We investigate the convergence performance of the combination of 5 multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) as and 4 constraint-handling techniques (CHTs), namely 20 constraint-MOEAs (CMOEAs), against the recently published benchmarking problem for constrained multi-objective optimization problem named “simultaneous design optimization benchmark problem of multiple car structures using response surface method”. To evaluate the effectiveness of MOEA and CHT against the problem separately, all the examined MOEAs are modified so as to be adapted to general CHTs. Experiments with population size of 100, 300, and 500 are conducted and the results are that CHTEETAH with CHT of multiple constraint ranking (MCR) wins all the three experiments with respect to hypervolume indicator (HV) across the generation. With respect to finding feasible solutions in the early stage of evolution, MOEA/D with proper CHT shows significantly better performance on it. As for CHT, MCR shows the best performance, while the second best CHTs also show good performance in terms of HV. However, Characteristics required for actual use of CMOEAs in industrial design such as anytime performance or number of found feasible solutions are of poor in the second best CHTs whereas MCR shows good in both characteristics. The investigation of the evolution of the solutions showed that the effective CHTs should balance the exploration of the objective space and constraint space. Considerations on the 4 different CHTs also suggest some important features that effective CHTs should have.

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In order to survive in the space market, it is necessary to establish a design method which enables two processes that, one is the generation process of many design plans and the other is the process of searching for a optimum design solution quickly and steady. In this research, we considered the design process to be a repetition of "divergence process" which generates many design plans and "convergence process" to calculate optimal solution. The prototype system based on the design method was implemented, and some examples applied for the concept design of super-sonic vehicle “SEED” were shown.

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In order to support the product design process in manufacturing industry, a method of deriving the idea for solving functional tradeoffs is developed. After specifying the most important tradeoffs to solve, physical causal relationship model is drawn to extract the cause of functional tradeoffs, and then the physical causal relationship model is applied to the contradiction matrix in TRIZ based on physical dimension. Based on the inventive principles indicated by the contradiction matrix, priority ranking of the inventive principles is conducted, thus giving a useful hint of what kind of idea can be thought of to solve tradeoff problems. At the end, a case study of solving the tradeoff problems for CVT （Continuously Variable Transmission） in motor vehicle is conducted to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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As current practice of product design involves numerous number of engineers and multiple disciplines, which makes management of design process much difficult. System modelling has been introduced to provide holistic view of a product and thus to ease the management. However, depending on how a product is captured as a model, benefit of system modelling could be diminished. There are certain trait that insightful models should have. In this paper, traits of appropriate models are discussed. Further methodology for system modelling to ensure descriptions to be appropriate is proposed. To ease the modelling, computational methods to support describing appropriate model are proposed as well. Modelling of a solar boat is demonstrated as a case study.

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Design concept generation is an important task for producing innovative products. Many methods have been proposed for supporting design concept generation, such as variations of brainstorming, morphological analysis, and so on. However, few research are present to prove their effects. The future goal of this research is to build a systematic method for design concept generation, which is called ECF cycle, based on a rational model of concept space operation. Toward this goal, this paper aims at clarifying the characteristics of a concept space which promote effective concept generation with ECF cycle. This paper proposes a method of experimental study to evaluate a concept space. The incompleteness introduced by General Design Theory and the concreteness are focused as the characteristics of a concept space. The experiment study analyzes the relation between them. Two viewpoints are used to evaluate the incompleteness: a defect that an entity concept is wrongly classified and a defect that any abstract concept is missing to classify multiple entity concepts. This paper shows the result of the experiment study and discusses its implications.

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Rapid advancement in information technology as well as sensor network technology are reshaping a landscape of our society. Cyber Physical System (CPS), which aims at “smart” control and monitoring of a whole system by simulating interrelation among physical and software components, is regarded as a promising tool for enabling “smart” operation, maintenance, and manufacturing/remanufacturing of artifacts. Although many studies have been conducted on sensor networking and software tool development for CPS, little attention has been paid on a method for integrating multiple artifacts as units of CPS (i.e., connected artifacts), which is a key factor for implementing successful CPS. As a first step for clarifying a design methodology of such connected artifacts, the paper proposes a method for identifying a sufficient set of “observable” parameters for the purpose of a given CPS.

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The proper and comprehensive identification of system-level failure mode during risk assessment for space systems has difficulty due to complexity of system-level interactions which involves multi-physics and dynamic phenomena. The study considers potential system-level failure mode identification by using the system-level modeling and simulation based approach to risk assessment for space systems. The proposed approach is based on the use of the modeling language Modelica, an equation-based object-oriented modeling language which allows acausal modeling for complex cyberphysical systems. Modelica has an important capability of modeling for system level interactions which involves multiphysics phenomena. Based on the trial results of this proposed approach to the space systems, technical feasibility and expected effect of this approach will be discussed in this paper.

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The use of multi-domain physical simulation, such as Modelica, in the early stage of product design is recently attracting much attention. However, to attain an insightful simulation model, much time and effort, potentially even requiring experiments, is required. Therefore, it is important to attain an appropriate simulation model that depicts significant physical phenomena while excluding unnecessary details. This paper proposes a method to attain an appropriate simulation model. Initially, an appropriate composition for the simulation model is deliberated based on a preliminary model, called the Actor Component Dynamics model. The Actor Component Dynamics model describes how components of a product physically interact with external entities. Though it depicts the physics underling the product, actual equations are excluded so that engineers can describe the model without exerting excessive effort. By analyzing dependencies between evaluation metrics and the design parameters of a product on the Actor Component Dynamics model, an appropriate composition for the simulation model is explored and developed. Through an example application, the design of a hair dryer, validity of the proposed method is confirmed. In that different requirements, design policies and user preferences result in different compositions for the simulation model.

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System of systems (SoS) is a class of complex systems that views multiple and small independent systems as part of a larger and more complex system. Because designing SoS requires evaluation from the long-term viewpoint, it confronts a large uncertainty. Due to the complexity and uncertainty of the SoS, the behavior of the system may change abruptly, making SoS design difficult. In this paper, the phenomenon that the behavior of the system suddenly changes is defined as discontinuous characteristics. This paper first discusses how difficult it is to handle discontinuous caracteristics of SoS considering the SoS characteristics, then proposes that an approach of robust optimality with partial differential is plausible to sidestep the issue of discontinuous change. A case study of designing a distributed generation (DG) system,which is a typical SoS, in a Japanese dormitory town is demonstrated in order to verify the proposed approach. As a result, we conclude that the proposed method can consider discontinuous characteristics. By using this method, it is possible to support the design of a SoS adaptive to discontinuous change.

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Due to the difference in the nature of required information, computer support for product design has been discussed separately in conceptual design and stages after substantive design. In this paper, integrated representation of abstract information and geometric information for comprehensive computer support of both is examined. By using the integrated representation of abstract information and geometric information, it is possible to support derivation of entity design information such as realizable movement timing and speed from the initial placement and functional order.

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With recent globalization in industries, the number of failures and troubles of products caused by using them in unexpected ways has increased. In order to avoid such troubles, it is necessary not only to assume various ways of use thoroughly, but also to verify whether the design plan can fulfill required functions when the product is utilized in those ways. From this point of view, the authors proposed a functional verification method considering ways of use based on qualitative modeling of behavior of entities and cause and effect relationships among physical phenomena using Petri nets. However, it is not possible to detect failures caused by cause and effect relationships that designers do not consider. Thus, it is important to predict cause and effect relationships automatically. This paper provides methods to classify events and cause and effect relationships and to model. By considering the state of the entity and the event, the seven types of minimum units composed various cause and effect relationships were defined and represented in Petri nets. This makes it possible to represent various cause and effect relationships.

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This paper proposes a product architecture design approach for industrial robots. Industrial robots are required to meet a wide range of customer needs depending on the end-use environment. While modularization with various options can effectively meet customer needs, the selection of options is often planned in a haphazard way, which may cause consumer confusion. This research attempts to solve this issue by refining product architecture design with consideration of not only relationships between physical functions and entity structure, but also their relationships to customer needs. This study uses a method of association rule mining to structurize customer needs. The causal relationships among customer needs are identified from past order data. The identified rules are described with design structure matrix. It is integrated to physical functions DSM and entity structure DSM with domain mapping matrixes. Product architecture is modularized by applying the extended product architecture design method proposed in previous study for clustering the extended DSM. The case study of product architecture design of an industrial three-axis linear-type robot is shown to proposed approach is demonstrated to verify the effectiveness of the approach. The result shows product architecture of the robot can be modularized considering causal relationships among customer needs.

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The 80% of all product life-cycle costs is fixed in the upstream design. The upstream design process’s activities are important elements for product development and depend on the designer’s abilities greatly. Moreover, it is difficult to define the information on the uncertainty for the optimal design to the specification documents in the conceptual design phase. For overcoming the difficulty, this study introduced the Simulation-Based Design with Uncertainty Quantification ―SBD with UQ in which quality improvement and cost reduction are possible―to the conceptual design phase. This SBD with UQ consisted of the uncertainty understanding and quantification processes through the system thinking approach for the conceptual design phase. The Quality Function Deployment was applied to its understanding and the Product & Operation method performed for its quantification process. Additionally, for the simulation in the conceptual design phase, its phase’s modeling and simulation process in the SBD with UQ was redefined. The usefulness of SBD with UQ was confirmed via the development of agricultural robot project. These contents were reported in this paper.

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This paper describes the execution of shape modification method to the shapes generated by system for deriving diverse solutions and verification of its utilities. Moreover, we analyze the relationship between the parameters in the shape modification method and the generated shapes. Concretely, we generated 20 shapes of the three dimensional cantilever beam using deriving diverse solutions system and these shapes are executed the shape modification method. As a result, it is confirmed that shape modification is performed even in various initial shapes. In particular, we confirm that the strength of shape are improved while maintaining feature of the initial shape when the value of the parameter Dth, which affect the element deletion, is around 30%.

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Emergence property is a mechanism that creates non-trivial structures, forms, architectures and so on, from a set of trivial rules. The authors have been proposing such a design algorithm, which enables designers to create various and novel design shapes by means of the emergence property. L-system and cellular automata are the major elements of the algorithm and hybridization of the two algorithms is the key point. L-system is defined to introduce regularity and logic to design shapes generated, while cellular automata is defined to introduce autonomy and adaptiveness to it. In the previous report, we argued that convergence ratio of cellular automaton filed is an issue to realize such a successful hybridization. Low convergence rate comes from crude implementation of cellular automata can miss cooperative behaviors with L-system. To overcome the difficulty we introduce an advanced formulation of cellular automata based on multi-grid scheme and prove the effectiveness in the report.

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This paper describes a proposal of the shape modification method for two requirements of diversity retention; ‘keeping the shape characteristics of solution candidates’ and ‘searching solutions from global space’. Moreover, we try to execute the proposed method for shape modification of a cantilever and verify its utility. Concretely, when the value of D_th, which is the parameter in the proposed shape modification method, is between 30% and 40%, it is showed that element deletion, which suppresses the increase of the maximum equivalent stress, is executed while maintaining the shape’s topology. From these results, it is indicated that the proposed shape modification method has the utility for the retention of shape diversity required for system of deriving diverse solutions introducing the additive manufacturing.

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Along with the Industrial Revolution in the 19^th century, the domains of designing artifacts were subdivided into engineering design domain and design domain. Throughout the development of science and technology, the both domains have been dealing with various social issues, such as the expansion of designing cost and time, and the diversity of user values. But unfortunately, the issues are becoming more serious as time passes, and both domains are having difficulties to deal with them by using the existing design methodologies. Therefore, it is required to apply a new design methodology into the practice of both domains by clarifying the problems of existing methodologies. Based on the background, this paper extracts the characteristics of engineering design domain and design domain, by comparing the research objects in both domains from the viewpoint of multispace design model; one of the design theory proposed in the field of design science. Furthermore, based on the characteristics, future research issues in both domains, as well as design methodologies for solving the issues are derived.

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This study presents the M method system operating on the 3D-CAD (Computer Aided Design) software in order to enable designers to employ the M method effectively in the design activity. The M method is a new thinking method that allows various uses to conduct both unrestricted and rational thinking. This study proposed the M method system by analyzing the questionnaire survey conducted in the design workshop of M method. This system can perform all design process of M method by digitizing the process of sketch creation and design element extraction. This makes it easier to organize the design elements. Additionally, the effectivity of the proposed M method system was verified through the questionnaire survey. And the questionnaire revealed M method system had problem related to operability. Therefore, M method system was improved with the problem and, verified the effectiveness through the additional questionnaire survey to experts of design. In the result, it showed that M method system was effective.

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This paper proposes a method to organize cases of time axis design (TaD). To do so, we take three steps; (1) describing TaD cases. (2) extracting measures to manage temporal changes. (3) conducting Quantification Method III to map TaD cases. We collected 60 TaD cases and mapped them according to the proposed method. The proposed method enables us to visually compare differences in TaD cases and quickly grasp information on their temporal changes. As a result, we found that the proposed method is effective in organizing TaD cases.

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In order to meet the complicated requirements in industrialized countries in recent years, “personalization” attracts attentions. Personalization may satisfy customers in a higher level with the products and services specifically customized to him or her. In this paper, we proposed the framework of personalization design, as a result of case analysis. We collected and analyzed personalization practices in various fields. Then we constructed the general procedure of personalization design that is composed of 5 steps. We verified the validity of our procedure by extracting features corresponding to the constructed procedure from the cases. In addition, we extracted typical patterns of personalization methods from the personalization practices as a part of personalization design methodology.

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A value growth mobility system is devised as an example of timeaxis design that incorporates changes in the time axis into the design for artifacts used for a long time. The system is a design that improves user value over time, and aims to construct the basic architecture of the system. In order to extract the design elements of the system, the elements relationship diagram of multispace design method was improved to correspond to the value growth design. Also, in order to derive the basic architecture, SysML which describes the system as a model was used. Based on user's needs that occurred while using a car derived through interviews with young people, design elements were extracted. From the extracted design elements, a system requirement "use safety" was derived, and built a basic architecture. The architecture can deal with needs of users not interested in cars as well as needs of users interested in cars.

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In plastic injection molding (PIM), the process parameters such as melt temperature, mold temperature, injection time, and so on strongly affect the product quality. Weldlines, which are formed when two or more melt fronts meet, influence not only the strength of products but also the appearance, so it is preferable to reduce the weldlines as much as possible. Then, the effective objective function for the weldlines reduction is considered using the Computer-aided engineering (CAE). The high weldline temperature leads to the short weldlines. Then, we consider that the weldline temperature will be an important factor for the weldlines reduction. Therefore, maximized the weldline maximum temperature, maximized the weldline minimum temperature, maximized the weldline average temperature and minimized difference in the weldline temperature are considered as the objective function. These four approaches are discussed as the effective objective function for weldlines reduction. Through the numerical simulation, maximized the weldline minimum temperature is the best effective objective function for the weldlines reduction.

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The purpose of this research is to reduce the volume of hatch cover consists of several kinds of plates by developing structural optimization method. The objective function is minimization of the volume. The design variables is a thickness of plate or sectional area. Constraint is 4 kinds of stress, Mises stress, bending stress, shearing stress, buckling stress. I used stress ratio to get optimal solution. The stress ratio is the solution that actual stress divided by allowable stress. Structural optimization of hatch cover consists of several kinds of plate is carried on by decreasing allowable stress of plates have high allowable stress in several kinds of plates is connected. This study succeeded in reducing volume by overcoming the problem of optimization observed when arranging several kinds of plates having in each division influences each other. Furthermore, this study succeeded in reducing volume by changing optimization technique of stiffeners by using stress ratio of plate.

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In deep drawing, wrinkling and tearing in sheet forming should be eliminated. Blank holder force (BHF) is one of the most important parameters for the successful sheet forming. A high BHF leads to the tearing while a low BHF results in the wrinkling. Variable blank holder force (VBHF) that the BHF varies through the punch stroke is effective to avoid wrinkling and tearing. In addition, initial blank shape is important role for reducing the wrinkling and tearing. In this study, both initial blank shape and VBHF trajectory minimizing wrinkling are determined under tearing constant. In general, the numerical simulation in sheet forming is so intensive that a sequential approximate optimization using a radial basis function network is used to determine them. In the numerical simulation, deep drawing of a cylindrical cup based on NUMISHHET2014 (BM4) is used.

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This is a position paper of this organized session. Both analytic and systemic approaches are significant to realize the concept of Digital Transformation. To obtain a better solution as a worthy of Digital Transformation, we need to exchange and enhance thoughts of information engineering and mechanical engineering. This session "Information, Intelligence and System Design" will provide researchers and engineers of both backgrounds opportunities to cross their approaches.

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It is important for product designer to get the forecast of the performance and the influence on the environment of the designing product by computer simulation quickly and easily. Multi-scale product design and lifecycle simulation (MPDLS) system is proposed as a new type of CAD system for the future product designer. MPDLS system is consists of multi-scale product design sub-system and product lifecycle simulation sub-system. A prototype system of MPDLS system is made using MPI-2.

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When multiple functionally-equivalent APIs are available from different providers within API economy, an application developer (as an API consumer) chooses one of them based on his/her sense of value. In this paper, we address an issue of how individual developers within API economy consider values of APIs. In general, an application developer benefits from an API provider by outsourcing a part of “work”' necessary for the application. Hence, the quality of the “work” done by the API significantly influences the value for the developer. Based on the fact, we propose a model that systematically analyzes values of API based on its quality. To cover various viewpoints of quality, we re-interpret the software quality model SQuaRE in the context of API economy, and derive quality characteristics relevant to API values. We also examine a method that quantifies the API value for a developer.

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With the emphasis on revitalization of small and medium-sized enterprises, the importance of supporting systems for consultation of small and medium-sized enterprises is increasing, which supports small and medium-sized enterprises to solve problems that are difficult to deal with by themselves. Consulting companies can respond to a wide range of management consultations but service proposal and problem detection depend on the experience and intuition of the consultant since the content of consultation is wide and highly specialized, so that it is difficult to provide a stable service. A support system for providing stable services independent of the expertise of consulting company is desired. In this research, as first step in constructing a support system, by analyzing text data describing the content of consultation with client companies, a discriminant formula to predict future problems is created. In this paper, termination problem is targeted and comparative experiments is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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Lean Environmental Management Integration System (LEMIS) is employed to improve business efficiency and reduce environmental impacts. In the automotive industry, improvement in the driving-stability and comfort of auto is attempted. And it is known that influence of a suspension is especially large. However, at the present time, a huge experience and sense of a designer is required in suspension designing. Most of the time, designers usually need to pay more attention to the suspension itself and rarely aware of the impact on the environment. In order to meet the concept of lean manufacturing, as well as to meet ISO certification to improve competitiveness. The primary objective of the paper is to provide a concept for suspension design support system based on LEMIS database to give some guidance, which help the designer achieve the balance that the smallest impact on the environment under the minimum production cost. Not only production cost, mechanical probability, production efficiency, but also environmental impact and other factors are stored in the LEMIS system. The design support system integrates and calculates all of these values, and then offers exact numbers so that the designer can see the differences clearly. The study is indeed useful to the designer of suspension because the support system is a comprehensive tool, where it can provide designers with comprehensive and accurate data reference.

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This paper reports on the different approach to establish the required digital wire design for the subsequent CAM data preparation, referred as B-code. The B-code consists of three parameters, known as wire feeding length (L), the rotation angle (β) and the bend angle (θ) which are designed to control the movement of the developing CNC dental wire bender machine through the feeding mechanism, the rotating mechanism and the bending mechanism, respectively. The previous works had discussed some different methods in generating the digital wire design and the present study explores the use of 2D dental image instead. In the present study, two interfaces have been adopted to realize the objective, which are the 2D image segmentation and also the 2D real time point selection. The use of these interfaces had been demonstrated through technical examples. Firstly, the initial contour of a lingual and labial arch curve is obtained from an input image, accordingly. A different number of iteration is tested during the active contour image segmentation procedure to extract an acceptable dental arch feature. Then, several 2D points are selected from the desired feature at a user specified zoom level to represent the lingual and labial arch contour. Those points are automatically fit into 2D linear interpolation which enable the approximation of these arch curvesto be visually conducted. The extraction of the pre-selected Cartesian XY coordinates of points is automatically executed through the written program and subsequently adopted for the CNC bending code (B-code) generation program. In addition to that, the mathematical representation of each generated curve is also defined by polynomials fourth and sixth-order.

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As shown in the previous research studies on simultaneous design of structural system and control system, it is pointed out that multi-objective simultaneous satisficing design is a very important task. Representative simultaneous design methods proposed in the past have been organized from the viewpoint of point-based method and set-based method. In the present study, the concept of versatility of PSD method which is one of set-based methods is considered and the application of the method to simultaneous satisficing design of structural system and control system is carried out. As a result of application, each set solution of 6 design variables that simultaneously satisfies 4 performances is obtained.

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As manufacturers in Japan expand their business globally, product design method should be innovated. And also design process for localization needs to be established as well. This paper aims to describe what is issues and problems taken package design in global business as an example. Firstly, the authors define that the issue is to reduce costs such as package, transportation and storage. The breakdown problem is that common package design standard is inappropriate in each package design differs from products. So the authors attempt to design and take measures for each product cases. Secondly, the design process localization in Thailand, specific design education is indispensable in contrast Japanese design-transmission culture that is so-called tacit knowledge. After the authors investigated the causes, prepared design standard with package strength calculator and work standard. Then holding workshop and lectures with them. This paper concludes that the measures work effectively in the design education.

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The majority of manufacturing, industrial labors normally has to perform the operating task in standing position for a long period of time. In this context, the problems related to prolonged standing activity among workers posed significant impact to the workers that may lead to musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) including pain, increased fatigue and stiffness in active muscles. The data on the problems encountered and design specifications were obtained through questionnaire survey among 60 respondents of production workers in the stamping industry. Based on the findings, large number of participants have experienced muscle fatigue in calf parts due to the prolonged standing activity. The objective of this study is to design the Manual Calf Massager (MCM) in order to reduce muscle fatigue associated with prolonged standing worker in industry. The most favored criteria of the design requirements are effortless and user friendly, high efficiency, portable devices, foldable design, multi-purpose use, adjustable device and durability based on the consumer desire. The selection of concept design was finalized by using the Pugh Selection Method; Screening and Scoring method. The final 3D modeling, design of the Manual Calf Massager (MCM) was drawn using Solid Work software. The validation analysis using subjective method was applied to gain the psychological feedback from the workers and also to the medical practitioners. According to the validation results, it can be summarized that majority of the workers were satisfied with the overall performance of MCM design. Positive feedback gained from the physiotherapist where they believed that MCM chair will become as an archetype in preventing pain become worsening especially contributable to MSD. Besides, most of them showing curiosity to try this new calf message design.

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This paper present the result of whole-body vibration (WBV) of the Malaysian drivers driving a car through different road conditions; straight, winding, uphill, and downhill) at constant speed (80km/h). The objective of this study is to study the effect of the WBV towards the driving fatigue. Besides, the regression modeling of WBV for drivers’ fatigue was developed. There were ten healthy and experienced drivers served as the subjects of this study. The WBV measurement was taken and evaluated using the tri-axial seat pad accelerometer and 4-channel VI-400PRO Human Vibration Meter (HVM). Design Expert 8.0.6 software was used for the development of regression model. This study is expected to analyze the WBV, and develop the regression model of the WBV by using regression analysis. The result of this study indicates that the subjects recorded the vibration values that show they feel fairly uncomfortable as it in the caution zone. The vibration exposure can cause the changes in body chemistry and metabolism, which can lead to fatigue effects. Besides, the regression model was successfully developed and validated, which the validation runs were within the 90% prediction interval of the developed model and the residual errors compared to the predicted values were less than 10%. Through this study, the significant parameters that influenced the WBV were also identified. WBV was influenced by the time exposure, type of road, gender, the interaction between time exposure and type of road, and interaction between time exposure and gender. Thus, the author believes there is a new contribution to the body of knowledge throughout this study.

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We decided to establish the methodology, which based on the psychological types, that meets these three conditions: “academic formation principle”, “easily implemented formation method”, and “thorough consideration to ethical aspects”. As for the overall structure of the methodology, we have designed it with a three-layer structure. In phase I: a team formation methodology, we devised three methods. In phase II: a team management methodology, we devised three rules. In phase Ⅲ: a team development support methodology, we devised the education regarding the motivation and knowledge. We conducted randomized parallel group trials, and those results were analyzed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and scatter graphs. As a result, this method showed the effectiveness and possibility of future development.

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Internet of Things is connecting product to product so that we have to move from individual product-focused engineering, which is tree-structured to product team engineering, which is network-structured. In the age of tree-structured engineering, the goal did not change or if it did, the change was very small so we could pay our efforts to establish vertical integration. Every member was expected to play his role and do his best. But today situations change very frequently and extensively so what is called for is fast adaptability. In fact, it is more important now than individual product quality. Products are expected to work flexibly and adaptively as a team to the changes. Thus, in order to secure such adaptability, each product company must make efforts to increase the possibility of working together with other companies. Therefore, the importance of horizontal integration is rapidly increasing.

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The originality of Japanese culture is discussed with attention paid to engineering, especially to Japanese housing. The fundamental characteristic of Japanese housing is we do not distinguish between inside and outside. Shoji, paper wall and paper window, penetrates humidity and air so people inside the house can feel the situations of the outside world and lighting through Shoji generates ambience. In the western culture, lighting is considered with specific purpose and sensors are developed in the same way. But in Japanese housing, ambience is evaluated very high and our basic concept is holistic. It does not assign specific role to anything. Everything works together for the whole. Thus, there are no distinction between the part and the whole. Holistic and working together for the whole is Japanese culture. This characteristic should be re-considered and should be taught in design education. Holistic engineering is on the horizon. Thus, Japanese culture will play an important role tomorrow.

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The progress of Internet of Things brought us the connected society. Up to now, engineering has focused its attention to achieve high quality individual products, but in the connected society, products work as a team. Therefore, we have to deal with such product teams as networks with primary attention to how these product teams can adapt to the frequently and extensively changing situations and at the same time to meet the customer’s expectations. In this paper, traditional engineering focused on individual product realization which is tree-structured, is called microengineering, and the new emerging engineering which deals with a product team and is network-based, is called microengineering. What are needed to establish microengineering is discussed in this paper.

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The difference between Western engineering and Japanese engineering is discussed. Western engineers tend toward rational approaches. On the other hand, Japanese engineers tend toward more holistic approaches paying attention to balancing, without paying too much attention to rationality. Typical examples of Japanese engineering which demonstrate our holistic-oriented approaches are described.

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In the field of fluid engineering, realistic wind tunnel tests are still important. In a realistic wind tunnel experiment, it is difficult to move the wind tunnel test model freely because of the mechanical engineering reasons such as the limitation of the size of the model, the measurement of the aerodynamic force by machine support, so in many cases it is much more difficult than a virtual wind tunnel experiment. However, it may be required to reproduce the behavior of a moving object with respect to the model. In this report, we report the development of the rotating wind tunnel test model of the turbo jab used in the javelic throw competition which fly in rotation and the experiment result.

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For the purpose of improvement of easiness and safety of flow visualization experiment in the laboratory and miniaturization of the device, we designed a flow visualization channel with flow direction oriented vertically upward rather than general horizontal direction. With this experimental apparatus, problems of deposited particles have been solved, and laser can be handled safely. Also, as an evaluation, the flow velocity in the test section according to the pump inverter frequency is measured using flow visualization experiment and PTV. From the results, we confirmed the operational characteristics and flow velocity uniformity of this channel. Then, as an additional evaluation, the flow field around the cylinder is also observed by this channel, at the result the Karman vortex is observed and the easiness and safety of experiment using this tank in laboratory is also experienced.

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Pupil response plays an important role to express affect. Focusing on the pupil response in human communication, we analyzed the pupil response in an embodied interaction and demonstrated that the speaker’s pupil was clearly dilated during burst-pause of utterance. In addition, it was confirmed that the pupil response is effective for supporting the embodied interaction and communication by using the developed system in which an interactiove CG character generates pupil response based on the burst-pause of utterance. In this study, we develop a video chat system which superimposes a pupil CG model on the speaker’s pupil for enhancing affective conveyance. In this system, a pupil CG model consists of pupil and iris, whose response is synchronized with the burst-pause of utterance.

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For the cooperative design activities by a design team, a designer needs design object information not only about geometrical data and these attributes but also the design rationale such as the reason of decision making to understand ideas of the design proposes by other designers. To cope with such situation, we focused on influential relations between parts of design object, and previously proposed description supporting method for influential relations between parts so far. However, in order to consider the influence of the usage environment on the product is essential, it is required to handle the relationship between usage environment and the product. In this report, how to describe the influential relationship between usage environment and product are considered based on the case studies.

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Recently designers and engineers need to come up with creative, innovative and valuable design ideas. In this paper, we first discuss concepts of function (F), behavior (B) and structure (S) of a product used in engineering design field and a concept of user experience (UX) used in product design field. Then we propose a delta design map based on F, B, S and UX as a framework for a systematic method and computational tool for design ideation support. A delta design map does not describe F, B, S and UX for each design example but describes their differences (deltas) between design examples. By preparing a delta design map, we can systematically and exhaustively analyze the potential similarity among all design examples from the viewpoint of F, B, S and UX and obtain triggers for ideation. The results of a simple trial of the proposed method is presented. To make an effective delta design map for ideation, ideally huge numbers of design examples (their functions, behaviors, structures and user experiences) need to be described and stored. Since such data gathering seems difficult by hands, the authors are now working in machine-learning approach to data collection from potential data sources such as internet. This paper describe the beginning of such trial.

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A contradiction matrix in TRIZ that classifies problems to solve as contradictions of 39 features is an effective approach to knowledge management for problem solving. The method based on the 39 features, however, may have a problem in adequately describing all potential problems to be solved in the future (comprehensiveness) and a problem in searching proper solution where the same problem might be described differently by a recorder and by a searcher (searchability). To solve such problems, the authors propose a semistructured contradiction matrix using not 39 features but dimension representations of any quantities based on the SI unit system. The SI unit system provides comprehensiveness in which any quantity to describe physical phenomena that appear in problems to solve in the future can be defined by a combination of seven basic units: length, mass, time, electric current, thermodynamic temperature, amount of substance and luminous intensity. In addition, quantity-dimension-based representation may solve difference in representations of the essentially same phenomena by a recorder and by a searcher by systematically comparing dimensions of quantities both exactly and partially. In this presentation, the details of the proposed semistructured contradiction matrix, its implementation as software, and the result of trial are explained.

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Process parameters in plastic injection molding (PIM) such as the packing pressure, the melt temperature and the cooling time have a direct influence on the product quality. It is important to determine the optimal process parameters for high product quality. In addition to the product quality, high productivity is required to plastic products. This paper proposes a method to determine the optimal process parameters in the PIM for high product quality and high productivity. A constant packing pressure during the PIM is conventionally used, but the variable packing pressure profile that the packing pressure varies in the packing phase is adopted as the advanced PIM. Warpage and cycle time are taken as the product quality and the productivity, respectively. Then, these are simultaneously minimized and the pareto-frontier between them is identified. Numerical simulation in the PIM is so intensive that a sequential approximate optimization using radial basis function is adopted. It is found through the numerical result that the variable packing pressure profile can improve both the warpage and the cycle time, compared with the conventional PIM approach.

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