This project will research and develop a system for guiding novice designers through hand calculation-based machine design projects. The objective is to suggest which calculations should be done at each step, with consideration to the dependencies between the calculations. The system should help novice designers avoid getting lost in iterations and should help arrive at a design quicker.
This is a continuing project. Last year, prototype software was developed (in Matlab). The software prompts the designer to indicate their "confidence" in certain design parameters. Based on a model of parameter dependencies and tasks, the system then recommends which specific tasks or calculations should be done next.
The objective of this year's project is to assess how effectively the system created last year can actually guide a designer, by doing experiments with student participants completing tasks with and without the system. Based on your findings, you will devise improvements.
Your project will build on an ethics application that was approved last year, subject to submitting a request for variation. This means you won't need to go through the full process of preparing and submitting an ethics application, which will save a lot of time and effort.
Undergraduate
system for guiding novice designers through hand calculation-based machine design projects
None
Mechatronics Research (405.822, Lab)