Biohaviour - Building the Blind Watchmaker

Biohaviour - 打造盲人钟表匠

• 批准号: EP/R003564/1
• 负责人: Mark Price
• 金额: $ 101.01万
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FR003564%2F1
• 关键词: Biohaviour; Building; Blind; Watchmaker

To create many of the complex products and systems we have around us we have needed advanced technology. But to create the volume and complexity of products we have also needed complex organisational systems and processes. Large complex organisations have in particular relied on the Systems Engineering process, to help guide complex projects to completion. Many products, such as aircraft, only exist because of this systematic approach. But this systematic approach has a downside. To maintain control of a complex design it is necessary to fix ideas and concepts, and work through detail in a top-down approach. This flow down keeps development within the bounds of the original idea or concept, but naturally prevents innovation and variation. Such variation and innovation are in some ways the enemy of the controlled organisation needed to keep a global enterprise on track. One great fear is the phenomenon of emergence; inherently unknowable behaviour. Ironically this kind of innovation is desperately needed to take advantage of the opportunities offered by new technologies, such as additive manufacturing, or distributed cloud based manufacturing. But marrying these technologies within a complex fixed organisational structure and process is very difficult. Building on the success of the Design the Future project "In Search of Design Genes" this work looks to nature for inspiration, for an unconstrained approach to engineering design. Introducing the concept of 'Biohaviour' we follow the behaviour of natural growth rather than biomimicry. The creation of an elemental set of rules based on energy and equilibrium, could allow variation to naturally arise in design. In nature, the rules are applied blindly with no fixed final form. That final form only arising as a consequence of its environment. Trees and bamboo are wonderful examples of this.Our hypothesis is that by reimagining design as a series of elemental rules and growth mechanisms that react to environment and stimuli, the design of complex systems will be simplified, and emergence could be used as a tool for innovation beyond conventional paradigms.We see four major challenges:* Obtaining growth rules for component seeds to allow components to emerge from the activity* Defining stimuli that will make the component seeds grow and establishing if that growth can be controlled via the stimuli.* Developing fast, scalable, event triggered systems to enable real time creation of complex designs.* Capturing the emergent behaviour into a working set of parameters which can interact with existing design and manufacturing systems - i.e. is there a set of parameters which will define a CAD model?In this project we will investigate theoretical aspects of this approach, and the practical implications of using these elementary rules in engineering design. We will develop novel computational methods for fast, scalable, event triggered systems to represent component seeds' growth behaviour, which will create a design depending on the environment around it. The seeds will grow to form a more complete component or system which can be envisioned in a CAD system. The seeds and shoots will have the ability to spawn others as the system develops in response to the environment. For example, forming a branch, or root, or in an engineering context a stiffener or hole.The result should be a set of rules encapsulated in a prototype Cloud service, that will automatically create a component from a simple seed definition. Depending on its surroundings, it will grow large or small, taking form, shape & colour according to need. One seed should be capable of producing a variety of solutions, generating innovation naturally. By tweaking the rules and behaviours we expect to allow some emergent behaviour to occur. This feeds back to the aim of this study - to establish if these elementary rules can be put to effective use in design - and to create the Blind Watchmaker.

为了创造我们身边的许多复杂产品和系统，我们需要先进的技术。但是，为了创造大量和复杂的产品，我们还需要复杂的组织系统和流程。大型复杂组织特别依赖于系统工程过程，以帮助指导复杂项目的完成。许多产品，如飞机，只是因为这种系统的方法而存在。但这种系统化的方法也有缺点。为了保持对复杂设计的控制，有必要确定想法和概念，并以自顶向下的方法处理细节。这种向下流动使开发保持在原始想法或概念的范围内，但自然会阻止创新和变化。这种变化和创新在某种程度上是控制型组织的敌人，而控制型组织是保持全球企业正常运转所必需的。一个巨大的恐惧是出现的现象；固有的不可知行为。具有讽刺意味的是，这种创新是迫切需要利用新技术提供的机会，如增材制造或基于分布式云的制造。但是，将这些技术结合到复杂的固定组织结构和流程中是非常困难的。在“设计未来”项目“寻找设计基因”成功的基础上，这项工作向大自然寻求灵感，寻求一种不受约束的工程设计方法。引入“生物行为”的概念，我们遵循自然生长的行为，而不是仿生学。创造一套基于能量和平衡的基本规则，可以允许设计中自然出现变化。在本质上，规则是盲目的，没有固定的最终形式。这种最终形式只是作为其环境的结果而产生的。树木和竹子就是很好的例子。我们的假设是，通过将设计重新想象为一系列对环境和刺激作出反应的基本规则和生长机制，复杂系统的设计将得到简化，涌现可以用作超越传统范式的创新工具。我们看到了四个主要挑战：*获得组件种子的生长规则，以允许组件从活动中出现*定义将使组件种子生长的刺激，并确定是否可以通过刺激来控制这种生长。*开发快速，可扩展，事件触发系统，以实现复杂设计的实时创建。*将突发行为转化为可与现有设计和制造系统相互作用的一组工作参数，即是否有一组参数来定义CAD模型？在这个项目中，我们将研究这种方法的理论方面，以及在工程设计中使用这些基本规则的实际含义。我们将为快速、可扩展、事件触发的系统开发新的计算方法，以表示组件种子的生长行为，这将根据周围的环境创建一个设计。种子将成长为一个更完整的组件或系统，可以在CAD系统中设想。随着系统对环境的反应而发展，种子和芽将有能力产生其他种子和芽。例如，形成一个分支或根，或者在工程环境中形成一个加强筋或孔。结果应该是一组封装在原型云服务中的规则，它将从一个简单的种子定义自动创建一个组件。根据周围的环境，它会长大或大或小，根据需要形成，形状和颜色。一粒种子应该能够产生各种各样的解决方案，自然地产生创新。通过调整规则和行为，我们希望允许一些突发行为发生。这反映了这项研究的目的——确定这些基本规则是否可以有效地应用于设计中——并创造了盲人钟表匠。

项目成果

Investigation of starting conditions in generative processes for the design of engineering structures

工程结构设计生成过程起始条件的研究

• DOI: 10.1109/ssci52147.2023.10371945
• 发表时间: 2023
• 作者: Buchanan E

Bio-Inspired Growth: Introducing Emergence into Computational Design

仿生增长：将涌现引入计算设计

• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: Kyle S

A Novel Design System for Exploiting Additive Manufacturing

用于利用增材制造的新颖设计系统

• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Friel I

SmartMaaS: A Framework for Smart Manufacturing-as-a-Service

SmartMaaS：智能制造即服务的框架

• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: Barbhuiya S

Novelty Search for Shape Descriptors

形状描述符的新颖性搜索

• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: Hickinbotham S