Collaborative Research: Enhanced Immersive Technology to Improve Collaborative Decision Making

这个合作奖的研究目标是探索和评估新的设计过程，基于沉浸式技术，支持设计团队以传统界面无法实现的方式进行交互。这些方法将基于两个不同的研究领域：不确定性下权衡分析的分析方法（伊利诺伊大学）和产品设计中虚拟现实技术的使用（爱荷华州立大学）。使用这些新方法，设计师将能够看到，并在适当的情况下，感受到在多个领域和整个产品生命周期中潜在的设计更改所带来的权衡。这三个主要领域包括：对属性权衡的视觉和触觉感知，对拆卸或修理等操作的难度感知，以及对不确定性影响的延时可视化。约翰迪尔公司和波音公司的试验台将被雇用。这项研究的影响将是为复杂的产品/系统设计提供一种强大的新方法，它利用了分析方法和沉浸式设计计算机技术。如果成功的话，这些方法将创造出独特的新产品，因为设计团队的成员将看到、感受到和体验到潜在设计变更的深远影响。资源将得到更有效的利用，因为它们在整个产品生命周期中的经济、技术和环境价值将直观地呈现给设计团队。我们会编制一套设计个案研究，并在网上免费提供，以作教育用途。这些案例研究将被整合到以工程为导向的工业赞助高级设计课程中。由于案例研究特别强调协作设计过程的现实经验，预期的影响包括增加女性在工程领域的参与和保留。新技术将通过学生/工业项目转移到工业。教材的设计将遵循当前关于“改变对话”的指导方针，以反映工程在各个方面的多样性。

The research objective of this collaborative award is to explore and evaluate new design processes, based on immersive technology, that support design team interaction in ways that result in designs that could not be achieved with traditional interfaces. These methods will be grounded in two distinct research fields: analytic methods for tradeoff analysis under uncertainty (University of Illinois) and the use of virtual reality techniques for product design (Iowa State University). Using these new methods, designers will be able to see and, where appropriate, feel the tradeoffs resulting from potential design changes in multiple realms and over the entire product lifecycle. The three major realms include: a visual and tactile sense of attribute tradeoffs, a sense of the difficulty of operations such as disassembly or repair, and time-lapse visualization of the effect of uncertainty. Test-beds for John Deere and Boeing will by employed. The impact of this research will be to provide a powerful new approach to complex product/system design which utilizes both analytical methods and immersive design computer technologies. If successful, these approaches will result in the creation of unique new products, as the far reaching effects of potential design changes will be seen, felt and experienced by members of the design team. Resources will be used more efficiently, since their economic, technical and environmental value throughout the product lifecycle will be visually represented for the design team. A set of design case studies will be developed and made freely available on the web for educational purposes. These case studies will be integrated into engineering-oriented industrially sponsored senior design courses. With the case studies' special emphasis on a realistic experience of the collaborative design process, anticipated impacts include increased participation and retention of women in engineering. New technology will be transferred to industry through student/industry projects. Design of the educational materials will follow current guidelines on "changing the conversation" to reflect the diversity of engineering in all aspects.