Parameter design by simulation was performed in the development of an active suspension system for an automobile, A two-step design was performed, in which the vehicle characteristics were improved to achieve robustness (improvement in the S/N ratio) in the first step, and the control parameters were tuned to improve control performance (improvement in sensitivity) in the second step. Takng the fact that multiple components are applied in various combinations into consideration, external excitation was assigned to an orthogonal L8 array as an indicative factor, not as a signal factor. The parameter design was performed using a simple vehicle model in the excitation experiment mode, and validity of the design was verified in a more realistic driving simulation. It was confirmed by simulation that the optimally designed active suspension system has excellent vibration control performance and control stability. It can be said that this optimal design method is effective in stabilizing and improving control performance.

Automotive parts such as the suspension, frame, body, etc. require high strength and high energy absorption capability. The author carried out a parameter design of a new aluminum forging method, which yielded a process capable of making products with good collision energy absorption characteristics. The author also re-examined the conclusions of published studies of metal material evaluation (parts 1 to 3), and proposed an ideal deformation load curve for metal materials. By evaluating it with the standardized S/N ratio, the author arrived at the conclusion that fatigue strength should be tuned without using fatigue as a noise factor. Another conclusion reached was that manufacturing variability and the field environment provide suitable noise factors.

The purpose of this study was to reduce cost and development time in drug efficacy evaluation. A diagnostic technique and simple equipment were needed with which to quantitatively evaluate the health of a small animal. The study consisted of two steps: development and optimization of equipment for evaluating the animal's exercise ability, followed by evaluation of the exercise ability using the MT system. In obtaining the necessary diagnostic data, variations caused by disturbances other than the health of the animal were suppressed before the MT system evaluation was carried out. The original plan was to compare data taken under normal health conditions with data taken under abnormal health conditions induced by temperature changes, to which small animals are sensitive, but the animal expired before the required amount of normal condition data could be obtained and the diagnosis had to be carried out with the reduced amount of data available. Although it was not possible to obtain data under the planned abnormal conditions, data obtained on the day before the animal,s demise were used as data representing an abnormal condition and an analysis was performed by the RT method. The results led to the conclusion that the health of a small animal can be diagnosed from a small amount of data obtained with simple equipment.

Various types of tests are carried out with a transfusion blood testing system in which blood withdrawn from an examinee is centrifuged to separate the blood cells from the blood plasma, both are reacted with reagents, and the resulting patterns are observed with a CCD camera. The patterns are roughly classified into two types: agglutination patterns, in which the reaction products clump in the center; and non-agglutination patterns, in which the reaction products are uniformly scattered. Positive and negative results are assigned accordingly for each item tested. The purpose of this study was to use the MT system to find a method of discriminating blood agglutination and develop a system for discriminating various blood agglutination patterns. Three kinds of Mahalanobis distance were calculated. As a result, the MT system was found to be fully capable of distinguishing between typical agglutination patterns and typical non-agglutination patterns, but some patterns distant from the typical patterns could not be identified and further study is required.

It has been experimentally shown that a photocatalytic air purifier is effective in reducing the airborne bacteria count. The effect was quantified by assigning conditions to an L18 orthogonal array and placing an agar medium above a bacteria collector to collect bacteria in room air purified by the purifier. The bacteria were cultured at 37℃ Celsius for 72 hours. Bacterial growth was captured through image changes. The change over time was quantified, using the initial bacteria growth condition as a unit space and using the RT method to treat the bacteria growth images as distances.

Apolymer cement mortarr (PCM) was developed for use as an undercoat for an anti-corrosion compound applied to concrete. The PCM fills in pores in the surface of the concrete to form a base on which the anti-corrosion compound can be applied. Most of the pores are filled, but some are left unfilled. Since PCM pinholes are hard to fill by application of the anti-corrosion compound as an overcoat,the pinholes are repaired after the anti-corrosion compound is applied. This repair work requires extra manpower and extra construction time, and leads to extra construction costs, so developing a PCM in which pinholes are less likely to occur was an urgent issue. However, quantitative evaluation methods and data analysis methods for pinholes had not been established. Quality engineering methods were therefore applied, in the hope of an early resolution of the problem. A reproducible method of evaluating pinhole occurrence was established, and a PCM in which pinholes were less likely to occur was developed in a short time.