Reliability technology plays an important role in the present era of industrial growth, optimal efficiency, and reducing hazards. This book provides insights into current advances and developments in reliability engineering, and the research presented is spread across all branches. It discusses interdisciplinary solutions to complex problems using different approaches to save money, time, and manpower. It presents methodologies of coping with uncertainty in reliability optimization through the usage of various techniques such as soft computing, fuzzy optimization, uncertainty, and maintenance scheduling. Case studies and real-world examples are presented along with applications that can be used in practice. This book will be useful to researchers, academicians, and practitioners working in the area of reliability and systems assurance engineering. Provides current advances and developments across different branches of engineering. Reviews and analyses case studies and real-world examples. Presents applications to be used in practice. Includes numerous examples to illustrate theoretical results.

In today's industrial and complex world, the progress of change is incredible. The amount of information which needs to be analyzed is very large and time has become more and more limited. Industries and firms of all sizes desire to increase productivity and sustainability to keep their competitive edge in the marketplace. One of the best tools for achieving this is the application of Quality Engineering Techniques (QET). This book will introduce the integrated model and the numerical applications for implementing it.

Product-driven process design - from molecule to enterprise provides process engineers and process engineering students with access to a modern and stimulating methodology to process and product design. Throughout the book the links between product design and process design become evident while the reader is guided step-by-step through the different stages of the intertwining product and process design activities. Both molecular and enterprise-wide considerations in design are introduced and addressed in detail. Several examples and case studies in emerging areas such as bio- and food-systems, pharmaceuticals and energy are discussed and presented. This book is an excellent guide and companion for undergraduate, graduate students as well as professional practitioners.

To meet the needs of today, engineered products and systems are an important element of the world economy, and each year billions of dollars are spent to develop, manufacture, operate, and maintain various types of products and systems around the globe. This book integrates and combines three of those topics to meet today's needs for the engineers working in these fields. This book provides a single volume that considers reliability, maintainability, and safety when designing new products and systems. Examples along with their solutions are placed at the end of each chapter to test readers' comprehension. The book is written in a manner that readers do not need any previous knowledge of the subject, and many references are provided. This book is also useful to many people, including design engineers, system engineers, reliability specialists, safety professionals, maintainability engineers, engineering administrators, graduate and senior undergraduate students, researchers, and instructors.

In recent years, mathematics has experienced amazing growth in the engineering sciences. Mathematics forms the common foundation of all engineering disciplines. This book provides a comprehensive range of mathematics applied in various fields of engineering for different tasks such as civil engineering, structural engineering, computer science, and electrical engineering, among others. It offers chapters that develop the applications of mathematics in engineering sciences, conveys the innovative research ideas, offers real-world utility of mathematics, and has a significance in the life of academics, practitioners, researchers, and industry leaders. Features Focuses on the latest research in the field of engineering applications Includes recent findings from various institutions Identifies the gaps in the knowledge in the field and provides the latest approaches Presents international studies and findings in modeling and simulation Offers various mathematical tools, techniques, strategies, and methods across different engineering fields

This book focuses on the design of displays and user interfaces for the older user. Aging is related to complex mental, physical, and social changes. While conventional wisdom says getting older leads to a decline, the reality is that some capabilities decline with age while others remain stable or increase. This book distills decades of aging research into practical advice on the design of displays. Technology has changed dramatically since the publication of the first edition. This new edition covers cutting-edge technology design such as ubiquitous touchscreens, smart speakers, and augmented reality interfaces, among others.

This expanded and revised version of the best-selling Universal Methods of Design is a comprehensive reference that provides a thorough and critical presentation of 125 research methods, synthesis/analysis techniques, and research deliverables for human-centered design. The text and accompanying photos and graphics of this classic resource are delivered in a concise and accessible format perfect for designers, educators, and students. This new, expanded edition includes updated information on scenarios, secondary research, territory maps, and other chapters. The addition of 25 new chapters brings fresh relevance to the text with innovative design methods that have emerged since the first edition, such as backcasting, behavioral design, horizon scanning, and transition design. Universal Methods of Design, Expanded and Revised distills each method down to its essence, in a format that helps design teams select and implement the most credible research methods suited to their design culture. Each method is presented in a two-page format. The left-hand page contains a concise description of the method, accompanied by references to further reading. On the right-hand page, images and case studies for each method are presented visually. The relevant phases for design application are highlighted as numbered icons along the right side of the page, from phases 1 (planning, scoping, and definition) through 5 (launch and monitor). Build more meaningful products with these methods and more: Affinity Diagramming, Behavioral Mapping, Bodystorming, Contextual Design, Critical Incident Design, Directed Storytelling, Empathy Maps, Graffiti Walls, Image Boards, Parallel Prototyping, Simulation Exercises, Touchstone Tours, and Weighted Matrix. This essential guide: Dismantles the myth that user research methods are complicated, expensive, and time-consuming Creates a shared meaning for cross-disciplinary teams Illustrates methods with compelling visualizations and case studies Characterizes each method at a glance Indicates when methods are best employed to help prioritize appropriate design research strategies Universal Methods of Design, Expanded and Revised is an essential resource for designers of all levels and specializations.

An Illustrated Guide to Furniture History provides upper-level students and instructors with an alternative visual analytical approach to learning about furniture history from Antiquity to Postmodernism. Following an immersive teaching model, it presents a Nine-Step Methodology to help students strengthen their visual literacy and quickly acquire subject area knowledge. Moving chronologically through key periods in furniture history and interior design, such as the Renaissance, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and Modernism, it traverses Europe to America to present a comprehensive foundational guide to the history of furniture design. Part I addresses furniture within the context of the built environment, with chapters exploring the historical perspective, construction principles, and the categorization of furniture. In Part II, the author visually depicts the structural organization of the methodological process, a three-category framework: History, Aesthetics, and Visual Notes. The chapters in this part prepare the reader for the visual analysis that will occur in the final section of the book. The book is lavishly illustrated in full color with over 300 images to reinforce visual learning and notation. A must-have reference and study guide for students in industrial and product design, interior design, and architecture.

This book outlines a powerful process for designing and creating beautiful work that is practical to make and sell. Perspectives from 22 master artisans fuse with industrial product design techniques and the author's own craftwork experience, focusing sharp insight on the process of creating original work. To use this book, begin with its suggestions for gathering ideas, brainstorming designs, and committing to an ambitious new project. Next, follow the supplied framework for evaluating, changing, and critiquing your work. Apply the book's design guidelines to make your work more visually powerful, useful, and simple to create. Finally, use this guide's advice to grow as an artisan: Find your voice, develop your skills, sell your work, and (if you want) make craftwork a career. Packed with insights from glassworkers, ceramicists, woodworkers, fiber artists, metalworkers, and more, it provides a solid framework to build on for craftspeople who want to produce spectacular work.

What do designers do during the activity of ‘designing’? How are creative thinking skills employed? What is design ability and how is it developed? Nigel Cross, one of design’s foremost scholars, explores through observation, analysis and reflection the often enigmatic elements of design thinking. Detailed case studies provide commentary on specific examples of design innovation and development, with interspersed chapters providing research-based overviews of design cognition. This new edition expands on the previous book with more emphasis on teamwork and co-design, and updated and expanded case studies and examples - including the development of a Formula One car and a backpack for mountain biking - as well as a new glossary of key terms. Written for all those wanting to understand more about how good designers work, regardless of discipline.

This book addresses a range of topics in design, such as universal design; design for all; digital inclusion; universal usability; and accessibility of technologies regardless of users' age, financial situation, education, geographic location, culture and language. It especially focuses on accessibility for people with auditory, cognitive, neurological, and visual impairments, ageing populations, and mobility for those with special physical needs. The book explores some of the overlaps between inclusive design and web accessibility to help managers, designers, developers, policy makers, and researchers optimize their efforts in these areas. Based on the AHFE 2019 International Conference on Design for Inclusion, held on July 24-28, held in Washington D.C., USA, it discusses new design technologies and highlights the disparate needs of the individuals within a community. Thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, it provides readers with various backgrounds with a timely, practice-oriented guide to design for inclusion.

Single-Use Technology (SUT) is the first comprehensive publication of practical considerations for each stage of the implementation process of SUT, and covers the selection, specification, design and qualification of systems to meet end-user requirements. Having become readily available for all processing operations within the biopharmaceutical industry, SUT has the potential to reduce capital costs, improve plant throughput and reduce the risk of cross-contamination. However, there are no clear guidelines to aid the end-user on implementation of these technologies into a validated, good manufacturing practice (GMP) environment. This book presents approaches for the implementation within various end-user facilities and systems, SUT within regulatory frameworks (ICH Q8, Q9, Q10 and GMP), standardisation and assessment strategies, specifation of user requirements and SUT design, risk assessment and evaluation as well as qualification for different SUT types.

This book summarizes the results of Design Thinking Research carried out at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA and at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. Offering readers a closer look at Design Thinking, its innovation processes and methods, the book covers topics ranging from how to design ideas, methods and technologies, to creativity experiments and wicked problem solutions, to creative collaboration in the real world, and the interplay of designers and engineers. But the topics go beyond this in their detailed exploration of Design Thinking and its use in IT systems engineering fields, or even from a management perspective. The authors show how these methods and strategies actually work in companies, introduce new technologies and their functions, and demonstrate how Design Thinking can influence such unexpected topics as marriage. Furthermore, readers will learn how special-purpose Design Thinking can be used to solve wicked problems in complex fields. Thinking and devising innovations are fundamentally and inherently human activities - so is Design Thinking. Accordingly, Design Thinking is not merely the result of special courses nor of being gifted or trained: it's a way of dealing with our environment and improving techniques, technologies and life.

This proceedings volume contains papers that have been selected after review for oral presentation at ROMANSY 2016, the 21th CISM-IFToMM Symposium on Theory and Practice of Robots and Manipulators. These papers cover advances on several aspects of the wide field of Robotics as concerning Theory and Practice of Robots and Manipulators. ROMANSY 2016 is the 21st event in a series that started in 1973 as one of the first conference activities in the world on Robotics. The first event was held at CISM (International Centre for Mechanical Science) in Udine, Italy on 5-8 September 1973. It was also the first topic conference of IFToMM (International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science) and it was directed not only to the IFToMM community.

This book introduces the readers to the new concept of cognitive cities. It demonstrates why cities need to become cognitive and why therefore a concept of cognitive city is needed. It highlights the main building blocks of cognitive cities and illustrates the concept by various cases. Following a concise introductory chapter the book features nine chapters illustrating various aspects and dimensions of cognitive cities. The logic of its structure proceeds from more general considerations to more specific illustrations. All chapters offer a comprehensive view of the different research endeavours about cognitive cities and will help pave the way for this new and innovative approach to governing cities in the future.

Dynamics of Coupled Structures, Volume 4. Proceedings of the 34th IMAC, A Conference and Exposition on Dynamics of Multiphysical Systems: From Active Materials to Vibroacoustics, 2016, the fourth volume of ten from the Conference brings together contributions to this important area of research and engineering. Th e collection presents early findings and case studies on fundamental and applied aspects of Structural Dynamics, including papers on: * Experimental Dynamic Substructuring * Structural Coupling of Nonlinear Structures * Analytical/Numerical Modeling of Joints * Industrial Applications of Substructuring * Source Identifi cation & Transfer Path Analysis * Human Induced Vibrations * Damping & Friction

This book includes chapters based on the potential uses of polysaccharides such as fibers in food and non-food applications. The complexity of their synthesis in plants, the highly multidisciplinary character of polysaccharide research, and the wide variety of applications from food to clothing to energy are addressed in this volume. The authors describe in detail how these latter grand challenges are of great importance in research, especially in the midst of enormous overpopulation and economic issues. Therefore, the volume contributes additional information to the chemical, nutritional, medical, and energy roles of these bio-based products, finding applications in diverse fields of their raw and composite forms. This volume is a useful resource for graduate students and contains themes for instructors and senior research leaders. Written by internationally renowned experts, it is aimed at workers in polymer laboratories, classrooms, and policy makers.

This illuminating text/reference presents a review of the key aspects of the modeling and simulation (M&S) life cycle, and examines the challenges of M&S in different application areas. The authoritative work offers valuable perspectives on the future of research in M&S, and its role in engineering complex systems. Topics and features: reviews the challenges of M&S for urban infrastructure, healthcare delivery, automated vehicle manufacturing, deep space missions, and acquisitions enterprise; outlines research issues relating to conceptual modeling, covering the development of explicit and unambiguous models, communication and decision-making, and architecture and services; considers key computational challenges in the execution of simulation models, in order to best exploit emerging computing platforms and technologies; examines efforts to understand and manage uncertainty inherent in M&S processes, and how these can be unified under a consistent theoretical and philosophical foundation; discusses the reuse of models and simulations to accelerate the simulation model development process. This thought-provoking volume offers important insights for all researchers involved in modeling and simulation across the full spectrum of disciplines and applications, defining a common research agenda to support the entire M&S research community.

A highly illustrated step-by-step guide to designing and making contemporary tableware in clay, featuring inspirational pieces by leading designers. The tableware we use is very important in our everyday lives, whether plates, bowls, mugs, cups or teapots. This stylishly illustrated guide helps budding and established ceramicists alike to create practical and attractive ranges, starting with design principles, working through appropriate construction techniques, and leading on to decoration and finishes. Leading designers Sue Pryke and Linda Bloomfield explain the importance of inspiration and consistency in design, providing step-by-step guides to the main making methods, which include hand building, pinching, coiling, throwing and slipcasting. They also offer advice on using various clay materials - such as recycled and reused clay bodies - and the combination of clay with other materials including wood, metal, textiles and synthetics. Tips are provided on glaze fit, dishwasher- and microwave-safe glazes, firing and finishing. Featuring beautiful photographs of the work of such prominent tableware makers as Sasha Wardell, James and Tilla Waters, Reiko Kaneko and Nico Conti, there are many sources of inspiration for those wishing to further their tableware ambitions.

This book reveals the French scientific contribution to the mathematical theory of nonlinear oscillations and its development. The work offers a critical examination of sources with a focus on the twentieth century, especially the period between the wars. Readers will see that, contrary to what is often written, France's role has been significant. Important contributions were made through both the work of French scholars from within diverse disciplines (mathematicians, physicists, engineers), and through the geographical crossroads that France provided to scientific communication at the time. This study includes an examination of the period before the First World War which is vital to understanding the work of the later period. By examining literature sources such as periodicals on the topic of electricity from that era, the author has unearthed a very important text by Henri Poincare, dating from 1908. In this work Poincare applied the concept of limit cycle (which he had introduced in 1882 through his own works) to study the stability of the oscillations of a device for radio engineering. The "discovery" of this text means that the classical perspective of the historiography of this mathematical theory must be modified. Credit was hitherto attributed to the Russian mathematician Andronov, from correspondence dating to 1929. In the newly discovered Poincare text there appears to be a strong interaction between science and technology or, more precisely, between mathematical analysis and radio engineering. This feature is one of the main components of the process of developing the theory of nonlinear oscillations. Indeed it is a feature of many of the texts referred to in these chapters, as they trace the significant developments to which France contributed. Scholars in the fields of the history of mathematics and the history of science, and anyone with an interest in the philosophical underpinnings of science will find this a particularly engaging account of scientific discovery and scholarly communication from an era full of exciting developments.

Industrial engineering has expanded from its origins in manufacturing to transportation, health care, logistics, services, and more. A common denominator among all these industries, and one of the biggest challenges facing decision-makers, is the unpredictability of systems. Probability Models in Operations Research provides a comprehensive overview of the probabilistic and stochastic modeling approaches commonly used to capture the randomness in industrial and systems engineering.

Table of Contents

Probability Modeling Fundamentals. Analysis of Random Variables. Analysis of Multiple Random Variables. Bernoulli Processes. Discrete-Time Markov Chains. Poisson Processes. Renewal Processes. Continuous-Time Markov Chains. Queueing Theory.

This research topic was first established in China by Professor Shengzhao Long in 1981, with direct support from one of the greatest modern Chinese scientists, Xuesen Qian. In a letter to Shengzhao Long from October 22nd, 1993, Xuesen Qian wrote: "You have created a very important modern science subject and technology in China!" MMESE primarily focuses on the relationship between Man, Machine and Environment, studying the optimum combination of man-machine-environment systems. In this system, "Man" refers to working people as the subject in the workplace (e.g. operators, decision-makers); "Machine" is the general name for any object controlled by Man (including tools, machinery, computers, systems and technologies), and "Environment" describes the specific working conditions under which Man and Machine interact (e.g. temperature, noise, vibration, hazardous gases etc.). The three goals of optimization are to ensure "Safety, High efficiency and Economy" of man-machine-environment systems. These proceedings are an academic showcase of the best papers selected from more than 400 submissions, introducing readers to the top research topics and the latest developmental trends in the theory and application of MMESE. These proceedings are interdisciplinary studies on the concepts and methods of physiology, psychology, system engineering, computer science, environment science, management, education, and other related disciplines. Researchers and professionals who study an interdisciplinary subject crossing above disciplines or researchers on MMESE subject will be mainly benefited from these proceedings.

Covering key topics in the field such as technological innovation, human-centered sustainable engineering and manufacturing, and manufacture at a global scale in a virtual world, this book addresses both advanced techniques and industrial applications of key research in interactive design and manufacturing. Featuring the full papers presented at the 2014 Joint Conference on Mechanical Design Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing, which took place in June 2014 in Toulouse, France, it presents recent research and industrial success stories related to implementing interactive design and manufacturing solutions.

Presenting a novel biomimetic design method for transferring design solutions from nature to technology, this book focuses on structure-function patterns in nature and advanced modeling tools derived from TRIZ, the theory of inventive problem-solving. The book includes an extensive literature review on biomimicry as an engine of both innovation and sustainability, and discusses in detail the biomimetic design process, current biomimetic design methods and tools. The structural biomimetic design method for innovation and sustainability put forward in this text encompasses (1) the research method and rationale used to develop and validate this new design method; (2) the suggested design algorithm and tools including the Find structure database, structure-function patterns and ideality patterns; and (3) analyses of four case studies describing how to use the proposed method. This book offers an essential resource for designers who wish to use nature as a source of inspiration and knowledge, innovators and sustainability experts, and scientists and researchers, amongst others.

Offering a comprehensive overview of the challenges, risks and options facing the future of mechatronics, this book provides insights into how these issues are currently assessed and managed. Building on the previously published book 'Mechatronics in Action,' it identifies and discusses the key issues likely to impact on future mechatronic systems. It supports mechatronics practitioners in identifying key areas in design, modeling and technology and places these in the wider context of concepts such as cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things. For educators it considers the potential effects of developments in these areas on mechatronic course design, and ways of integrating these. Written by experts in the field, it explores topics including systems integration, design, modeling, privacy, ethics and future application domains. Highlighting novel innovation directions, it is intended for academics, engineers and students working in the field of mechatronics, particularly those developing new concepts, methods and ideas.