Sketch2Prototype is an AI-based framework that transforms a hand-drawn sketch into a diverse set of 2D images and 3D prototypes through sketch-to-text, text-to-image, and image-to-3D stages. This framework, shown across various sketches, rapidly generates text, image, and 3D modalities for enhanced early-stage design exploration. We show that using text as an intermediate modality outperforms direct sketch-to-3D baselines for generating diverse and manufacturable 3D models. We find limitations in current image-to-3D techniques, while noting the value of the text modality for user-feedback.

Increasing system complexity can be controlled by using systems engineering processes. INCOSE defines processes with inputs and outputs (artifacts) for this purpose. Specific SE roles are used to organize the tasks of the processes within the company. In this work, the responsibilities for artifacts are evaluated by means of the RACI scheme and examined by a cluster analysis and discussed for a SE transformation project with a German automotive OEM. As a result of the study, the optimal composition for systems engineering teams is identified and the systems engineering roles are prioritized.

This paper investigates the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in engineering complex systems, demonstrating how they can support designers on detail design phases. Two aerospace cases, a system architecture definition and a CAD model generation activities are studied. The research reveals LLMs' challenges and opportunities to support designers, and future research areas to further improve their application in engineering tasks. It emphasizes the new paradigm of LLMs support compared to traditional Machine Learning techniques, as they can successfully perform tasks with just a few examples.

In order to have a sustainable disassembly process, a successful decision-making based on reliable and up-to-date information should be made while taking into consideration sustainability indicators. In this context, The aim of this paper is to introduce a decision support system based on knowledge based and digital twin in order to help stakeholders to choose the most sustainable disassembly scenario .In this research, firstly, we presented the state of art of disassembly process, digital twin, knowledge based system and the merging of knowledge based system and digital twin for disassembly. Secondly, we presented the knowledge based digital twin (KBDTw) system framework for a sustainable disassembly process. Thirdly, a case study is presented about the use of KBDTw in the end-of-life of internet boxes. Finally, a conclusion and future work are conducted.

Prototypes have the potential to provoke discussion and to encourage stakeholders to play an active role during design engagements in the front-end phases of a design process. However, detailed descriptions of stakeholder engagement strategies in front-end design are lacking. The aim of this research study was to understand how design practitioners prepare and manage stakeholders for engagements involving prototypes in the front-end phases of a medical device design process. Design practitioners at companies developing mechanical and electromechanical medical devices for use in low- and middle-income countries were interviewed following a semi-structured interview guide. Interview transcripts were analysed, and inductive codes were developed. The findings suggest that design practitioners manage the group composition of stakeholders, review the project and prototype(s) with stakeholders at the start of the engagement, and show the progress of prototypes to stakeholders over multiple engagements. These strategies shed light on the importance of handling interpersonal relationships during stakeholder engagement with prototypes.

In testing and simulation departments in product development (PD) data types, data structures and data storage are often very different. Exchange of data and information is normally not automated and often not supported by management systems. This can lead to loss of time and information. A literature study in combination with 20 expert interviews and the analysis of documents as well as data storage structures and IT systems in a PD department of a motorcycle manufacturer were performed. Test and simulation processes were classified and standardized, documentation formats analyzed, standards in Test Data Management (TDM) and Simulation Data Management (SDM) as well as verification and validation processes compared. IT support in SDM is better than in TDM. An integration of TDM and SDM could lead to improved collaboration between testing and simulation departments. Options for this integration could be specific ontologies, object-oriented interfaces, a higher-level intermediate application, use of a common standard or integration of one standard into another one.

This paper presents a new method of human-response testing to enhance the success of designs. Rather than waiting until after a building is constructed to see how the design will affect human users, we developed a high-resolution virtual-reality platform to present design variations to the study participants. This technique allowed us to make very precise adjustments in design variables (e.g., the ceiling height, or the placement of windows) within the same overall structure, thereby obtaining more empirically rigorous comparisons than is possible in traditional post-occupancy studies of completed buildings. In addition, this approach allowed us to collect a variety of biometric data, such as EEG signals, heart rate, head motions, and other indicators of attention and stress, while the study participants interacted with the virtual environments. The overall outcome of this research method will be to improve the human quality of the built environment and to promote data-driven innovation in the design field.

A posteriori novelty metrics are often used in design research, in order to extract important information about creativity. However, different assessment approaches can be found in the literature, each of them with related pros and cons. In particular, weighted uncommonness, overall uncommonness and uncommonness across groups are the three main families of a-posteriori novelty metrics identified in this paper. Each of the considered literature metrics can provide specific types of information about the uncommonness of ideas, but in certain experimental circumstances, it could be difficult to rapidly identify the best-suited approach. This paper proposes an integrated procedure where the advantages offered by the three families of metrics can be applied concurrently. A generic case study is used for a first application of the proposal, and the obtained results show that a more comprehensive set of information about a-posteriori novelty can be extracted. In particular, novelty data from the three families of metrics are extracted in a single assessment process.

This study explores the effects of time pressure in dexterous operations on two types of interface: the fixed interface and the moving interface. Results show that the accuracy of finger movement is decreased, the information processing on the sense of sequence, position and direction is worsened by the psychological disturbance. The findings indicate that a fixed interface is more robust to performance and participants can learn and perform tasks quicker than a moving interface. Finally, the researchers give some practices on both fixed and moving interface design.

In the domain of optical engineering, optomechatronic systems are predominantly developed using conventional ray tracing methods such as sequential and non-sequential ray tracing. However, the increasing complexity of these systems in combination with the demand for high efficiency and high image quality leads to the fact that conventional methods to develop these systems reach their limits. In order to be able to develop highly efficient systems with high image quality, this contribution introduces a hybrid ray tracing method using an advanced optimization function.

The approach of functional integration has the potential to solve challenges regarding lightweight design and resource efficiency since the number of parts and therefore the weight and needed installation space can be reduced. One important step in developing integrative concepts is the pre-selection of suitable functions or components. Previous methods of pre-selection take various aspects into account. However, pre-selection based on these methods usually requires additional tables and forms, whose preparation and editing quickly becomes time-consuming. At the same time, most of the development engineers are working on CAD models. However, their use in the selection of suitable integration partners is not yet supported sufficiently. The development of more than 80 concepts on five different vehicles has shown that the consideration of geometric properties (position, orientation, size) is effective, as they can be identified with minimal analysis effort while working on CAD. In this paper a four-step procedure is presented how integration partners can be identified directly on the basis of CAD models. A following evaluation with development engineers in practice completes the research.

Occupational therapists modify mass-produced and universally-designed assistive technologies (ATs) to fulfill the specific needs of people with disabilities. We interviewed ten occupational therapists with experience in modifying ATs in order to understand adaptation processes. Our findings reveal the reasoning behind adaptation, common ATs that require adaptation, as well as the collaborative nature of adaptation. We propose a new framework called Adaptable Universal Design (AUD) that blends Universal Design with the need to adapt ATs in order to fulfill unique and specific user needs.

Circular product design has been recognised in the academia as a foundational step for companies to make circular business models functional and viable. In this regards, it is vital to have a quick-and-easy practical toolkit providing diagnostics and specific guidelines on product design in terms of circularity performance. The present paper announces a Circular Product Design Toolkit (CPD Toolkit) under development now, which aims at enhancing the circularity potential of an existing product by redesign. The following objectives are addressed. First, a brief review of existing approaches in the field of product-level circularity metrics and also available circular product design tools to clarify their purpose and practical value is conducted. Second, the scientific approach to assess a product circularity performance, previously developed, as a methodological background of the CPD Toolkit is outlined. Third, the basic principles and building blocks of the CPD Toolkit are briefly set out with further discussion in terms of possible presentation of information block as actual product circularity dataset and guideline part dealing with specific instructions for a company on how to progress in the circularity of the product produced.

Given that we live in a time within a growing competitive healthcare market, the customer experience and healing opportunities are on top of the priority list. However, little attention has been dedicated on how to merge the disciplines of architecture, healthcare and management to create healthcare environments to enhance the customer experience and the healing process. The goal of this paper is to explore how design can foster customer-perceived intimacy within a healthcare context to achieve enhanced customer outcomes, such as customer well-being. Understanding the importance of customer- perceived intimacy is paramount, as customers are constantly exposed to intimate situations. The study suggest that there is potential for such situations to be wrought with problems involving complexities associated with human cognition, emotions, physiological responses, and behaviors. A literature review is undertaken to highlight the antecedents and the short-term and long-term outcomes of customer- perceived intimacy. As a result, the paper provides a conceptual framework that raises many questions that need to be answered. In doing so, a solid foundation for future inquiry has been laid.

The bottom of the pyramid (BoP) consists of 1.4 billion people living less than 1.25 USD per day. Fulfilling unmet needs of BoP people involves the design of products as a main activity. Designing products for the BoP faces two main problems. First, there is a general lack of understanding of the needs of users and second, traditional design methods may be limited in addressing the BoP context. Frugal innovation is positioned as a very interesting approach with the potential to adequately respond to the design challenges of the products for the BoP. However, studies in engineering design based on frugal innovation are still limited. In response to these issues, through an analysis and review of the literature, an exploratory mapping of the proposals in frugal innovation and the characteristics of the BoP was conducted. On the basis of the results, this paper defines a set of eight frugal criteria design and an identification of three dimensions that characterize a BoP context and two roles of BoP people. Finally, an association of BoP dimensions and roles with the key criteria of frugal design is proposed.

Designers are experiencing greater mental demands given the complexity of design tools, necessitating the study of cognitive load in design. Researchers have identified task- and designer-related factors that affect cognitive load; however, these studies primarily use self-reported measures that could be inaccurate and incomplete. Little research has tested the accuracy and completeness of self-reported measures and we aim to explore this gap. Towards this aim, we seek to answer the question: How does cognitive load vary based on the different design representations used, and do these differences depend on the measure of cognitive load? From our results, we see that the design representations vary in the range of cognitive load experienced by designers when using them. Moreover, this role of the range of cognitive load variance was observed given our use of pupil diameter. These findings call for the use of a multi-modal approach for measuring cognitive load with the combined use of subjective (e.g., self-report) and objective measures (e.g., physiological measures), as well as the use of both retrospective (e.g., self-report) and concurrent measures (e.g., physiological measures).

In solution-driven BID (sol-BID) a challenge is to identify suited applications that will benefit from the solutions principles found in nature. A well-known example of sol-BID is the self-cleaning lotus plant, that has inspired lotus paint and other coating methods. However, sol-BID is often performed by biologists with insight into the biological strategy and organism and typically only little knowledge of technical applications and design methodology. Searching for applications is therefore a challenge to many. Sol-BID has many things in common with technical application search where new applications are sought for a specific production technology or another competence characterizing a company. Experiences from technical application search could therefore form a valuable input for how to perform sol-BID. The paper presents two case studies of application search and proposes a procedure to be used in solution driven BID.

There is a need for responsible engineering design to accommodate the diverse user requirements that come with the global phenomenon of population ageing. Inclusive design can address these diverse requirements through the consideration of a wide diversity of user needs within the design process. However, uptake of inclusive design in industry is limited, with designer awareness of the approach and its associated methods and tools noted as barriers to its uptake. This research aims to understand the current approach to inclusive design education within UK Higher Education Institutions, utilising interviews with design educators and a student survey. The study concluded that teaching of inclusive design varied between institutions with conflicting responses from academics and students relating to the methodologies taught. This study recommends that greater transparency should be encouraged between institutions to encourage the development of a cohesive inclusive design education strategy, in addition to the development of a framework to aid the implementation of appropriate inclusive methods and tools within the design process.

The industry's interest in Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR and AR) technologies started from the beginning of their appearance in the research world. Over the years, scholars observed ups and downs, to which various factors contributed. In recent years these technologies, now known as eXtended Reality (XR), have returned to fascinate the industrial world, mainly because most of the related enabling technologies have improved to the point of pushing companies to re-invest in them. The introduction of approaches such as the digital twin one and the recent hype on the metaverse is also a push in this direction. A few questions arise: what are the benefits of such technologies in the industry today, and what are the unexplored possibilities? Starting from a systematic literature review and exploring the practical implications of integrating technologies in the industrial field, the paper tries to answer these questions. The paper is not intended as a technological forecast but as a stimulus for future research.

As the society is already permeated by data, a data-driven approach to inform design for sustainable behaviour can help to identify misbehaviours and target sustainable behaviours to achieve, as well as to select and implement the most suitable design strategies to promote a behavioural change and monitor their effectiveness. This work addresses the open challenge of providing designers with a model for Human-Machine Interactions (HMI) that helps to identify relevant data to collect for inferring user behaviour related to environmental sustainability during product use.

We propose a systematic modelling framework that combines constructs from existing representation techniques to identify the most critical variables for resources consumption, which are the determinants of potential misbehaviours related to HMI. The analysis is represented as a Behaviour-Inefficiency Model that graphically supports the analyst/designer to link user behaviours with a quantitative representation of resources consumption.

The paper describes the model through an example of the use of a kettle and an additional application of the same approach to a washing machine, in order to point out its versatility for modelling more complex interactions.