We developed an “ Insight CAD system” as one of the design support technologies. The purpose of the Insight CAD system development is to check design rules automatically on 3DCAD, and to provide information about the violation part or the violation list for designers. In this paper, we report on the speed of the checking time aimed at improving user usability. In the conventional “Insight CAD system”, the shape conversion method called NURBS with high-precision surface reproducibility has been applied. However, it was a issue that the calculation time is long. In this study, we have converted the shape to a mesh and combined the interference check function called AABB (Axis-Aligned Bounding Box) method with conventional methods to reduce the calculation time. By combining the new AABB method in the conventional system, it was confirmed that the narrowing of the interference region can be realized at high speed. The conventional calculation time relates to interference check that took about 30 minutes, it was confirmed that the calculation time is shortened to 1 minute when adding the AABB method using a fine mesh.

Shape recognition of the 3D shapes in computer-aided design (CAD) can help automate the product modelling and reduce the time to develop a new product. In this paper, in order to recognize partial shapes of 3D CAD models such as bolts and fillets, we propose a shape recognition method based on graph-neural-networks, which learns geometrical and topological information from data of annotated 3D CAD models. By using the graph of face adjacencies of the BRep model as input to the learning model, it is possible to predict recognition target directly from the BRep models. We applied this method to machine part data and verified its effectiveness. We demonstrate that our method can classify the BRep models in FabWave dataset with higher accuracy than the methods based on the point clouds.

Purpose of this study is to enable 4D CT reconstruction of objects in periodic motion by using a high-speed CT system. 4D CT reconstruction is a promising technique for dynamic internal inspection of products. In general, 4D CT reconstruction means that a volume is generated at each time frame from projection images scanned while an object is in motion. Proposed method in this study is phase sorting reconstruction using motion period of object. Proposed method was validated using simulated and real data. In addition, this study explored and validated several methods for sorting projections by motion phase.

When inspecting an industrial product, it is important to detect the manufacturing errors on its surface because they may affect the performance of the product. In this paper, we propose a non-rigid registration method that can detect the manufacturing errors on the surface of each product component separately. Given the product’s point cloud obtained by 3D scanning and the meshes of the components generated from CAD models, we first perform template matching to extract the point clouds that match with each component from the product’s point cloud, and then measure the surface deformations on each component by performing non-rigid registration from the component’s mesh to the matched point cloud. The efficiency of our method is tested using the CT-scanned data of a 3D-printed model. Experiments demonstrate that our method can deal with large and small manufacturing errors on the product’s surface.

Appropriate levels of arousal potential evoke hedonic responses. Yanagisawa, the second author, previously proposed a mathematical model of emotional arousal caused by novelty, uncertainty, and complexity using information-theoretic free energy. In this study, we formulate the information processing flow in the brain based on the dynamics of free energy to represent both emotional arousal and pleasure caused by the reduction of free energy. We hypothesized that free-energy reduction is proportional to a positive emotion such as pleasure and that the state of free energy meaning arousal potential forms an inverse U-shaped function of the valence. We verified proposing model prediction using the experimental data given by a previous study of musical pleasure. By using a statistical learning model of music, we calculated the free energy of perceiving the progression of harmonies as sensory stimuli. The results partially reflect our hypotheses and revealed the two: displeasure due to large arousal potential and pleasure due to large free-energy reduction.

Design aesthetics is one of the most important factors in the attractiveness of industrial products. In this study, we focused on the theory of aesthetics, which states that moderate novelty and complexity maximize pleasant feelings, and formulated the novelty and complexity perceived from a closed curve contour shape using curvature and Fourier expansion coefficients. Using this formulation, we developed "Hybrid-GAN," a shape generation system that iterates shape generation, feature computation, and shape optimization. The system is capable of generating a variety of shapes of arbitrary novelty and complexity. In a subsequent experiment, subjective evaluations of novelty and complexity, as well as beauty and interest, were obtained for the shape samples generated by the system. The results showed that the novelty and complexity formulations had significant positive correlations with the subjective evaluation, and the sum of novelty and complexity had a strong positive correlation with interestingness. The results of this study are expected to be used to support the design of attractive and long-loved shapes by providing feedback to designers on the degree of novelty and complexity that users find most pleasant.

This paper proposes a Kansei design process based on the evaluation grid method to realize a design that satisfies Kansei quality. Especially, this paper focuses on the way to classify users’ needs, which are obtained as a high-level concept in the evaluation structure. The obtained needs are classified based on the factor effects between the satisfaction level of each need and the overall product evaluation. Needs are classified into seven groups which contains Attractive Quality, Must-Be Quality, One-Dimensional Quality, which is based on Kano Model. This paper applies the proposed method to the mouse pad design problem.

In the driving state of equipment, vibration of the drivetrain system often occurs. The failure state of the equipment may cause the disturbance of the vibration waveform. In the present study, I will focus on predictive maintenance at the design stage. The drive state of the equipment to be designed is physically modeled, and the vibration waveform of the equipment is assumed (or measured by actual prototype). A threshold for the degree of waveform distortion in the fault state is introduced. The frequency distributions of normality and failure that occur when the design variables of the equipment are changed within the expected range is expressed by an index of statistics, and the existence range of both is determined by the point that they are clearly separated. Then, the idea of finding the range of design variables that fall on the normal side by the set-based design method is shown.

Foreign ships came into the territorial seas forced the shogunate to revitalize the plan of defending the country. Defending with cannons were planned as a strategic choice and manufacturing of cannons was promoted. Material processing under manufacturing has already been researched. Cannons require structures for their deployment, mainly batteries, generally called Daiba. They were constructed on the sea and by the seashore all over the country. Larger structures, castles, were fewer but also newly constructed, which have the same characteristics as structures for firing and defending. Multiple cannons are generally deployed in the same structure, which makes the issue how they were deployed important. Cannons were sustained by a continuous structure or by independent ones. Defending against firing and supplying for firing are also needed, components for which also had to be deployed between multiple cannons on batteries. The aim of this paper is to research how structures constructed for firing and defending were designed.

Recently designing flexible supply chain is important issue because of change in supply chain risk, progress of digital technologies and request for sustainable developments. In this paper, we focus on constructing supply chain we can change its performance flexibly while we consider change propagations. First, we propose modeling method for supply chain using Object-Process Methodology. Then, we set the attribute for each component in supply chain and describe relations between a component and performance. Based on those relation, we reveal trade-off between performance. Finally, we suggest the component in supply chain that most solve trade-off.

This paper describes the thinking process based on the design dualism and the multispace design model. Additionally, it also describes the position of the design dualism in the multispace design model required for that purpose. Specifically, we focused on the relationship between the "part" and "whole" of design elements in the thinking space of multispace design model, and described intra-space modeling and inter-space modeling based on the design dualism. Moreover, thinking paths are exemplified using bottom-up and top-down, deduction and abduction reasoning, and consideration points are discussed.

Recently, cross-modal effects in which perceptions interact with each other have been drawing attention. In the case of the cross-modal effect between vision and taste, the effect of the angularity of shapes on taste has been widely studied. However, there has been little research on the other features of shapes. Also, previous studies have shown that the emotional valence arisen from visual perception causes the cross-modal effect. Therefore, this study focuses on the complexity of shapes, which is said to influence emotional valence, as a visual stimulus and aims to confirm the cross-modal effect induced by its sensation. First, by using particle swarm optimization algorithm, closed curve shapes were generated based on curvature entropy, a quantitative index of the complexity of shapes. Second, cup holders, which had these closed curve shapes on their sides, were created by using a 3D printer. Third, by comparing the tastes of orange juice in these cup holders, the effect of the complexity of shapes on the perception of sweetness was confirmed. Finally, we propose index of Angularity derived from curvature, which has been suggested to be relevant in previous studies, and additionally test for cross-modal effects on this index. The results suggest that the complexity of shapes controlled by curvature entropy and the Angularity of shapes controlled by index of Angularity derived from curvature weaken the perception of sweetness. This finding can be used for reducing sugar intake in bottle packaging.

Smart and intelligent manufacturing systems based on cyber physical system (CPS) are gaining researchers’ interest in recent years. A Digital twin (DT), which is a virtual representation of a physical object, is widely regarded as a corner stone for the realization of CPS. Although many tools, methods, and guidelines for developing DT has been proposed, DT alone is not sufficient for solving practical problems that occur in an actual production system (e.g., frequent rescheduling caused by unpredictable events such as machine failure or engineering changes). Because DT is merely a digital representation of a physical object, it cannot provide a problem-solving procedure for unpredicted situations alone. Therefore, the integrated utilization of human experts’ knowledge with DT is indispensable for the realization of smart and intelligent manufacturing system. In order to solve the problem, the authors’ group has proposed a Digital triplet (D3) concept, which organizes human engineers’ ‘intelligent activity world’ with DT, and has demonstrated its advantages and potential through multiple case studies. The paper summarizes the findings from the case studies and discusses the future research directions.

As production systems become more complex and digitalized, the quality and quantity of skills required of production system consultants are increasing. On the other hand, the training of consultants is mainly conducted through work instruction manuals and on-the-job training (OJT), which makes it challenging to develop consultants to a level that meets the requirements and requires a large number of person-hours. The authors have already proposed a framework to support the unskilled consultants by applying the "Digital Triplet," a next-generation manufacturing concept that combines the know-how and knowledge of skilled consultants and Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) to production system consulting. Based on this framework, This paper clarifies the current OJT issues using the PD3 process modeling language for Digital Triplet through energy-saving improvement consulting services as a case study. Furthermore, we show that it would be beneficial to apply the framework for supporting the training of unskilled consultants using the Digital Triplet concept to OJT.

Product-service systems (PSS) are gaining traction as a means of achieving sustainability. To successfully implement PSS, it is necessary to estimate the barriers that may arise in the implementation of the PSS at the design stage, and to take measures to increase social acceptability in advance. On the other hand, to realize this, it is essential to understand the relationship between the characteristics of PSS and the barriers that may arise in its implementation. However, existing research only investigates PSS features and barriers individually, and the relationship between them has not been fully understood. This paper thus aims to grasp the relationship between PSS features and barriers by collecting case study data through a literature survey and constructing a Bayesian network based on the data. As a result, the relationship between PSS features and barriers was represented as a graphical model and a probability table. The result is expected to assist PSS designers in estimating the expected barriers based on PSS features during the design phase, thereby contributing to successful PSS implementation.

The value of the artifact is evaluated by the users’ subjective, which is called value-in-use. To improve value-in-use, designers need to enhance value-related functions and eliminate redundant behaviours unrelated to value. However, the functions and behaviours that users perceive vary depending on circumstances. To realise the high value-in-use, designers need to repeatedly reflect and redefine information on value-in-use into design specifications by observing the circumstances where users receive functions and behaviours. Further on, according to previous studies, functions and value-in-use are defined respectively, but the relationship between the two is unclear. Thus, it is difficult for designers to understand what functions and behaviours users perceive in artefacts and how they are related to the value-in-use. Based on the above considerations, this paper clarifies the relationship between functions and the value-in-use by organising their fundamental concepts. Furthermore, this paper supports designers in redefining their design specifications based on information related to value-in-use by making it possible to describe and acquire that information. Specifically, reviews of existing research on functions and value-in-use clarify the three problems with the authors’ conventional definitions. Then, this study addressed these problems by modifying the definitions and utilising a case study to confirm that the modified definitions were indeed valid and effective in addressing the problems.

Mixed-use facilities are developed and operated as facilities that physically and functionally integrate several different uses under an integrated plan. The target customers are diverse, including visitors to commercial facilities, office workers, and residential residents. Actions to enhance the value of a mixed-use facility include the development of its physical structure and the subsequent operation and management to respond to changes in customer demands by utilizing the physical structure that has already been built. Given the inevitable deterioration of the physical structure over time and the fact that people's sense of value changes with the times, operation management is extremely important for the long-term maintenance and improvement of value. Based on this, this study focuses on the concept of "Ageing Superiority", which means "increasing in value over time", and focuses on the operation and management that is considered important for improving the value of mixed-use facilities over time.

With the increase in the population in need of care, the number of housing renovations for long-term care is increasing rapidly. In the renovation process, architectural drawings presented by designers are difficult to understand for clients without expertise, and thus the process of design proposal and modification is not streamlined. In this study, we propose a computer-aided design system for renovation of ordinary housings for in-house care, in which a designer virtually edits the shape and location of real objects in an existing house to show the design proposals graphically. The interior space is virtualized using spherical images based on an image-based modeling method, and the view-dependent texture mapping technique enables the virtual editing of real objects to visualize the living space after renovation. For the adaptive texture mapping method, images from appropriate viewpoints are selectively switched from the group of spherical images as view-dependent textures for the editable real object. This technique makes the design process for housing renovation intuitive and interactive. The use cases of the design support system is demonstrated through a renovation design process for a nursing care environment in a real Vietnamese house.

The gaming market continues to expand, and more and more people are playing games. In recent years, however, excessive game playing has become a problem. It can harm work and sleep and cause traffic accidents. The purpose of this study is to propose a methodology for game design that allows players to voluntarily finish playing games early without reducing their enjoyment. In this paper, we focus on "personality," which influences user experience and game playing style. Experiments were conducted using games with varying parameters, and player personalities were obtained through questionnaires. Based on the results, we examine how to maintain enjoyment and reduce game playing time by varying game parameters according to the player's personality.

Until very recently, our society has been product-centric. The Industrial Revolution brought forth the Industrial Society and we started to work for others. And products were produced in mass. Ironically enough, this brought Diversification and Personalization. Until then, the users of the products were just consumers. But now we recognize how Self is important and we should get away from being a consuer and move toward being a customer. We should customize the processes to satifify our expectations and our feelings of Joy. In the product-centric society, the word Benefit was interpreted as Profit. It is used because production was seen from an advantage to the producer. But we, users, come to realize that production should meet our expectations not only form the standpoint of performance, but from the point of how much Joy it will provide. Thus, Process becomes very important for bringing joy to our world and Benefit comes to be interpreted as the idea of making our life enjoyable.

The current Industrial Society is coming to its ceiling and many issues are emerging such as decreating workforce, energy problem, etc. So, it is time now to create a new society for the next generation. The Industrial Society was product-centric and the Industrial Revolution introduced Division of Labor and started mass production, we started to work for others. But when we do the job which are internally motivated and self-determined, we get the highest happiness, which no external rewards can provide. Ironically enough, mass production brought Diversification and Personolization. So, we became aware of the importance of “Self”. Further, if we share Happiness together with our friends. Come to think, we have been too much focused on the Artificial World. In fact, it is within the Natural World.

And we have not focused our attention to our Instinct.Instinct is not taught. We are born with Instict, which varies from person to person. And although DX, AI, etc. are getting wide attention these days, they are items of the Digital World. But the Natural World is composed mostly of Analog information. And Brain is getting wide attention today, but our feelings are more associated with Heart. Heart is the source of Happiness and Motivation. This paper points out that if we pay more attention to our Body Sensation, we can creat another world for the next generation, which is Self-Sustaining and Self-Satisfying Society, which needs far less energy and labor , but provides us more joy in our daily life.

Design is an intellectual activity involving the generation and application of hypotheses. While unprecedented and novel hypotheses can lead to creative solutions that benefit society, they can cause serious damage if they contain errors. Therefore, the designer needs to correctly grasp the hypothesis in the design process and manage it appropriately. However, in complex and diverse design thinking activities, it is not easy for designers to always grasp the hypothesis correctly under limited cognitive resources. This paper aims to support designers in efficiently grasping and managing their hypotheses correctly during the design stage. To achieve this aim, this paper identified the concepts that designers consider during the design process by referring to prior research and proposed a new typology of design hypothesis. The practical meaning of the proposed typology was confirmed by an exemplification of a design case of the Roppongi revolving door. This research is expected to contribute to the designers capturing and managing design hypotheses.

In recent years, optimization and efficiency improvement of manufacturing systems have been promoted through digital transformation. However, the complexity of manufacturing systems and diversified digital technologies make it difficult to realize such transformation successfully. This study proposes a method to support the development of digital solutions to realize DX, based on the 'digital triplet' concept. Digital Triplet is a manufacturing concept that aims to effectively utilize engineers' knowledge with digital technology. In this paper, digital solutions include fault detection systems and production planning systems in manufacturing systems. This method represents the process knowledge explicitly for developing digital solutions and reuses the knowledge. As a case study, we described the process of developing fault detection systems based on interviews with engineers. This made it possible to clarify and share the engineers’ process that has not been explicit. In addition, we supported a novice engineer by utilizing the descriptions. This clarified the effectiveness and challenges of the proposed method.

Many scenarios have been developed by organizations to support their strategic planning toward achieving sustainable futures. While scenarios are typically presented in text format, the authors have developed the scenario structuring method to visualize the logical structure of a scenario in graph format for assisting mutual understanding and communications among stakeholders. However, the most critical problem is that executing this method is very timeconsuming because scenario structuring requires in-depth reading by humans. To tackle this problem, in this paper, we propose a method for supporting scenario structuring using natural language processing. We used the state-of-the-art pretrained language models (i.e., ALBERT, ERNIE, and DeBERTa) to semi-automate scenario structuring tasks. Results showed that the proposed classifier system reached an F1 score of 87.5 in finding two sentences that are semantically related to each other in a test scenario.

Plastic injection molding (PIM) is a manufacturing technology to plastic products. In PIM, weldline that affects the strength and surface quality of products, and it is then important to determine the optimal process parameters for the weldline reduction. Rapid heat cycle molding (RHCM) is an attracted PIM technology for weldline reduction that by heating up the mold temperature, the melt plastic is smoothly flowed into the die cavity and consequently the weldline is well reduced. In RHCM, since various heating systems are adopted but which have problem that long cycle time. In this paper, to quickly heat up the mold temperature, a heater system is newly introduced and the process parameters in the RHCM using heater system are optimized. A multi-objective optimization for minimizing both weldline and cycle time is considered, and the ratio of mold temperature to injection time is maximized for the weldline reduction, whereas the cycle time is minimized for high productivity. Sequential approximate optimization that the response surface is repeatedly constructed and optimized is adopted for the design optimization, and the pareto-frontier is identified. Based on the numerical result, the experiment is also conducted to examine the validity of the proposed RHCM.

We present a non-parametric shape and topology optimization method for fiber bundle placement and orientation design aimed at controlling the rigidity of CFRP shell structures. Since the fiber bundles are modeled by the beam element, the placement and the orientation of the fiber bundles can be explicitly obtained while moving the positions. In order to achieve the target displacement at an arbitrarily specified position, we considered the problem of minimizing the squared error under the length constraint of the fiber bundles, and formulated it as a distributed-parameter optimization problem. Using the derived shape gradient function and the density gradient function, the optimum placement and the orientation of the fiber bundles are determined simultaneously by the H1 gradient method for vector and scalar variables. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by numerical examples.

There are iron cores made by laminating thin electromagnetic steel sheets to reduce eddy current losses in large motors, generators, and transformers for industrial applications. It’s necessary to model these laminated materials as anisotropic materials to identify vibration phenomena of industrial equipment by FEM. In this study, we propose a method for identifying the parameters of anisotropic materials based on experimentally obtained natural frequencies using adjoint variable method. We also considered the relationship between the bolt fastening moment and the material constants.

With the sophistication and cost reduction of manufacturing technology in recent years, in order to differentiate products, designs that include new functions and user experiences that go beyond the boundaries of existing products are required. On the other hand, a design description method including user experience, which has been attracting attention in recent years, has not been established, and a technique that can be utilized as an assistive technique has not been developed. Therefore, in this research, the purpose of this research is to propose the possibility of supporting the upstream stage of design by using the sentence expression of the function and user experience in design, and the function of the product / service for the set sentence pattern. Regarding the sentence expression that expresses the user experience, we examined and implemented the evaluation method of the novelty of the generated sentence and the effectiveness for the idea support. In addition, we considered the points for improvement and future directions by thinking from the sentences of the generated results.

Recently in the field of design, it is becoming more important to generate innovative ideas of "what to create" at early design stage than ideas of "how well to make". At early design stage, compared to middle and downstream stages, information technology support has not been fully realized. In this research, based on the knowledge of cognitive neuroscience that "human creation does not create something out of nothing, but the memory of the past is the basis of creation", a database of functions and UXs of existing examples is prepared as an extension of human memory. And database exploration using similarity calculations with a concept dictionary enhances recall. Using the database, experiments to coming up to ideas for solving a problem. From the results, the effectiveness and possibility of the proposed method are confirmed.

In this research, methods of extracting product usage and feeling of use from collected user reviews are investigated. Although most conventional data mining methods extract data based on commonality and similarity, we tried two approaches to extract data not only by commonality and similarity but also on differences. In the method using sentiment analysis, it was confirmed that there is a positive correlation between the result obtained from the sum of the polar values and the rating based on the number of stars. In the method using co-occurrence networks, a method of extracting features of two product was proposed. On this method, the results of the difference operation after normalizing the frequencies of words contains each products’ reviews are used to construct a network that integrates the co-occurrence networks of the two products, and to extract features from the obtained network. Finally, as a result of applying the proposed method to a portable fan and a tabletop fan, it was shown that the features can be extracted well.

In the manufacturing industry, DX efforts are active, and in addition to digitization of manufacturing information and inspection data, digitization of expert skills and knowledge in design is also progressing. Systems have been developed to support the transfer of skills and knowledge using these data, but it is difficult to present knowledge that matches the user's skill level. On the other hand, a technique has been developed that measures the user's gaze and determines the skill level from the trajectory. In addition, the pupil size dilates as the cognitive load increases. The cognitive load on a task may differ depending on the skill level. Therefore, it may be possible to judge the user's skill level by measuring the pupil size. In this study, in order to examine the possibility of determining the skill level at an early stage when the user starts using the system, we focused on the fluctuation of the pupil size during task execution and evaluated the difference between the experts and beginners. As a result of measuring the pupil size in the task of searching for a vortex from the fluid simulation image, it was found that the user's pupil size has a latency of 900 ms and increases 900 ms after observing the vortex. In addition, the pupil size of an expert is large in a place with a vortex, and the pupil size is small in a place without a vortex, which depends on the presence or absence of a vortex, but the beginner does not depend on the location of the vortex. From this result, it was found that it may be possible to judge the skill level at an early stage by analyzing the location of the vortex and the pupil size in association with each other at the initial stage when the system is started to be used.

Filters are often used in beverage and other production lines to remove foreign material during fluid transfer. The removal of foreign material causes clogging, which leads to further generation of foreign material due to an increase in the mesh opening or damage to the mesh. Although clogging can be determined from flow rate and pressure changes, it is difficult to detect clogging until after the event has progressed to a certain degree, during which time foreign material is generated. In this study, we extracted feature values from the differential pressure applied to the filter and performed machine learning using One-Class SVM to predict foreign material contamination in advance. We applied this method to an actual fluid transfer line and confirmed its usefulness.

The Japanese manufacturing industry faces various problems, one of which is the need to solve the problem of collaboration regarding information sharing with other departments such as production engineering, manufacturing, and procurement. In this study, the target of information extraction is the idea stage in the design process. All conversations including the design rationale, such as the reasons for the decision on the structure and function of each part and the process of consideration leading up to it, are recorded in the design process, and the data is automatically transcribed using the Google Speech API. The document data is analyzed in terms of TFIDF, which is text mining technique to detect important words from a text. We proposed an automatic method for extracting design rationale and important information by extracting sentences containing the extracted words from the document data in the order of their TFIDF values, and then extracting the logical and important information sentences. The proposed method was applied to the design of scissors. The case shows the potential for extraction of rationale while there are several points to be improved.

When evaluating a certain design, it is difficult to quantitatively compare the evaluation results because the importance of evaluation criteria differs depending on the evaluator. In this paper, we propose a method that combines the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and machine learning for the purpose of visualizing design evaluation data. The proposed method generates tree-structured evaluation data based on AHP. Furthermore, the evaluation data are mapped to a low-dimensional space using three machine learning methods. First, the evaluation criteria generated through AHP are converted to feature vectors using a word embedding method. Regarding the tree-structured data in which the evaluation criteria are vectorized as a graph, another feature vectors considering its connectivity are extracted by a graph embedding method. The feature vector associated with the master node is regarded as the whole graph feature, and the vector is mapped to a two-dimensional space using a dimensionality reduction method. The proposed method enables visualizing the similarity of different evaluation data, which provides important feedback to position the evaluators’ decision-making criteria relatively in the data group.

The quantity of piping, air conditioning ducts, cable trays in a Nuclear Power Plant is extremely large and currently takes a huge amount of time and cost to plan for the layout. In order to efficiently do the work, Hitachi is developing the AI Automatic Design System, that automatically designs the route of piping, air conditioning ducts, and cable trays in 3D model of an actual plant. The AI Automatic Design System enables automated design even with a small amount of learning data by applying a hybrid method that combines a program-based design rules, a route search program by Genetic Algorithm (GA), and AI by deep learning. Hitachi also studied the automatic mutual arrangement of piping, air conditioning ducts and cable trays to reduce the work of adjusting its arrangement. As a result, by using the system in the actual plant model, it was confirmed that the piping, air conditioning ducts, and cable trays were properly arranged according to the design rules. It is confirmed that applying AI Automatic Design System to actual plant model is possible.

This paper describes vibration analysis using Finite Element Method with Model Strain Energy Method for steel panel connected by nonlinear concentrated springs under impact load. The panel is composed of steel layer with a partial acoustic black hole having a damping layer in the plate edge. The Acoustic Black Hole has a viscoelastic damping layer. Finite elements for the nonlinear springs with hysteresis are expressed and are connected to the panel modeled by linear solid finite elements in consideration of complex modulus of elasticity. We calculated modal loss factors and transient responses including coupled motions between the non-linear springs and the panel. From the dominant eigen modes and the time histories, we clarified effects of a partial acoustic black hole having a damping layer in the plate edge and non-linear springs on the nonlinear damped responses.

This paper describes analysis using finite element method with Model Strain Energy Method for steel structures having a T-shaped cross section supported by nonlinear concentrated springs under impact load. An edge of the rib plate in the T-shaped structure has an Acoustic Black Hole with residual thickness. A viscoelastic damping layer is covered on the acoustic black hole. Finite element for the nonlinear springs with hysteresis are expressed and are connected to the T-shaped structures modeled by linear solid finite elements in consideration of complex modulus of elasticity. We calculated modal loss factors and transient responses using the eigen modes including coupled motions between the non-linear springs and the T-shaped structures. From the dominant eigen modes and the time histories, we clarified effects of an Acoustic Black Hole with residual thickness and nonlinear springs on the nonlinear damped responses.

Vibration and noise reduction are important technology both industrially and environmentally to realize comfort industrial products with safe structures. In this paper, we carry out for numerical simulation of damped vibration and sound radiation for structures having a porous material sandwiched by double walls. The cover plate in double walls has a Krylov type acoustic black hole. All edges around the walls, have free boundaries. Damping material is on the surface of the black hole. Numerical analysis is performed to clarify changes of vibration transmission from the base plate to the cover plate due to the acoustic black hole using FEM and MSKE method proposed by Yamaguchi et al. Sound radiation from the cover plate is also investigated.

This paper describes numerical simulation of the dynamic characteristics of a bead panel equipped with a new vibration control device. The device includes two blocks of viscoelastic gels and a constraint layer having a box cross section. The gel blocks are sandwiched between the constraint layer and the test structure. The modal analysis is carried out numerically using the finite element method with modal strain energy method. Effects of device positions on the vibration damping characteristics of the bead panel were evaluated using eigenmodes, modal loss factors and resonance frequencies.

The algorithmic design is a structural shape design approach based on mathematical functions that consists of several parameters. On the basis of the approach, seemingly unfamiliar and somewhat complex shape can be generated in terms of a relatively limited number of parameters. In the current study, the approach is adopted to design a truss structure. The principal objective of the algorithmic design is not optimization, but the approach can also be applied to optimal design. Some computational examples are also demonstrated.

Lean adoption is unsuccessful because employees do not reach a consensus on adoption novel ideas, and employers do not precisely understand the value of the lean approach. Hence, a study is vital to formulating the necessary industry approaches for facilitating a supportive system to make lean implementation successful. This study aims to assess barriers concerning lean acceptance for company employees, devise the required techniques to allow employees to adopt the lean approach, and create a change management-based environment for lean implementation success. This study emphasises the employee perspective considering different levels in an organisation. The study questionnaires had a 0.84 Cronbach’s Alpha metric, over the 0.70 threshold level, indicating questionnaire reliability. The sample comprised 100 employees, and the response rate was 79%, indicating 79 study candidates. The collected data were processed to determine the average index and conduct a frequency assessment. Subsequently, the data is employed to formulate novel approaches to facilitate lead adoption success, creating a new and versatile medium. Lastly, Jick’s change management technique is used to demonstrate that promoting change builds awareness and facilitates change execution. Changes are communicated timely before implementation; moreover, the change management team must devise the guidelines vital to prevent unacceptable work, create standard operating procedures, and implement changes using the genuine working approach to incorporate lean practices in business operations.

In this study, we propose an evaluation method based on Kansei Engineering to clarify the main factors that affect the impression of the shape and label design of PET bottles. Focusing only on PET bottles of natural water, we classified them by clustering method using physical shape and label design features, evaluated them by Kansei engineering method, determined design parameters by Preference Set-Based Design (PSD) analysis, and clarified the main factors of impression. First, PET bottle samples were prepared, and cluster analysis was conducted to classify them into representative categories. These samples were subjected to online and offline sensory evaluation by various subjects, and the impressions of the PET bottles were clarified from the sensory evaluation. In order to eliminate the bias of the subjects, cluster analysis is conducted to classify them into representative categories with similar preferences for PET bottles. Finally, PSD analysis is conducted to identify the main factors that influence the impression of the bottle shape and label design.

The introduction of label-less bottles has been proposed as one of the measures to reduce plastic resin consumption for a recycling-oriented society. However, it is not easy to recognize the content of colorless transparent objects in a label-less PET bottle. This study uses mineral water and carbonated water for the content of PET bottle, and clarifies the characteristics of PET bottle shape design that can be easily distinguished between these two types of water. First, commercial PET bottles of both types of water were analyzed to define the features of shape design. Then, this paper explains the experiment of Kansei evaluation on PET bottle samples containing mineral water and carbonated water, and shows the result of analysis on the factors that determines the difference in impression. Finally, this paper will discuss the relationship between the impressions of the contents in PET bottles.

The global epidemic of COVID-19 has made balancing working at home and childcare become a difficult challenge. This paper reports on a prototyping process for a robot that can support working-at-home and childcare by ensuring the safety of children in childcare, by taking care of some of the important childcare needs on the parents/childcare worker’s behalf, and by taking on COVID-19-specific tasks such as disinfection and sanitization.

This study proposes a system that works in conjunction with an IoT-based health management system using AI speakers to generate movements of avatars projected on walls and other surfaces, targeting general users and others unfamiliar with the operation of information devices. The health management system combines an AI speaker for voice control to manage daily personal activity data acquired from wearable devices. In this system, the avatar performs interactive actions by analyzing sentences spoken by the user when making inquiries and the AI speaker's responses. This paper describes the research background of this study, followed by an overview of the system concept proposed in this study, the development of a prototype system based on the concept, a preliminary test of the prototype developed in this study, and future issues for this study.

The joint committee of Okayama Prefectural University (OPU) and Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts supports (HsH) has organized an international symposium and student workshop in February 2022. This paper focus on the student workshop and how this event was conducted under the virtual environment. It was confirmed that the workshop provided a meaningful opportunity for the participants to develop an international sense, honed their global mindset in English and strengthened their cooperation with each other.