Due to rise of environmental awareness in recent years, engineering designers are required to consider not only product performance but also whole product lifecycle in order to reduce environmental burdens of their products. Especially, a product in End-of-Life (EoL) phase has great impact to environment. Because of this, design for disassembly (DfD) has attracted great attention to promote product recyclability and reusability. This paper applies modular design, originally a technique intended to short the lead time and improve assimilability, to DfD to reduce disassembly process. Although a lot of works about modular design has done, since existing methods configure modules based on similarities of components' lifecycle characteristics without consideration of hierarchy of a product function structure, there is a possibility of obtaining functionality and geometrically infeasible modules. This paper proposes the method optimizing product modular structure according to hierarchy of a product functional structure to get feasible modules from the perspectives of function and geometry. The optimization is conducted by Hierarchical Genetic Algorithm (HGA) which can describe hierarchical structure of mechanical system exactly. The proposed method is applied to a design of the inkjet printer to demonstrate its effectiveness.

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A product changes through its life cycle. Product components change their states (e.g., degradation of performance caused by attrition and corrosion during their operation, and change of geometry by processing and shredding) and change their relationship such as disassembly in maintenance process. In addition, a product involves various stakeholders through its life cycle. The stakeholders recognize a product from different viewpoints because they have their own needs to the product (e.g., for manufactures, a product is to be assembled and sold to customers, and for recyclers, a product is to be dismantled and sold as recycled materials). In order to improve the performance on environmental and economical aspects throughout the entire product life cycle, designers need to design both a product and its life cycle by focusing on these changes of a product. For the development of a support system for such a design, this paper proposes a representational scheme for a product changing through its life cycle. A case study indicates that our method successfully represents changes of a product and allows designers to design a product and its life cycle by considering these changes.

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In order to improve the recyclability of products, quantitative evaluation of the recyclability at the design stage is important. This paper addresses design for recycling of electrical and electronic products based on a recyclability rate index. This index is defined as a rate of recyclable materials to total weight of a product and calculated by using information on the product and its end-of-life (EoL) scenario. In the previousresearch, we proposed a framework of lifecycle CAD (LC-CAD) that provides designers with an integrated design environment for both a product and its lifecycle. In this paper, the LC-CAD framework is applied to the design for recycling based on the recyclability rate. The system caluculates the recyclability rate from the product model and the EoL scenario integrated in the system, and the candidates of design modifications for improving the recyclability of the product are derived from the sensitibity analysis on the recyclability rate. As a case study, some examples of design modifications for the recyclability of a LCD TV are made from the quantitative evaluation and the sensitibity analysis.

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Recently, there are many environmental problems so that a designer must design a product considering environmental friendly. The layout design is a process which decides the spatial relation of component. The spatial relation affects product cost, size, function and disassemblability. Thus, in order to improve the disassemblability, a designer must improve the product layout. But there is hardly previous works of layout design considering disassemblability. This paper proposes a new layout design method considering disassemblability in conceptual design phase. In this paper, we use Sequence-Triple to express 3D layout design. Also in order to evaluate disassemblability of the layout, we propose "disassembly sequence depth". We define the disassemblability for objective function and address layout optimization using GA in order to maximize the objective function. Due to demonstrate the proposal method and confirm its effectiveness, this paper describes case study, which is laptop design.

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In travel agency, tour planning is conducted by combining some tourist attractions on tourism service system. However, this system cannot meet various tourist needs and evaluate feasibility of some tours quickly. Therefore we aim to solve this system's problems by structuration conducted in product variety design. In this study, we conducted structuralize tourism service system in order to support travel agency planning tours.

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Japanese tourism industry is less competitive compared with other countries worldwide. One of the problems Japanese tourism companies have is that they do not have an efficient way to design package tours. This paper proposes a computer aided designing method of package tours that meets various tourists' favors while controlling cost. Tour service is modeled as network that comprises activity, place, capability and enabler. In this model, a tour is described as a flow of activities, which is linked with place, capability and enabler to attach the detailed information. There are three steps to design a tour lineup. First, the network is redesigned by adding improvement if necessary. Second, all possible sequences of activities (tour candidates) are extracted from the network, which are then combined as a lineup. Finally, after feasibility of the lineup is checked, it is evaluated from the viewpoints of tourists and providers. The proposed method has been verified by using developed prototype system through the case of Tokyo day tours.

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It is important to realize highly-reliable services so that a company builds and keeps long-term relationships with customers. In order to relialize highly reliable services, it's important to grasp irregular service processes caused by service failure in service delivery process. And then it is necessary to examine a suitable measure to irregular service processes. In this paper, we propose a modeling method of irregular service processes caused by service failure. In concrete terms, we propose the methodology in the following procedure. First, we describe irregular service processes with natural language. Second, we replace these irregular service processes with the technique in the products design field. Thereby, an irregular service process is formulized, and then, it become possible examination of the suitable measure for returning to service regular prosess.

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These years, competition among airlines will become fiercer in Japan since the open skies policy. To against Low-Cost Carriers, other airlines try to keep their flight services in high level. However today still about 50% flights are frequently delayed or canceled by irregulars, so considering flight rescheduling is necessary for flight planning. Our research proposes a support system for flight planning based on flight rescheduling. Since flight rescheduling is a highly complex problem that flight services have a large number of elements which are directly or indirectly involved in each other, the proposed system represents flight service as a service model consists of three sub services: (1) transportation service, (2) operation service, and (3) maintenance service. The relationships among flights are focused on to describe flight planning and rescheduling. Some automatic planning tools are used to help manager to plan the flight service and some indices are evaluated for not only flight service level but also customer satisfaction in this support system. With the input data such as supposed irregulars, a flight rescheduling is run bu using this support system and the results is proposed to support operator's decision making. Finally, a case study is shown to prove the effectivity of the support system.

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To improve the productivity and the satisfaction of customers and employees in the service industry, the importance of a study on design methods for operation support systems has been growing. To design operation support systems for interpersonal services which create value by the interaction among customers and employees, the modeling of employees' activity is necessary. However, the existing modeling methods do not depict why the employees perform an operation and how they determine the contents of the operation sufficiently. In this study, the authors introduce employee's activity modeling method which includes these aspects. In addition, the authors propose the operation analysis method and the concept design process of operation support systems based on its model.

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Management of product design projects becomes increasingly difficult as the complexity of products increases. To better manage such projects, preliminary coordination of design processes is essential. This paper discusses coordination of the design process in two phases: 1) dividing the design work into smaller tasks and sequencing them, and 2) establishing management activities. To facilitate this coordination, an integrated model of a product, process, and organization is proposed. By analyzing the functional structure of the product, the division and sequencing of design tasks is computed. The proposed method utilizes rational prioritization of design parameters, which means identification of the parameters that must first be considered for changes. The resultant design processes can show where coordination among design tasks is still needed. This implies the necessity of management. Here, the importance of management and organizational structure prescribe the style of management that should be adopted for each part, as different styles of management are preferred to respective parts. In this paper, two approaches to management are discussed: 1) the formation of a pre-agreement, and 2) integration and after-approval. Throughout the paper, the example of a solar boat design is used to explain how the proposed method works and to demonstrate its feasibility.

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As products have been becoming increasingly complex, importance of system design is advocated. Several research papers have proposed applying Design Structure Matrix(DSM) for advanced management of product development, and they have proved it is useful to have a dependency network of parameters. However, it is also proven that the accuracy of the product information greatly affects the result. To acquire accurate and in-depth product information, many modelling languages, such as SysML, have been developed, but few papers have proposed establishing a new simplified methodology to find a dependency network for a product system. This paper proposes a new methodology for constructing a parameter dependency network of a product system. This method is based on the assumption that product information can be classified into four elements, namely system functions, functional roles, structural members, and parameters, and that possible dependencies between parameters can be deduced using the relationships between these elements (e.g., as a form of function-structure diagram). This method is performed in three stages: 1) Suggestion of dependencies between parameters, 2) Extraction of constraints among parameters and generation of a parameter-constraint network, and 3) Searching a feasible and better design process plan. As verification of the proposed method, modeling of an automobile brake system was conducted. Through the verification, the proposed method is assured to be effective, as it eased designer to define product model.

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Toward the digitalization of product development process to vitalize the Japanese strength of design and manufacturing, the importance of process study by the criteria of digital data and the factors to consider were revealed, And also the necessity of the spiral up process from the upstream design to downstream the manufacturing with the consistent information coordination was revealed. In this report, the necessity of the systemization for enabling feed-forward coordination of real product information in the process of purchase, preparing production and production itself with virtual product information in the process of planning, development and design is revealed. And an ultimate mechanism of utilizing information for designing and manufacturing product in order to vitalize the Japanese strength of them is revealed, that is the system design philosophy of "Engineering Process Integrated Architecture (EPIA)" to enable the mutual coordination between the systems of PLM/SCM/CRM.

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Today, developing various types of products in a short design lead-time is needed to satisfy consumers' needs. In this study, a method to support expansion of design requirements using product cases is proposed. Previously, framework for expansion of design requirements was proposed and a supporting system was developed based on the framework. In this paper, first, a result of experiments using the systems was shown. While the result shows the potential of the system, the result also clarified the problem regarding the efficiency of the system. Then, a method to find implicit evaluation criterion using by the designer was proposed, and the extraction process of the system was extended considering implicit evaluation criteria. Finally, case studies and experiments were done using the system. The results show that the extended system can extract the design requirements effectively.

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Product is produced as a design satisfying various requests. However, it does not mean designers implement only the required functions for the product to demonstrate these functions. It is important for designers to take measures regarding the requirements to usage environment and usage that may have an undue influence on products, because some environments and usage cause troubles with products. In this study, we construct a new method to extract the design requirement from usage environment and usage as new starting points of the design. Therefore, in this study we have considered the relationship between the usage environment, usage and products by collecting variety of case studies. As a result, we revealed the relationship between products, usage environment, and usage that may be expressed as integration of the items: "Usage Environment, Usage", "Environmental Stress Factor", "Events caused by ESF", "Requirements", "Functions" and "Products".

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Simulations completely replaced physical tests in some product segments. Despite its acceptance as a design tool, optimal design seems yet to gain mainstream popularity. Statistical models called metamodels empirically that capture the input-output relationship of the analyses for evaluating objective functions and constraints are sometimes used for engineering optimal design. A variety of metamodels are proposed and put into practical use. It is important to select the accurate metamodeing techinque for cutting down the cost ant shoretning the development period. In the paper, we systematically compare popular metamodeling techniques to help constructing metamodels promptly and correctly. 8 metamodeling techniques and 5 sampling techniques are selected and evaluated by means of some example functions. Accordingly to these comparisons, it is demonstrated that some metamodeling and sampling techniques are superior to another techniques and that sampling techniques are very important if the sample size is small relative to the number of the design variables.

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We have been developing multi-point approximation for years for optimization to reduce the number of function calls to obtain adequate optimum results. During these processes, we have been focusing in RBF network, and these days, it has been recognized as one of the effective method as surrogate optimization. Compared with other method such as Krings method, SVM and so on, RBF has the most simple way to form so called response surface, therefore, it has more considerations in parameter settings. In RBF, most significant factor for better approximation lies in setting of radius for each radius function. We have proposed a method for optimization of radius, but it takes too much computation to achieve an adequate results. For that purpose, we have proposed convolution of RBF. However, it needs a lot of parameter settings priori to form response surface. In this study, we are going to propose a new method for compatible Convolute RBF.

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Plastic injection molding (PIM) is one of the most widely used manufacturing processes for producing plastic parts. Warpage is a serious defect in PIM, especially for the thin shell plastic products. It is an important issue in the PIM to predict the warpage and optimize process parameters. In this study the Sequential Approximate Optimization (SAO) with radial basis function (RBF) network is employed for the warpage optimization. As an example, a thin shell plate simulated by finite element (FE) analysis is investigated. In general, Computer aided engineering (CAE) analysis in PIM is so expensive and time-consuming task, and then the response surface method (RSM) approach is valid to optimize the process parameters. In the RSM, the responses are calculated at some sampling points, and the response surface is constructed. Optimization technique is applied to the response surface to find out the optimal solution. To reduce the warpage, the objective function is taken as the maximum displacement of a thin shell structure. The mold temperature, the melt temperature, the packing time, the packing pressure, and the cooling time are taken as the design variables. The numerical simulation is carried out by Moldex3D. Through the numerical simulation, the optimal process parameters are determined for warpage optimization. The results show that the proposed method can reduce the warpage effectively.

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Recently, multi-objective optimization are getting more and more important to have better considerable result in actual problems. And multi-objective optimization is used in various fields. However, when we have more than three objective functions, it is not easy to grasp its situations. In that sense, visualization of multi-objective optimization becomes quite important issue. When we use DEA, we can have optimum weights and efficiency values of objective function for each DMU, but it is still difficult to see its relationships visually for them. In post study, we have proposed DEA mapping. In DEA mapping we use Lagrange multiplier of extended CCR model as key information of mapping. Sum of product of Lagrange multiplier and data becomes a point on frontier that the unit should aim in original space. Extended CCR model remove the upper limit of the efficiency values of each DMU, and it can acquire the relative merits for DMU on the frontier. We make reduction of multidimensional data using PCA as a starting position of each DMU. We assumed projection relationship of each DMU to frontier still remains in the reduction space. Therefore we can calculate projection point by using position data and Lagrange multiplier, Distance between DMU's original position and projection point makes contradiction. In this paper, we examine DEA mappings' character and indication make of how to be visualize relationships easy for designers. This method can figure out relationships of each DMU.

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Laminated glass is used as the front glass of vehicles and window glass of buildings. Comparing with general glasses, it is difficult to be penetrated, even if the glass is broken. In this study, we focus on the crime prevention laminated glass used for the window glass of buildings. We have changed tensile strength and adhesive strength of the laminated glass and clarified how these strengths can affect the fracture behavior of the laminated glass by discrete element method (DEM). Next, we have optimized the strengths and considered about good condition of the laminated glass based on response surface methodology. The tensile and adhesive strengths were selected as design variables, and maximum distance of the striker was selected as objective function. It was found that when the tensile strength becomes bigger and the adhesive strength becomes smaller, it is difficult to be fractured. However too small adhesive strength can cause detachment. From the results of optimization, the best condition of the tensile and adhesive strengths in the laminated glass could be clarified.

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In deep drawing, a high blank holder force (BHF) and fast processing motion(SPD) will cause tearing, and a low BHF will cause wrinkle. The Variable Blank Holder Force (VBHF) approach is attractive approach in the industries, but there are few studies on the processing motion. In this paper, we perform simultaneous optimal design of the VBHF and SPD using sequential approximate optimization (SAO). The objective is taken as the minimization of the deviation of whole thickness. The constraints are taken as the tearing and wrinkling, they quantitatively defined with the Forming Limit Diagram (FLD). The design variables are the blank holder force, velocities and strokes. The Radial Basis Function (RBF) network is employed for the response surface. Through our numerical simulation, we verified the validity of the trajectory.

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The goal of this study is identification of metal material parameters by indentation test and FEM analysis. The Rockwell hardness testing machine is used for the indentation test to obtain the load P and the displacement h relationship (P-h curve) during the indentation process. A simple model with only indenter and test material is applied to the FEM model. The metal material parameters can be identified based on the curve fit using the quadratic polynomial function consisting of the coefficient β and variable x. The best solution is determined by using the response surface methodology (RSM). Variables x are Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, strain hardening exponent and the coefficient of friction, and these combinations for the D-optimal design are generated by random numbers. For identification example using titanium alloy (TB340) assuming the n-power law, estimation was possible in the range ±5% errors. It has advantage to save the computational cost and applicability to other material laws by using the RSM.

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Recently, there are a lot of studies on evaluation of landscape by using fractal analysis. Although color information is quite important in these kinds of evaluation, they do not deal with it. In this research, we develop a new method of fractal analysis that can deal with color information. We have use it to design evaluation and applied it to Kansei design.

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Springback is one of the major defects in sheet metal forming. Numerical simulation based on finite element analysis is a powerful tool for springback prediction. Variable blank holder force (VBHF) approach is one of the effective ways for the springback reduction. In this paper, the VBHF trajectory is optimized by a sequential approximate optimization (SAO) with radial basis function network. U-shaped forming is handled for determining an optimum VBHF trajectory. In general, three objective functions are formulated in the springback reduction. These objective functions are not considered the state of the blank. In this paper, the residual bending moment is taken as the objective function. In order to evaluate the constraint quantitatively, the forming limit diagram (FLD) is employed. The forming by VBHF trajectory can drastically reduce the springback in comparison with the forming with the constant blank holder force.

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In this paper, the Discrete Differential Evolution (DDE) to handle the discrete or integer design variables is proposed. In the proposed DDE, the mutation is considered as the exchange possibility between two particles. By considering the mutation as the exchange possibility, it is easy and possible to handle the discrete and integer variables. In addition, the initialization of the population are also introduced in the proposed DE. It is possible to escape from local minimum by introducing the initialization of the population. The algorithm of the proposed DDE is very simple, and can be easily extend to the Mixed-Discrete Nonlinear Problems (MDNLPs). The proposed DDE can be applied to a variety of discrete and integer optimization problems. The validity is examined through typical benchmark problems.

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The hub airport was made for transit. Recently construction of the air route around the hub airport is an important problem, because a big airport was made and an air route was liberalized. O'Kelly thought about the hub airport location problem. He formulated the model that arranged a one or two hub airport, and he formulated as the linear programming problem to choose the hub airport of the n unit to minimize total transit cost among candidate given hub airport. The studies of a placement of hub airport as the optimization problem were developed by them researches, and much solution is proposed. In this research, a solution is calculated from this problem using Ant colony optimization.

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In this paper, we verify archive of analysis results and building block effects in Genetic Algorithms. In GA, individuals with a similar gene increase as it passes through generations. Therefore, it have a high possibility that re-analysis will be conducted. In order to solve this problem, the archive of analysis results are used. Furthermore, there is a method of using a building block as a time crunch. Although this method is seldom thought as important now, we consider that it is effective. We aim at reduction of analysis time using these two methods.

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Optimal path design is a problem that is considered to have wide range of applications. We deal with a path design problem of a pattern that consists of a number of small pattern elements; a pattern consisting of characters or symbols is a typical example. In such a case, we can naturally introduce a kind of hierarchical structure to the problem. In this study, we conduct a generalization of the optimal path design approach that takes advantages of abstraction of smaller pattern elements in lower hierarchy. In addition to characters that are the basic elements of patterns, words as well as combinations of words are abstracted so that they can be applied to an optimal path design of larger pattern. Database of such abstructed pattern elements is also introduced. Some example path designs are conducted; the applicability and the performance of the proposed approach are discussed.

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This paper proposes a new color universal design method without restricting usage of colors and their combinations using dithering technique. A key idea is that a solid color and a dithering of darker and lighter colors to approximate the solid color may look as similar color by normal color vision whereas they could be distinguishable by color vision deficiencies because one is solid and the other is a pattern of dark and light colors. Efficacy of the idea is confirmed through some experiments.

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We have simultaneously measured both the explicit movement of palms and the implicit movement of the whole body in the hand contact improvisation. And, we also have compared and analyzed the difference of the measurements between the time when the sympathetic embodied awareness is being generated and when it is not. We have obtained the following results from the comparison and the analysis under the condition that the self-other inseparable relationship is being created through the sympathetic embodied awareness between two persons. First, the implicit movement comes before that of the explicit. Second, the time when those movements occur corresponds between the two persons. Furthermore, chaos attractor is generated within the movements of hands, and there exists a rhythm of a cycle variation for a few to ten seconds. These results suggest that the space-time structure of the inner self changes through the bodily expression. It is expected that this will be an important clue to clarify the dynamics of "Ba" in the co-creative expression.

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The goal of this study is to develop a mobile device which can support hand contact improvisation and generation of sympathetic embodied awareness between remote locations. As a first step, we designed a mechanism of the device which enable performer to create bodily expression with motion of whole body, and developed control system which convey hand motion mutually, and considered the design of the interface form between the hand and the device. Specifically, we focused on the rotation of hand, and developed the hemispheric device. Then, we conducted a few experiments on the interface form. The results suggested that performers could create bodily expression with motion of whole body on our device, and that the ease of creation such a bodily expression depends on the interface form.

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Until now, we have focused on the non-isolation between body and shadow, and developed a shadow media system by changing artificially the colors and shapes of shadows. This system gave the gap between body and shadow. And we have shown the possibility of the creation of shadow play. However, we have attention to the point that the play is limited by fixation of the shadow projected space in this system. Therefore, this study carry out the design and development of shadow media system that can change the number of light source and the light source position, in order to show the possibility of drawing a new shadow play by giving a spatial variation in the shadow. From the results of experiments with this system, we have shown the possibility of creating a new shadow play due to changes in spatial variation of shadow by changing the number of light source and the light source position in various ways.

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This study proposes an interactive information display system using spatial coordinate measurement. The system is under design to project information just around a working spot, for example of drilling, in order to avoid the decrease of concentration caused by the eye movement to look at somewhere else. This paper presents experimental study on information display by a carpenter's level prior to the information projection. Two types of experiments were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of leveling information shown by a carpenter's level during drilling work. Experiment 1 was vertical drilling to make a vertical hole of 4mm in diameter and 20mm depth onto a wood block. Experiment 2 was horizontal drilling to make a horizontal hole of the same diameter and depth as the experiment 1. According to the results of these experiments, significant effect was not observed in both directions, partly because of the inaccuracy of leveling installation and the small number of subjects.

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In recent years, thanks to the development of computers and internet related technologies, it is becoming easier to communicate with people located in a remote site. Video and audio media is commonly used in remote communication. Therefore, quality of video and audio media is very critical to maintain the quality of remote communication. However, tele-existance of remote participant also plays an important role to keep good communication. Various studies have been carried out to increase the feeling of tele-existance in remote communication, for example a software avator or an avator robot is often used for this purpose. This study proposes an idea of active display to show the presence of a speaker in additon to the visual presentation of the speaker during remote communication. First, this paper descrives the idea of acitve display in the context of awareness support in remote communication. Then the paper shows a simple prototype system of active display using a robotic arm, and explains the mechanism to follow the three types of user's gestures in communication, which are nodding, head tilting, and bend forward. Based on the experiment using the protoypte, the paper discusses how to implementate these gestures in remote communication to enhance the tele-existance of a remote participant.

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In this paper, we analyze the timing of an utterance of a voice greeting and a hand motion preferred by humans in greeting interactions between a human and a robot. Initially, a hand-up motion and a handshake motion between humans, which are greeting interactions without and with contact, are analyzed. Based on the analysis, an interaction robot system capable of generating the hand-up motion and handshake motion for a greeting interaction with a human is developed. Subsequently, using the developed interaction robot system, the differences of motion characteristics between greeting interactions with and without contact preferred by humans are analyzed by an analysis-by-synthesis technique.

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Development of information technology spreads communication using CG characters at the virtual space. Humans communicate each other by not only using words but also sharing embodied rhythms based on body actions such as nodding and gestures. We have developed InterActor which is a CG embodied interaction character. InterActor can generate communicative motions and actions for entrained interaction by only speech input. However, InterActor is sensitive under noisy environment. In this paper, in order to support the avater-mediated communication under noisy environment, a CG embodied interaction character system is developed by using lip motion that depends on speech rhythms. Lip motion is measured by an optical-flow technique, and is used for the input of the developed system. This system can generate communicative motions and actions for entrained interaction by only lip motion.

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We have already developed a speech-driven embodied group entrained communication system called "SAKURA" for activating group interaction and communication. In this system, a speech-driven computer graphics (CG) characters called InterActors with functions of both speaker and listener are entrained to one another as a teacher and some students in a virtual classroom by generating communicative actions and movements. In this study, we analyzed the eyeball movements of a lecturer communicating in a virtual group by using an embodied communication system with a line-of-sight measurement device. On the basis of the analysis results, we propose an eyeball movement model that consists of a saccade model and a model of a lecturer's gaze at an audience, called "group gaze model." Then, we developed an advanced communication system in which the proposed model was used with SAKURA for enhancing group interaction and communication. This advanced system generates a lecturer's eyeball movement on the basis of the proposed model by using only speech input. We used sensory evaluation in the experiments to determine the effects of the proposed model. The results showed that the system with the proposed model is effective in group interaction and communication.

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This paper presents the activities on communication robot project, which was demonstrated at Summer Science School in Tokushima 2011 held on August 6 & 7, 2011 at the University of Tokushima. First, project overview is presented, followed by the design and manufacturing of the communication robot, and booth design and management at the festival. As the results of the project, it was observed that the participant students had an opportunity to learn many things by joining the project, taking responsibility in assigned role, interaction with elementary school children, trouble shooting on the unexpected problems happened during the festival.

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UT-MIT (University of Tokushima and Massachusetts Institute of Technology) joint research project was conducted in conjunction with precision machine design class 2.75 and a significant result was obtained on the research of dental headrest adjustment mechanism. After a short introduction of precision machine design class 2.75, this paper describes a brief overview of UT-MIT joint project, including its background, procedures and results. Then the paper reviews the reasons why UT-MIT project achieved a successful result, and discusses the basic requirements on global PBL from several point of views, including competition/collaboration, individual/teamwork, carrots/sticks, ICT, online/offline, and field/language/culture.

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"Paper Bicycle Design and Manufacture" which utilized PBL, the manufacture lecture is carried out to the leading employee for the improvement in capability. The process of the product development from a product plan to a market injection is experienced, and the competitive power which united the improvement in performance, commodity value, and creativity is raised. It is progressing to attractive highly efficient vehicles structure.

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This paper reports an education of universal design (UD) by using a digital mannequin in Kinki University. A digital mannequin is a virtual human model, which is used in 3D-CAD system to evaluate the usability of a product during product design process. In the course, after training on operations of 3D-CAD product modeling and 2D-CAD mechanical drawing, students start exercises on design of UD products by using a digital mannequin. Firstly, students learn the skills to evaluate the usability of the products which is analyzed with digital mannequin such as posture, balance, view, static load (force and torque) at each body part, and so forth. Then, they learn how to develop the products' usability through UD exercises of actual products. This paper also shows the design examples presented by the students and discusses the future works of the course.

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Differences and similarities in design learning at Stanford and MIT are described in contrast with Japanese design education. What greatly differentiates Stanford and MIT is Stanford is more network oriented while MIT is more tree-oriented. But both are based upon very pragmatic learning style and are pursuing design in the Open World. Japanese design education still remains in the Closed World.

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Global product family design has been more important under the global manufacturing. In this paper, we regard the problem that design module commonalization and supply chain simultaneously as a partial problem of the global product family design. We propose a multi-objective mathematical model for this simultaneous design problem under the criteria on quality, profit and delivery time. An optimization method for obtaining Pareto optimal solutions is configured by a neighborhood cultivation genetic algorithm and simplex method. Pareto optimal solutions are analyzed by principal component analysis technique and cluster analysis technique. This paper demonstrates a numerical case study for ascertaining the validity and promise of the proposed mathematical model and computational techniques.

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As the need for product platform and product family has increased over the last 20 years, research within the area has led to the development of various methods that aim at evaluating a candidate of design. Although their differences are considered a strong point of the theoretical field, the large variety can end up complicating the selection process, which will result in choosing less optimal methods for a specific design case. This paper proposes Design Method Selection Matrix (DMSM) that can help designers choose appropriate design methods. The underlying basis for the proposed DMSM is to determine methods appropriateness based on the availability of information, which is defined by the situation in which the evaluation takes place, as well as the importance of information, which is determined by the goal of the evaluation. The output of DMSM is a score for each of the identified methods that represent the appropriateness of the given method, based on the situation and goal(s) chosen by the designer. Suggestions are based on parameters that can easily be determined by designers without extensive experience within platform based product design. The case study demonstrates the effectiveness of DMSM.

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There are a large number of uncertainties of the design variables and the requirements while the decision-making process at the early phase of design has the greatest effect upon the lead time of development and the overall cost. Designers need to figure out an outline of the structural feature and have to compare the evaluation results of diverse design ideas from multiple aspects under some uncertain design information at the early phase of structural design. We have proposed a preference set-based design (PSD) method that generates a ranged set of design solutions that satisfy sets of performance requirements. This study proposes a decision-making support method for the early phase of structural design based on the PSD method that is possible to analyze, obtain and compare diverse design ideas with design uncertainty and variability by elastic FEM. We apply the proposed method to a structural form of a bridge with uncertainties of cross-section area of members and dimension of structure (coordinates of geometry) under fluctuating distribution of performance characteristics of the maximum stress and the mass.

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Due to recent globalization in industries and manufacturing, many industrial products have been used in the way which had been hard to imagine in advance in the design process of the products. It has reported that such usage had frequently resulted in troubles such as blocking of appearance of the products' functions and appearance of undesirable functional phenomena. Therefore, it is desired to develop a method for obviating such troubles in advance in the product design phase by predicting such use and phenomena caused by the use. This requires modeling of the relationship between functions of products and the ways in which the products are used, and then developing a method for predicting functional phenomena caused by a specific usage. Functions of products are abstract concepts generated through subjective interpretation of products' behaviors by users. Therefore, the ways of using products affect functions indirectly via the behaviors. Hence, it is necessary to build models of functions, behaviors and a set of physical events which occur depending on each way of usage, and also to integrate the models. In this paper, this modeling and integration is discussed.

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To complete a new feasible concept design for a highly efficient and high power density SOFC, fluid and structure coupled analysis was introduced. The analysis required SOFC design items of not only shape properties and material properties, but also SOFC operating conditions that satisfy a target performance level based on system. Firstly the performance-satisfied operating conditions were resulted to be solved. Secondly to verify reliability on SOFC, which was considered a critical material in SOFC components, structure analysis had to be carried out by using temperature distributions based on fluid analysis. To find out a solution, Fluid and Structure Coupled Analysis were reiterated by replacing the design items under the allowable operating conditions. This method was applied to our new bifacial flat tubular cell structure that was a target performance level of 60% (HHV, DC) in efficiency and 2W/cm^3 in volumetric power density. The method could be showed useful in order to decide SOFC design items connecting with the performance and the reliability.

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Suspension analysis had been done for improvement of riding comfort. The analysis had the problem in the nonlinear characteristic modeling technologies of parts. We think that a rubber bush in the suspension which the analysis had not been so done in the present study. The mechanical character of rubber Bush is the rigidity different according to how to add power. It is character of velocity dependence that the rigidity is different according to the difference of the strain velocity. The rubber bush shape is circle and the fulid (oil) is contained in inside. In this study, we think that solid-fulid interaction analysis by FEM in order to reproduce the action of a rubber bush. We consider a vibration charactor of rubber bush and it is the purpose that we develop the computational model technology.

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The optimization of the ship structure with the allocation of member subjects is considered by a new calculation method in this study. FEM analysis is required for strength assessment of ship structure. The models need some nodes at the allocation of member subjects as a characteristic of FEM. When the number of member subjects changes the process of the optimization of the structure, number of nodes of FEM model is also changed. Therefore, in order to ensure consistency of mesh, it is necessary to remake FEM model. The optimization of the structure need to examine the proposition for design of many numbers. However it is difficult to create and analyze the proposition for design of many numbers in restricted time. Therefore the calculation method that doesn't depend on the number of member subjects and the allocation of member subjects is developed. The value of the displacement and stress in consideration of the influence of member subjects is acquirable by this calculation method. It will not be necessary to remake FEM model and annualize a whole structure using this calculation method. Add times Computational effort is limited to the calculation of only the structural modification by this calculation method. Therefore the optimization of the structure is considered with the allocation of member subjects and the number of member subjects. The optimization of the structure can be performed by this calculation method. The result of the calculation using this calculation method corresponds with the result of FEM. As a result, the acceptability of this calculation method is argued.

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In recent years, superannuation of large structure is serious problem. Structural health monitoring is mentioned as technology which supervises a structure over a long period for extension of life span of large structures. However, in structural health monitoring, damage detection method has not been established yet. In this study, it aims at reproducing damaged structure by minimizing a difference between eigenvalues of damaged structure and FEM model of structure using topology optimization.

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