Collaborative Research: Enhanced Immersive Technology to Improve Collaborative Decision Making

这个协作奖的研究目标是探索和评估基于沉浸式技术的新设计流程，以支持设计团队以产生传统界面无法实现的设计的方式进行交互。这些方法将植根于两个不同的研究领域：不确定条件下权衡分析的分析方法(伊利诺伊大学)和产品设计虚拟现实技术的使用(爱荷华州立大学)。使用这些新方法，设计人员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产生的权衡。三个主要领域包括：对属性权衡的视觉和触觉感觉，对拆卸或修复等操作的难度的感觉，以及对不确定性影响的延时可视化。约翰迪尔和波音的试验台将被启用。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，它利用分析方法和沉浸式设计计算机技术。如果成功，这些方法将产生独特的新产品，因为设计团队成员将看到、感受和体验到潜在设计变化的深远影响。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。将编写一套设计案例研究，并在网上免费提供，用于教育目的。这些案例研究将被纳入以工程为导向、由工业赞助的高级设计课程。由于案例研究特别强调合作设计过程的现实体验，预期的影响包括增加妇女在工程领域的参与和留住。新技术将通过学生/行业项目转移到行业中。教材的设计将遵循当前关于“改变对话”的指导方针，以反映工程学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.