Biohaviour - Building the Blind Watchmaker

为了创造我们周围的许多复杂的产品和系统，我们需要先进的技术。但要创造出如此数量和复杂的产品，我们还需要复杂的组织体系和流程。大型复杂组织尤其依赖系统工程流程来帮助指导复杂项目完成。许多产品，如飞机，都是因为这种系统化的方法才存在的。但这种系统性的方法也有不利的一面。为了保持对复杂设计的控制，有必要确定想法和概念，并以自上而下的方法处理细节。这种向下的流动将发展限制在最初的想法或概念的范围内，但自然地阻止了创新和变化。在某些方面，这种变化和创新是受控组织的敌人，而受控组织是让一家全球企业走上正轨所必需的。一种最大的恐惧是出现的现象；本质上是不可知的行为。具有讽刺意味的是，人们迫切需要这种创新，以利用新技术提供的机会，例如附加式制造或基于云的分布式制造。但是，在复杂的固定组织结构和流程中结合这些技术是非常困难的。在“设计未来”项目“寻找设计基因”的成功基础上，这项工作从大自然中寻找灵感，寻求一种不受约束的工程设计方法。引入“生物行为”的概念，我们遵循的是自然生长的行为，而不是仿生。创建一套基于能量和平衡的基本规则，可以使设计中自然产生变化。在本质上，这些规则是盲目适用的，没有固定的最终形式。这种最终的形式只是由于其环境的结果而出现的。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做出反应的基本规则和生长机制，复杂系统的设计将被简化，涌现可以被用作超越传统范式的创新工具。我们看到了四大挑战：*获得成分种子的生长规则，使成分从活动中产生*定义将使成分种子生长的刺激，并确定这种生长是否可以通过刺激控制。*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。*将紧急行为捕获到可与现有设计和制造系统交互的工作参数集中-即是否有一组参数将定义CAD模型？在本项目中，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意义。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系统中预见。随着系统对环境的反应，种子和幼苗将具有繁殖其他种子的能力。例如，形成树枝或树根，或者在工程环境中形成加强筋或孔。结果应该是封装在原型云服务中的一组规则，这些规则将从简单的种子定义自动创建组件。根据周围环境的不同，它会变大或变小，根据需要形成形状、形状和颜色。一个种子应该能够产生各种解决方案，自然地产生创新。通过调整规则和行为，我们预计会允许一些紧急行为发生。这就是这项研究的目的--确定这些基本规则是否可以在设计中有效使用--并创造出盲人制表人。

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.