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.

为了创建许多复杂的产品和系统，我们需要先进的技术。但是，为了创建产品的数量和复杂性，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，以帮助指导复杂的项目完成。由于这种系统的方法，许多产品（例如飞机）仅存在。但是这种系统的方法有一个缺点。为了保持对复杂设计的控制，有必要修复思想和概念，并以自上而下的方法通过细节进行工作。这种流程使发展在原始思想或概念的范围内，但自然会阻止创新和变化。这种差异和创新在某种程度上是受控组织的敌人，以保持全球企业的正轨。一个极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，迫切需要这种创新来利用新技术（例如增材制造或基于云的制造）提供的机会。但是，将这些技术嫁入复杂的固定组织结构和过程非常困难。以设计的成功为基础，未来的项目“寻找设计基因”这项工作旨在为灵感而进行自然，以寻求一种不受限制的工程设计方法。介绍“生物黑维尔”的概念，我们遵循自然生长的行为而不是仿生。建立基于能量和平衡的元素规则集，可以使设计自然出现。在本质上，规则盲目应用，没有固定的最终形式。最终形式仅是由于其环境而产生的。树木和竹子就是这一点的绝妙例子。我们的假设是，通过将设计重新构想为一系列对环境和刺激的反应的基本规则和增长机制，可以简化复杂系统的设计，并且可以将出现用作创新的工具，用于超越常规范式的创新。并确定该增长是否可以通过刺激来控制。我们将开发用于快速，可扩展的事件触发系统的新型计算方法，以表示组成种子的生长行为，这将根据周围环境创建设计。种子将生长成形成更完整的组件或系统，可以在CAD系统中设想。随着系统对环境的响应，种子和芽将有能力产生其他人。例如，形成分支或根部或工程上下文中的加强剂或孔。结果应是封装在原型云服务中的一组规则，该规则将自动从简单的种子定义中创建一个组件。根据周围环境，它会根据需要生长大小，形式和颜色。一种种子应该能够生产各种解决方案，自然产生创新。通过调整规则和行为，我们希望允许发生一些紧急行为。这取决于这项研究的目的 - 确定这些基本规则是否可以在设计中有效使用 - 并创建盲目制表师。

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

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

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

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