Jacquelyn K. Stroble

An overview of biomimetic sensor technology

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the wide range of biomimetic sensor technology and innovations.Design/methodology/approach – The reader is introduced to biomimetic sensors, their types, their advantages and how they are different from traditional sensors. Background information is also provided regarding sensor design, inspiration and innovation.Findings – There are two approaches to sensor design, which lead to diverse advantages and innovations. Classification of biomimetic sensors indicated which natural senses are underutilized by sensor designers and researchers.Originality/value – The paper provides information of value for those seeking innovative sensor designs and research information for those who want to research in this area.

Modeling the Cellular Level of Natural Sensing with the Functional Basis for the Design of Biomimetic Sensor Technology

After surveying biology for natural sensing solutions six main types of extraneous sensing were identified across the biological kingdoms. Natural sensing happens at the cellular level with receptor cells that respond to photo, chemo, eletro, mechano, thermo and magnetoreceptor-type stimuli. At the highest level, all natural sensing systems have the same reaction sequence to stimuli: perception, transduction, and response. This research is exploring methods for knowledge transfer between the biological and engineering domains. With the use of the Functional Basis, a well-defined modeling language, the ingenuity of natural sensing can be captured through functional models and crossed over into the engineering domain, for design or inspiration. Furthermore, a morph-matrix that lists each component in the model can easily compare and contrast the biological and engineering design components, effectively bridging the two design domains. The six main types of receptor families were modeled for the Animalia and Plantae Kingdoms, from the highest to the 4th sub-level, with emphasis on the transduction sequence. To make the biological sensing models accessible to design engineers they were placed in the Missouri University of Science & Technology Design Repository as artifacts. The models can then be utilized for concept generation and biomimetic design through searching the design repository by functional characteristics. An example of a biomimetic navigation product based on the principle of electric fish is provided to illustrate the utilization of the natural sensing models, morph-matrices and design repository.

Biology-inspired sensor design

This article aims to introduce the reader to biology-inspired design, commonly referred to as biomimetic design or biomimicry; the study and imitation of natures methods, mechanisms, and processes to solve human problems. Furthermore, biology-inspired design includes mimicry at many levels. We will not not discuss biosensors, devices that use specific biochemical reactions mediated by isolated substances to detect chemical compounds. Rather, the focus is on imitating nature by electrical and mechanical means without the incorporation of biological elements.

Numerical and Analytical Modeling of Laser Deposition with Preheating

Laser deposition allows quick fabrication of fully-dense metallic components directly from CAD solid models. This work uses both numerical and analytical approaches to model the laser deposition process including actual deposition and preheating. The numerical approach is used to simulate the coupled, interactive transport phenomena during actual deposition. The numerical simulation involves laser material interaction, free surface evolution, and melt-pool dynamics. The analytical approach is used to model heat transfer during preheating. The combination of these two approaches can increase computational efficiency with most of the phenomena associated with laser deposition modeled. The simulation is applied to Ti-6Al-4V and simulation results are compared with experimental results.Copyright

ASSESSING HOW DIGITAL DESIGN TOOLS AFFECT LEARNING OF ENGINEERING DESIGN CONCEPTS

Engineering education has been evolving over the last few decades to include more engineering design courses in the curriculum or offer a new degree altogether that allows one to design a unique degree suited to his or her own interests and goals. These new engineering curricula produce engineers with strong backgrounds in fundamental engineering and design knowledge, which make them strong candidates for solving complex and multidisciplinary engineering problems. Many universities have embraced the need for multidisciplinary engineers and have developed interdisciplinary engineering design courses for many experience levels. Such courses build a foundation in engineering design through a unique series of lectures, real-world examples and projects, which utilize validated design tools and methodologies. This paper assesses the value of using design tools, web-based and downloadable, in undergraduate interdisciplinary design engineering courses. Six design tools are tested for their ability to increase the student’s knowledge of six design concepts. Also, the tools are evaluated for ease of use and if the different digital formats affect their educational impact. It was found that most students valued all the design tools and that the tools reinforced all but one design concept well. Quotes from the open-ended portion of the survey demonstrate the acceptance of the design tools and a general understanding of the importance of engineering design. The design tools, design concepts course goals, survey questions and survey results are discussed.Copyright

Designing a Modular Rapid Manufacturing Process

Freeform Fabrication and additive fabrication technologies have been combined with subtractive processes to achieve a variety of fully integrated rapid manufacturing systems. The combination of separate fabrication techniques into one rapid manufacturing system results in unit manufacturing process integration, sometimes known as a hybrid system. However, the design methods or approaches required to construct these integrated systems are vaguely described or not mentioned at all. The final product from any integrated system is affected not only by the unit manufacturing processes themselves, but also by the extent the individual units are assimilated into an integrated process. A wide variety of integrated and hybrid manufacturing systems and current manufacturing design methodologies are described in this paper, along with their similarities and differences. Through our extensive review it was discovered that there are five key elements to a reliable integrated manufacturing system: process planning software, motion system, control system, unit manufacturing process, and finishing process. By studying the manner in which all other systems have been integrated, a table of successful integrated manufacturing system elements combinations has been created, documenting each of the key element choices, resulting in a variety of modular designs. A table of common obstacles encountered during manufacturing system integration has been compiled and presented in Section 4. This paper further discusses the importance of the five elements in manufacturing system integration, and how integrated systems is the way to move forward in the manufacturing domain. In the final Section, we describe our modular design experience to demonstrate how unit manufacturing process integration has increased productivity and the capabilities of a laser aided manufacturing process.© 2009 ASME

A Retrospective on Twenty Years of the Design Theory and Methodology Conference

Since its birth from the Design Automation Conference (DAC) and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) twenty years ago, the Design Theory and Methodology (DTM) Conference has accepted 769 papers for presentation in a total of 179 tracks. Papers have covered advances in design theory and methods as well as design education, decision making, product development, collaborative endeavors, case studies, information processing, computational methods and industrial applications. Through the years tracks have evolved to better define existing research topics and branched to spawn new areas of interest. This paper presents a retrospective of the past twenty years of the DTM conference including a look at the evolution of tracks, those researchers who have contributed and predictions for the upcoming twenty years.Copyright