diverse design ideas that have bending, torsion, front impact, and side impact strength equivalent to conventional optimum design methods.

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In this paper, we will explain our collaborative PBL between academic and industry in Kagawa University. We have strarted this program since 2004. We asked local industry to give our students a theme which they are interested in, but which is not clearly defined. Then three or four students make team to solve that problem. They start from thinking about what they are required. They have discussed and negotiate to define their theme for detail. Then, they will benchmark and propose a solution for the problem. From these processes, we expect them to get ability of team working, referencing, negotiation and collaboration.

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Latest atmosphere demands revolution of higher education in Japan. Japan Central Council for Education set its objectives to systematization and quality assurance. Under such movements, Graduate Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University is now developing "Graduate Education Program of Design and Integration Capability" under the MEXT's scheme entitled "Initiatives for Attractive Education in Graduate Schools." Today's meaning of design is expanding from functional ensureance to value creation. It turns the definition of mechanical engineering graduate education over both synthesis and analysis and to learning and communication capabilities beyond knowledge itself. With their recognition, the program introduces a product design subject which integrates design methodology education and project-based learning over industry-sponsored design problems, several graduate-level fundamental subjects, and the depth area system in which elective subjects are categorized into several areas based on their specialty. This report describes the objectives, undertakings, promises, etc. of the program.

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This paper is concerned with a graduate course on product design and development methodology under the Project-Based Learning (PBL) system conducted in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University. The course, called Product Design, is composed of a series of lectures on design-for-X methodologies and projects on product design problems sponsored by industrial partners. In this paper, we first give a general description about Product Design such as its position within the whole curriculum and course schedule. Next, we present the content and progress of our project which is related to space system design undertaken in this course. Finally, we discuss about our experience gained through this unique course and its effectiveness from the perspective of graduate students.

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This paper develops a design method and design system of product family architecture considering variety of lineups, profit of platform modules and lifecycle scenario. Computational and graphical model of product family architecture is proposed as the summation of all product architectures in lineup. Based on the product family model, the design problem of interface generalization is formalized as the option generation of product. The platform module design is described as the generalized module architecture design across all lineup of the product family. Decision making system is developed considering the value of product family, variety of lineups, cost reduction effect of platform modules and cost of design change. The product family architecture design method addresses: (1) how to formalize the product family and platform modules to describe computationally ; (2) how to evaluate the difficulty of design change, merit and cost of platform module and the variety of lineup ; (3) How to make decision on the product architecture design considering product family strategy.

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Many product failures are caused by hidden interactions between components. A hazardous or unexpected product behavior is derived by a combination of design cases of component. The interactions between components have to be considered especially in the configuration design stage of existing components, because design knowledge of existing components often lost its interactions. This paper proposes a design methodology for intended and unintended interactions between components as one system. A computational model of a required product behavior, component and parts behavior and attribute state change is proposed. Hazardous interactions between components that derive unintended product behavior is calculated and warned to a designer. The designer can avoid hazardous interactions that cause unintended product behavior by warning from this system.

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A recent manufacturer fases various challenges of product development, such as increasingly complicated systems, sophisticated components, diversifying product variety, and shortening lead time. Toward competitive power in a market, a manufacture has to plan a design process in order to appropriately allocate engineers, time and budget to appropriate tasks. This research aims at proposing a methodology of planning design process by team assignment and task scheduling, and of evaluating a design process plan quantitatively by achievement of design quality and lead time. This paper discusses issues of design process planning and introduces axioms from a viewpoint of progressive nature of design. A hypothetical model for quantitative evaluation of design process is proposed in order to make the issues clear.

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The research issues of life cycle design include dematerialization of products and deployment of product service systems, which are common to the research issues of service engineering. On the other hand, stronger constraints are imposed on life cycle engineering than on service engineering ; that is, coexistence of environmental consciousness and economical profitability, which ultimately aims at the sustainable society. This paper compares service engineering with life cycle engineering and discusses commonality and difference between them. The difference mainly comes from the fact that, on the one hand, life cycle engineering is a mission-oriented engineering but, on the other hand, service engineering is not.

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To reconsider the current mass production paradigm and to make products have more added values largely from knowledge and service contents to compensate volume reduction under the concept of dematerialization, we need new engineering methods to look at services, rather than just functions, called "Service Engineering." In Service Engineering, it is desired to fully satisfy receiver's value. This paper aims at proposing a method for forecasting receiver's demand change based on a concept of customer's value importance.

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In order to solve the environmental issues, transition from the conventional business to environmentally conscious business (Eco-business) is eagerly required. In order to promote Eco-business, it is effective to support finding out Eco-business ideas. To do so, this paper takes an approach that provides business designer with general rules for environmentally consciousness and their prerequisites extracted from existing Eco-businesses. We collected 130 examples of Eco-businesses in Japan, investigated and classified them in order to extract their successful factors as general guidelines and checklists. As a result, four customer's values provided by Eco-businesses, eight rules that relates an environmental benefits of the society to the customer's value, and eight rules for reducing business costs are derived. A tool for planning for new eco-business is also proposed.

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In the IT (Information Technology) solution field, there are so many troubles and failures in system construction projects seen in the past. The Service Engineering concept might be a help to solve those "non-workable computer problems". In this paper, we have applied its concept to a large-scale information system through reverse engineering. The success factors are validated and confirmed using the Service Engineering concept and expression. Through this analysis, we are able to recognize that the viewing point of the Service Engineering is valuable in leading projects to success in the IT solution field. Also we will discuss the deferent approaches between seeds-oriented in manufacturing and needs-oriented in IT solution field. Then the key feature of the Service Engineering, when applying it to the IT solution field, will be investigated.

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Service Engineering aims to provide practically usable design methods for service. Until now, we proposed models and description methods for service and offered a prototype of service CAD system. However, evaluation method by the viewpoint of customer, which needed for making a comparison between candidates, is not available so far. This paper aims at proposing a novel method to evaluate customer satisfaction with services. The method categorizes service elements by paying attention to differences of a psychological satisfaction caused by a physical improvement that has a specific disposition depends on the service element. This method enables the designer to point out customers' satisfaction quantitatively by using measurable attribute value of service.

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Because of the large scale model of the finite element method in these days, it is required to find the method, which can be applied to the optimal analysis, to minimize the time for estimate of dynamic characteristics when changing the structure. We develop here a new perturbation method with complimentary term which is effective to this purpose

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A numerical method using virtual springs to solve the contact problem of 3D solid structure connected with free-free parts where no boundary conditions other than contacts and friction are given is presented. The computer program has been developed. Examples are demonstrated.

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In this paper, a numerical method for transient acoustic analysis by using BEM is described. Based on the present method, a computer program to solve transient acoustic problems for railway structures to the impact load has been developed. Transient acoustic analysis to the impact load on steal bridge with a newly developed floating ladder track and also with conventional track using crosstie are conducted.

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A visualization system VIS has been developed to visualize simulation results of a Shinkansen train running on the railway structure under seismic loads by using DIASTARS. VIS is based on an object-oriented approach to create and visualize components of a structure effectively. Numerical examples are demonstrated.

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The high value added has been examined as an element that what resorted to the sensitivity was important in the products. So-called meister's skill has not only the engineering technology but also the sensitive approach methods which can't be made clear, and so that tradition is an important problem. An influence on the tone of the classical guitar production process is added here at the more than a position of engineering. At first, we try the basic dynamic study of the some kinds of wood materials

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The improvement of drill cutting is almost doing experimentally. It is preferable to shift to nonlinear FEM simulation from experimentation, because simulation is small cost and short span of time on the improvement and development. Additionally, cutting tests by new cutting conditions have difficulty and dangerous. Therefore, we present these drill cutting simulation. In this study, a drilling process is executed by 3 dimensional nonlinear FEM simulation. The validity of the simulation model and its result is discussed.

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Vehicle of Formula-SAE have intake and exhaust system of particular layout. This system is required by the competition rule to be placed in intake system between the throttle and the tank. Therefore, there are little informative document and data. It is difficult to decide the intake pipe length and capacity of a surge tank and shape. In this study, we tried to apply multidisciplinary analysis consist of 3DCFD and 1D engine performance analysis, and unpredictable part of this engine is made clearly by using of the result of this simulation.

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The automotive industry today is confronted with radical changes in competitive conditions, which are globalization, reduction in development time, individual customer oriented product development, increased complexity and increased product quality. It is not only in Europe but also in world wide. It is the problem which now confronts engineers. To tackle this, they have decided to use optimization system as one of tools at early stage of development cycle. This means that accelerate front loading. This paper shows practical use of optimization system for white body development at BMW.

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The turbine airfoil design process is very complex and time-consuming, and it requires skilled aero/thermo designers to achieve the optimum balance between efficiency requirements, mechanical reliability, and manufacturing cost. This paper describes an integrated, multidisciplinary, multi-objective optimization system for the aerodynamic and mechanical design of turbine blades. Process integration and design optimization software is used to link together commercially available simulation codes to automate the various design and analysis tasks, including airfoil shape generation, CFD analysis, stress and vibration analysis, and post-processing of results. Expert design rules and constraints are captured in the system, and various optimization strategies are employed to automatically search the design space to find optimal designs that meet goals for performance and stresses. The system produces substantial reductions in design cycle time, and it can be used to assess the trade-offs between multiple objectives.

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This paper presents an Automatic External Superelement Optimization (AESO) procedure for efficiently and accurately solving large-scale optimization tasks. In the procedure, a full model is automatically (i.e., without any work on the user's part) partitioned into a residual structure that includes the designed part and an upper stream superelement containing the non-designed part. Then, the upper stream superelement part is reduced into boundary matrices with Component Mode Synthesis (CMS) techniques and these matrices are stored on the database while a new user input file is created from the designed part. The original optimization task is now performed in a separate assembly run that assembles the boundary matrices into the residual structure for solving the system solutions. This approach is very efficient since the residual model can be solved quickly when the size of the residual model is much smaller than the size of the analysis model (say 10% or less). To further improve the performance, Matrix Domain Decomposition techniques are applied to both component and residual solution procedures. Furthermore, the residual vector techniques based on applied loads are also applied for improved accuracy. Examples are presented to show the effectiveness and efficiency of the approach with speedups greater than five demonstrated.

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