Open architecture for product adaptability: challenges in design, evaluation and implementation

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Market competition and the rapid progress of technology development have led to wider diversity and shorter lifespans for industrial and consumer products such as machine tools, cars and cell phones. It is a challenge to design a product that can continuously meet changing user needs throughout its lifespan. In contrast to existing products, an adaptable product would be one that can be upgraded to meet user needs during the lifetime of the product. The research proposed here will develop methods using open architecture to improve product adaptability. It is proposed that an adaptable product would consist of three types of functional modules: common modules that serve as product platforms, customized modules for users to select when purchasing a product, and personalized modules that allow users to upgrade functions during the lifetime of the product. Adaptable products will provide open interfaces for users to upgrade functions in response to their changing needs without having to replace the product entirely. This represents an innovative concept in product implementation.***This research consists of three tasks. 1) The design of open interfaces to facilitate product upgrading. This task will develop methods in interface representation, design and analysis. Qualitative measures will be proposed to evaluate interface design and operational efficiency. 2) The development of human-centered decision-making methods to capture user requirements. This task will apply agent-based modeling in human decision making to capture changes in user needs through simulation of human-product interactions. 3) The development of a user-friendly tool to increase user involvement in product evaluation. This task will integrate design evaluation and virtual reality facilities to support non-expert users. A natural user interface will be developed that can accept multiple types of data inputs. User involvement will include selection, modification and manipulation of products. The tools will also simulate user operations during product upgrading to verify design solutions.****Using open architecture to improve product adaptability is an emerging concept. The short term research goals are to develop cost-effective methods for design, evaluation and implementation of adaptable products, and test the methods in products that will include wheelchairs, electrical vehicles, and industrial painting machines, etc. The long-term goal is to continue developing and perfecting open architecture as the structure for a new generation of products. The proposed adaptable products will mark a potential breakthrough in product development by combining open interfaces, the capacity to consider changing user needs, and direct user involvement in product implementation. The research solutions will be transferred into hardware and software tools for application in the development of adaptable products.******