À l'instar d'œuvres telles que Kinoautomat de Radúz Činčera, SAM - Sound Activated Mobile d'Edward Ihnatowicz et Glowflow de Myron Krueger, des artistes ont développé, dès les années 1960, des installations artistiques engageant des situations d'interaction collective co-localisée inédites, c'est-à-dire impliquant plusieurs voire de nombreux spectateurs interagissant dans le même lieu via et avec un dispositif informatique. Le nombre de ces travaux ne cesse d'augmenter depuis le début du 21ème siècle, profitant des nouvelles opportunités offertes par les avancées dans les technologies de vision par ordinateur en temps réel et par l'avènement de l'informatique ubiquitaire marquée par la multiplication et l'interopérabilité des appareils informatiques mobiles. Si les expériences en la matière sont de plus en plus fréquentes, elles n'ont jusqu'à ce jour fait l'objet d'aucune analyse structurée et, encore moins, de propositions d'outils et de méthodes de conception dédiés. Comment, aujourd'hui, concevoir de tels dispositifs artistiques interactifs dont la complexité intrinsèque implique des questions aussi bien de l'ordre technique, social, cognitif qu'esthétique ? Cette thèse met à contribution des travaux antérieurs dans les domaines de l'interaction homme-machine (IHM), du travail coopératif assisté par ordinateur (TCAO) et des arts interactifs dans le but d'accroître notre connaissance quant aux défis auxquels sont confrontés à la fois les artistes et les participants de telles installations et, au-delà, les concepteurs de ces dispositifs en devenir. Un ensemble d'outils et de lignes directrices sont proposés pour la conception de systèmes d'interaction collective co-localisée pour les installations d'art numérique. Est d'abord développé un système de classification centré sur les aspects les plus décisifs permettant l'émergence d'une expérience collective. Deux approches différentes sont ensuite explorées pour trouver les bases d'un langage de modélisation graphique pour l'analyse et la conception de tels dispositifs. S'appuyant sur les réseaux de Petri, la deuxième approche permet de modéliser aussi bien les ressources spatiales et matérielles d'une installation, que les interactions homme-machine, humain(s)-humain(s) et humain(s)-machine(s)-humain(s). Les investigations menées pour cette recherche ont nécessité de mettre un accent particulier sur les conditions - qu'elles soient spatiales, matérielles ou humaines - qui affectent la capacité pour les participants de telles installations de co-construire une expérience esthétique commune en l'absence d'orchestration ou d'un objectif pré-annoncé à atteindre. Si cette approche singulière concerne en premier lieu les arts interactifs, elle peut revêtir également un caractère pertinent pour d'autres communautés de recherche, y compris et en premier lieu, celle de l'IHM, ainsi que celles du TCAO, des Nouvelles interfaces pour l'expression musicale (NIME), du design d'interaction ou encore de la culture, en particulier de la muséographie. / With works such as Kinoautomat by Radúz Činčera, SAM - Sound Activated Mobile by Edward Ihnatowicz, and Glowflow by Myron Krueger, artists have deployed, as early as the 1960s, art installations engaging novel situations of collective co-located interaction, i.e involving multiple or even many spectators interacting in the same place via and with a digital apparatus. The number of those works has continued to increase since the beginning of the 21st century, taking advantage of the new opportunities offered by advances in real-time computer vision technologies and the advent of ubiquitous computing marked by the multiplication and interoperability of mobile computing devices. While experiences in this area are more and more frequent, they have not yet been the subject of structured analysis and, even less, of proposals for dedicated tools and design methods. How can we, nowadays, conceive such interactive art installations whose intrinsic complexity involves questions of the technical, social, cognitive and aesthetic order? This dissertation draws on previous work in the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI), computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), and interactive arts research with the aim of increasing our knowledge of the challenges faced both by art practitioners and participants in such collective interactive installations, and, beyond, the designers of apparatus in a promising future. A set of tools and guidelines are proposed when designing collective co-located interactions for digital art installations. First a classification system is developed centered on the most decisive aspects that allow the emergence of a collective experience. Two distinct approaches are then explored to find the bases of a graphical modeling language for the design and analysis of such apparatus. Build on top of Petri nets, the second approach supports modeling the spatial and material resources of an installation, as well as the human-machine, human-human and human-machine-human interactions. The investigations conducted for this research have required laying particular emphasis on the conditions - whether spatial, material, or human - which affect the ability for participants to co-construct a common aesthetic experience in the absence of orchestration or a preannounced goal to be achieved. While this singular approach primarily concerns interactive arts, it may be relevant to a wide range of research communities, including, and foremost, that of HCI, as well as CSCW, New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), interaction design, and even culture, museography in particular.

An increase in distributed workspaces are influencing the way people work and thereby how meetings and presentations are conducted, making hybrid settings the standard for many organizations. Previous research has shown that hybrid settings decrease engagement due to technical issues, lack of inclusiveness, changing social dynamics and difficulties in evaluating participant engagement. Due to the need to diminish the negative effect the hybrid setting has, this study aims to evaluate the effect Audience Engagement Platforms have on increasing and evaluating engagement. The study was conducted by interviewing 31 users and non-users of Audience Engagement Platforms (AEPs) on meeting and presentation engagement, with 6 of them focusing on the hybrid setting. Thereafter a survey was conducted with AEP users on functionalities and effect on social dynamics. The interviewees generally agreed that anonymity and the possibility of presentation interaction were important aspects of the platform. Most hosts traditionally used visual cues as methods of engagement evaluation, and a diverse set of AEP use cases were described for all meeting and presentation types. The survey showed that all evaluated functionalities had a positive impact on engagement, where Wordclouds, Rankings and Quizzes increased perceived engagement the most. Furthermore, voluntary Likes, Reactions, Comments and Q&A from the participants was both perceived to increase engagement and suitable for evaluating participant engagement. In conclusion, the platform was shown to increase engagement both due to its platform characteristics as well as its functionalities. Anonymity was an important characteristic for lowering the barriers to participation and democratizing each input. Also, sharing the same interaction medium between remote and co-located participants helped to create a shared sense of belonging. Highly scored engagement features in the survey, such as Wordclouds and Rankings, can be both moderately low-effort in terms of how active a participant must be to give input on, whilst still directly asking each participant to give their opinion on a subject or statement. The quiz function was rated highly, which some interviewees suggested was due to its competitive nature. During the interviews however, many interviewees put a large emphasis on asking questions on a subject to be an important engagement tool, which would mostly correlate to the open-ended question functionality. The evaluation of engagement was concluded to be mostly helped by the functionalities Likes, Comments and the Q&A, as they are signs of voluntary participation. However, as the actual engagement level may not be correctly interpreted through the usage of these functionalities, it may still be insufficient to do a  correct evaluation. / En ökning av distribuerade arbetsplatser påverkar hur folk arbetar och har gjort den hybrida miljön till standard för många organisationer. Tidigare forskning har visat att hybrida möten har minskat engagemang på grund av tekniska problem, bristande delaktighet, förändrad social dynamik och svårigheter att utvärdera deltagarnas engagemang. På grund av behovet av att minska den negativa effekten den hybrida miljön har på engagemang, syftar denna studie till att utvärdera effekten Publik Engagerande Plattformar (AEPs) har på att öka och utvärdera engagemang. Studien genomfördes genom att intervjua 31 användare och icke-användare av AEPs om mötes-och presentationsengagemang, varav sex av dem fokuserade på den hybrida aspekten. Därefter genomfördes en undersökning med AEP-användare om dess funktionaliteter och effekt på social dynamik. Intervjupersonerna var generellt överens om att anonymitet och möjligheten till interaktion i presentationen var viktiga funktioner i plattformen. De flesta mötesledare använde visuella signaler som metod för utvärderin gav engagement, och användningsområden för AEPs beskrevs för alla typer av möten och presentationer. Undersökningen visade att alla utvärderade funktionaliteter hade en positiv inverkan på engagemanget, där Wordclouds, quiz och rankningar ökade engagemanget mest. Vidare upplevdes frivilliga gillningar, reaktioner, kommentarer och Q&A från deltagarna att både öka engagemanget och vara lämpliga för att utvärdera engagemang. Sammanfattningsvis visades plattformen öka engagemanget både på grund av dess plattformsegenskaper såväl som dess funktionaliteter. Anonymitet var en viktig aspekt för att sänka barriären för deltagande och demokratisera input. Att dela samma interaktionsmedium mellan distansbelägna och samlokaliserade deltagare bidrog också till att skapa en delad känsla av tillhörighet. Högt rankade funktioner i undersökningen, såsom Wordcloud och Rankningar, kan ses ha både relativt lågt krävd aktiv insats från deltagare att besvara, samtidigt som man direkt ber varje deltagare att ge sina synpunkter på ett ämne. Quiz fick högt betyg, vilket några intervjupersoner menade berodde på dess tävlingsaspekt. Under intervjuerna lade dock många intervjupersoner stor vikt vid att ställa frågor som ett viktigt verktyg för engagemang, vilket främst skulle korrelera med funktionen Open-ended Questions. Resultaten visade också att mötesledare får hjälp av gilla-markeringar, kommentarer och Q&A, för att utvärdera engagemang. Men eftersom den faktiska engagemangsnivån troligtvis inte kan tolkas korrekt genom användningen av dessa funktioner, kan det fortfarande vara otillräckligt för att göra en rättvis utvärdering.

La phase de conception préliminaire est déterminante lors de la réalisation d’un projet industriel. Elle exploite généralement des outils méthodologiques tels que le brainstorming, l’analyse causale et le chronogramme, qui permettent la collaboration entre des participants aux compétences et aux approches différentes. Ces activités se déroulent dans des salles de réunions traditionnelles, autour d'une table ou devant un tableau blanc, avec l’aide de nombreux papiers et Post-it, ce qui rend la préparation, l’exécution, et l’exploitation de ce processus particulièrement difficile. Jusqu’à présent, cette phase de conception préliminaire a résisté à la numérisation, notamment parce que l’addition d’un dispositif informatique au sein de ces activités perturbe la communication et la collaboration naturelles entre participants. Au cours des dix dernières années, de nombreuses avancées technologiques ont été réalisées en ce qui concerne les dispositifs numériques tels que les tables et les tableaux interactifs, les smartphones et les tablettes tactiles. La similarité des configurations physiques de ces dispositifs avec les dispositifs plus traditionnels permet d’exploiter les capacités préexistantes des utilisateurs (l’habileté motrice, le raisonnement spatial, le langage parlé, etc.). Les chercheurs se basent sur l’hypothèse que ces nouveaux dispositifs, travaillant de concert au sein d’espaces interactifs, pourront augmenter la collaboration co-localisée pour les équipes de conception préliminaire. L’objectif de cette thèse est, d’une part, d’étudier la conception d’un espace interactif pour la collaboration co-localisée durant la phase de conception préliminaire, et d’autre part, de proposer une architecture permettant de réunir les dispositifs hétérogènes et distribués composant cet espace.La première contribution consiste en une présentation détaillée d’un espace interactif utilisant une configuration physique encore peu exploitée dans la littérature scientifique : une table et un tableau multi-tactiles de grandes dimensions. La conception de cet espace interactif a été basée sur des observations d’utilisateurs dans un contexte de conception préliminaire traditionnel et sur une revue de la littérature visant à identifier des principes de conception. Lors de la conception de cet espace, une attention particulière a été portée à l’interface utilisateur qui s’étend sur des écrans partagés et qui maintient une séparation entre les activités d’un participant et les activités d’une équipe. Enfin, les évaluations, réalisées avec des groupes de cinq à six participants, démontrent une amélioration dans l’exploitation des outils méthodologiques sur supports numériques par rapport à une utilisation traditionnelle lors de la conception préliminaire.La conception d’une infrastructure distribuée basée sur un système multi-agents constitue la deuxième contribution de cette thèse. Cette infrastructure parvient à rassembler de nombreuses plateformes et des dispositifs hétérogènes. Elle représente une solution intéressante pour les espaces interactifs, en particulier parce qu’elle tolère particulièrement bien la défaillance de réseau et permet un prototypage rapide des dispositifs. / The preliminary design phase occurs near the launch of an engineering project, normally after an initial requirements gathering phase. Through a series of meetingswhich gathers the key actors of a project, effective preliminary design involves discussion and decision-making punctuated by group creativity techniques. These activities are designed to explore the potential solutions of the problem, such asbrainstorming or causal analysis, or to address the project itself, such as collaborative project planning. Such activities are usually conducted in traditional meeting rooms with pen and paper media, which requires significant time and effort to prepare, perform, and later render into a digitally exploitable format. These processes have resisted previous attempts of computer-supported solutions, because any additional instruments risk obstructing the natural collaboration and workflow that make these activities so beneficial. Over the past decade, technologies such as interactive table tops, interactive wall displays, speech recognition software, 3D motion sensing cameras, and handheld tablets and smartphones have experienced significant advances in maturity. Theirform factors resemble the physical configuration of traditional pen-and-paper environments,while their “natural” input devices (based on multi-touch, gestures, voice, tangibles, etc.) allow them to leverage a user’s pre-existing verbal, spatial,social, motor and cognitive skills. Researchers hypothesize that having these devices working in concert inside interactive spaces could augment collaboration forco-located (i.e. physically present) groups of users.There currently exist several interactive spaces in the literature, illustrating awide range of potential hardware configurations and interaction techniques. The goal of this thesis is first to explore what qualities these interactive spaces should exhibit in their interaction design, particularly with regard to preliminary designactivities, and second, to investigate how their heterogeneous and distributed computing devices can be unified into a flexible and extensible distributed computing architecture. The first main contribution of this thesis is an extensive presentation of an interactive space, which at its core uses a configuration not yet fully explored inprevious literature : a large multitouch table top and a large multitouch interactive Abstract board display. The design of this interactive space is driven by observations o fgroups engaged in preliminary design activities in traditional environments and a literature review aimed at extracting user-centered design guide lines. Special consideration is given to the user interface as it extends across multiple shared displays, and maintains a separation of concerns regarding personal and group work. Finally, evaluations using groups of five and six users show that using such an interactive space, coupled with our proposed multi-display interaction techniques, leads to a more effective construction of the digital artifacts used in preliminary design.The second main contribution of this thesis is a multi-agent infrastructure forthe distributed computing environment which effectively accommodates a widerange of platforms and devices in concerted interaction. By using agent-oriented programming and by establishing a common content language for messaging, the infrastructure is especially tolerant of network faults and suitable for rapid prototyping of heterogeneous devices in the interactive space.

The present time demands emission-free and carbon-free sources of energy. This fact is not only subject of international agreements and European Union regulations, but also the state of environment points out to an essential change in energy generation of mankind. Tidal stream provides very stable and predictable source of “green” energy. Compared to other renewable energy sources tidal stream turbines in exceptional localities are able to supply energy continuously, making them base load source. The aim of the thesis was to create an extensive document with recent tidal stream power information, which has not been available in Czech language yet. Last part of the research is focused on co-locating tidal stream and off-shore wind turbines. Second part of the thesis is dedicated to aerodynamic design of single-stage horizontal axis tidal stream turbine with rated electric power of 1 MW. Calculation according to the blade cascade theory was used to design blade geometry and to find rotor diameter of 14 meters for rated stream velocity of 3.05 m/s.

Previous research has displayed that multi-source farms provide an opportunity to reduce the cost of energy and improve the energy output quality. This thesis assesses the cost competitiveness of co-located wind-wave farms, specifically floating offshore wind (FLOW) turbines and CorPower’s wave energy converters (WEC). This research was conducted in collaboration with CorPower, a Swedish WEC developer. A cost model is generated, which calculates the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) utilizing a life-cycle cost analysis. The model is developed by combining CorPower’s existing cost model with an agglomeration of FLOW cost models from previous studies. An in depth literature research informs about synergies, which are translated into shared costs within the model. The cost model is applied to a site on the Northern coast of Portugal; the location of a FLOW farm project under development. Including wave energy, improves the annual energy production of the farm by up to 10%. However, the effects on power smoothing are negligible, due to the high seasonal variability of the wave resource and the minimal complementarity of the two energy sources. The LCOE of a 1GW 50% wind - 50% wave farm is 63€/MWh. The high initial investment costs of the wind farm results in the standalone wind LCOE of 73€/MWh. The strong capacity factor of the WECs cause the LCOE to reduce to 55€/MWh, when evaluating a standalone wave farm. In all co-location configurations, savings for FLOW and wave farm developers are exhibited. The highest savings are identified for small wind/wave arrays co-located in large farms. This results in an LCOE reduction of up to 4.5% for both wind and wave farm developers. The largest relative savings are found in the DEVEX costs and the electrical transmission installation costs. The identified cost calculations and savings are inline with previous studies. The savings are in the lower range compared to other studies, due to the conservative estimations of the degree of shared costs. The cost model provides a tool, that can be continuously updated with the most recent findings of cost inputs and wind-wave synergies, i.e. shared cost opportunities. This thesis’ results reflect how co-locating wind and wave farms can improve the cost-competitiveness of both technologies. Nevertheless, more in depth research is required to comprehend the full potential of co-located wind-wave farms. There is a necessity of collaboration between wind and wave industry members to ensure that the synergies and shared cost-opportunities identified, are fully exploited. / Tidigare forskning har visat att parker med flera källor ger möjlighet att minska energikostnaderna och förbättra energiproduktionens kvalitet. I den här avhandlingen utvärderas kostnadskonkurrenskraften hos samlokaliserade vind- och vågkraftsparker, särskilt flytande havsbaserade vindkraftverk (FLOW) och CorPowers vågenergiomvandlare (WEC). Denna forskning genomfördes i samarbete med CorPower, en svensk WEC-utvecklare. En kostnadsmodell genereras, som beräknar den nivellerade energikostnaden (LCOE) med hjälp av en livscykelkostnadsanalys. Modellen är utvecklad genom att kombinera CorPowers befintliga kostnadsmodell med en agglomeration av FLOW-kostnadsmodeller från tidigare studier. En djupgående litteraturstudie ger information om synergier, som översätts till delade kostnader i modellen. Kostnadsmodellen tillämpas på en plats på Portugals norra kust, där ett FLOW-anläggningsprojekt är under utveckling. Genom att inkludera vågenergi förbättras parkens årliga energiproduktion med upp till 10%. Effekterna på effektutjämningen är dock försumbara, på grund av vågresursens stora säsongsvariationer och de två energikällornas minimala komplementaritet. LCOE för en 1GW 50% vind - 50% vågkraftspark är 63€/MWh. De höga initiala investeringskostnaderna för vindkraftsparken resulterar i en LCOE för fristående vindkraft på 73 €/MWh. Den starka kapacitetsfaktorn för WECs gör att LCOE minskar till 55€/MWh, vid utvärdering av en fristående vågkraftspark. I alla samlokaliseringskonfigurationer uppvisas besparingar för FLOW och vågparksutvecklare. De största besparingarna identifieras för små vind-/vågkraftsparker som samlokaliseras i stora parker. Detta resulterar i en minskning av LCOE med upp till 4,5% för både vind- och vågparksutvecklare. De största relativa besparingarna finns i DEVEX-kostnaderna och installationskostnaderna för elektrisk överföring. De identifierade kostnadsberäkningarna och besparingarna är i linje med tidigare studier. Besparingarna ligger i det lägre intervallet jämfört med andra studier, på grund av de konservativa uppskattningarna av graden av delade kostnader. Kostnadsmodellen är ett verktyg som kontinuerligt kan uppdateras med de senaste rönen om kostnadsingångar och synergier mellan vind och våg, dvs. möjligheter till delade kostnader. Resultaten i denna avhandling visar hur samlokalisering av vind- och vågkraftsparker kan förbättra kostnadskonkurrenskraften för båda teknikerna. Det krävs dock mer djupgående forskning för att förstå den fulla potentialen hossamlokaliserade vind- och vågparker. Det finns ett behov av samarbete mellanvind- och vågkraftsindustrin för att säkerställa att de identifierade synergierna ochgemensamma kostnadsmöjligheterna utnyttjas fullt ut.

We have investigated the feasibility of using digital tabletop displays during design team meetings to improve access to design information. To achieve this goal, we have applied various design guidelines for tabletop interface design and requirements for digital meeting scenarios in order to implement design ideas (in a prototype named Mozaic) that specifically cater to design team meetings. Mozaic intends to improve information retrieval and browsing activities during meetings thereby improving information access through a tile based layout, pop-up menu control and filtered list. We have evaluated the features of Mozaic through an exploratory study on a tabletop display (in comparison to a commonly used desktop software tool, which was also used on the tabletop) to evaluate various design ideas and ferret out design ideas for future iterations of Mozaic. We present the result of this study as observations and user feedback and discuss them in the light of interface development for design meeting situations.

Les phases préliminaires du processus de conception sont celles qui influencent le plus le résultat. Elles sont caractérisées par l’incertitude : le processus ne peut être précisément défini à l’avance. L’approche Design Thinking est particulièrement adaptée pour gérer cette spécificité. L’introduction de supports numérique pendant ces phases de conception préliminaire a été identifiée comme une piste de recherche à fort potentiel. L’analyse de ces phases amont a permis de définir des postulats à partir desquels construire ces nouveaux supports numériques. Ces dispositifs sont constitués de deux surfaces tactiles, multi-utilisateurs ; une orientée horizontalement pour favoriser le foisonnement, l’autre orientée verticalement pour favoriser la focalisation. Par conséquence, ces plateformes ont été identifiées avec l’acronyme HOVER (HORizontale VERticale). La méthodologie de recherche comporte deux phases. Lors de la première phase, des expérimentations ont permis de comparer les dispositifs numériques avec les dispositifs actuels. Cette phase avait pour objectif de déterminer si les dispositifs numériques étaient acceptables dans la situation d’usage préconisée. Lors de la deuxième phase, les dispositifs numériques ont été testés dans des situations de travail réelles, afin de déterminer s’ils améliorent ces situations de travail. Ces expérimentations, ont été faites sur une spécifique plateforme HOVER, dénommés plateforme TATIN-PIC (Table Tactile Interactive –Plateforme Intelligente de Conception), construite à l’Université de Technologie de Compiègne. Les quatre expérimentations de la première phase ont révélées un niveau d’acceptabilité satisfaisant. En outre, cette phase permis d’identifier plusieurs pistes d’amélioration notamment au niveau des interactions homme-machines. La prise en compte des données collectées lors de cette phase a conduit à la conception d’une nouvelle version des dispositifs numériques. Cette nouvelle version, dénommée plateforme Digital Project Space (DPS), a été utilisée pour tester le dispositif dans des situations d’utilisation réelles. Les résultats de ces tests préliminaires montrent que les utilisateurs sont satisfaits des améliorations apportées par la plateforme DPS, et que ses performances, sont au pire, comparable aux meilleures prestations des supports papier actuellement disponibles. Des tests complémentaires sont néanmoins nécessaires pour avoir des résultats généralisables. Les perspectives sont de continuer la dissémination des dispositifs DPS dans la sphère productive afin d’obtenir des données quantitatives sur l’efficacité et l’efficience. L’objectif étant d’identifier des modèles prescriptifs de l’impact des dispositifs sur le processus de conception préliminaire. / The early preliminary phases of the design process are the most impactful on the final outcomes. However, they are ill defined, the path to follow is not clear. Design-thinking approaches are a good solution to tackle the incertitude of these phases. The introduction of computer tools during these phases has been identified as an interesting research path to explore. Through the analysis of these early preliminary design phases, a list of high-level assumptions has been made. These high-level assumptions delimited the perimeter of action for the design of a new kind of computer supported design platforms. These platforms are composed of two multi-touch, multi-users surfaces; one is horizontal to favor divergent thinking, while the other is vertical to favor convergent thinking. By this fact, I identified them with then name “HOVER” (HORizontal - VERtical) platforms. The preconized research methodology has two steps. The first step consists in the experimental comparison of the new tool with existing ones. The aim of this evaluation is to determine if HOVER platforms are applicable to the situation for which they have been designed. The second step consists in ethnographic observations of real case studies to establish if HOVER platforms have successfully improved the existing situation. This study has been conducted on a specific HOVER platform, the TATIN-PIC platform (French acronym for Table Tactile Interactive – Plateforme Intelligente de Conception) built at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne. The first step, composed of four quasi-experimental observations, showed a satisfying level of applicability. Besides, it provided multiple indications for the improvement of the HOVER platforms regarding Human Machine interactions. For example, it has confirmed the need for an interconnected vertical and horizontal surface, the need for a natural manipulation of intermediary objects, the need for a smooth circulation among design methods and, as well, the need for new design methods to be implemented. Thanks to these indications, a second version of a HOVER platform has been made. This improved platform, called Digital Project Space (DPS) platform, has been used for success evaluation in a real context. From these preliminary tests emerged that users are satisfied by the support of the DPS platform. Performances are in the worst-case scenario, as good as actual tools. Further and more accurate real case studies are needed to generalize these findings. This outlines the future perspectives, such as the definition of prescriptive models of the impact of such device on the early preliminary design phases. / Le fasi preliminari del processo di progettazione sono caratterizzate dall’incertezza, sia in termini di conoscenza che di azioni da compiere. Al contempo, pero, sono le fasi cruciali per il risultato globale del processo di progettazione. L’approccio Design Thinking è particolarmente adatto per le caratteristiche di queste fasi. L’introduzione di strumenti digitali durante il processo di progettazione preliminare è stata identificata come una pista di ricerca interessante da esplorare. L’analisi di queste fasi ha permesso di emettere una lista di postulati su cui progettare nuovi strumenti digitali. Questa classe di strumenti ha le sembianze di una piattaforma composta da due superfici tattili multi-utilizzatore; una è orizzontale per favorire il pensiero divergente, mentre l’altra è verticale per favorire il processo convergente. A causa di ciò, abbiamo deciso di identificare queste piattaforme con l’acronimo HOVER (HORizontal and VERtical). Il forte divario in termini di curva d’apprendimento tra i dispositivi esistenti (principalmente basati su carta) e le piattaforme HOVER, ha richiesto la definizione di una metodologia di ricerca adeguata. Questa metodologia ha inoltre il compito di garantire un rigore metodologico nell’approccio di ricerca. Due fasi di questa metodologia sono state eseguite. Nella prima fase, il nuovo dispositivo è comparato sperimentalmente con i dispositivi esistenti al fine di determinare se è applicabile alla situazione per cui è stato concepito. Nella seconda fase, il dispositivo è valutato in una situazione reale al fine di determinare se ha apportato, con successo, un miglioramento alla situazione esistente. Questi studi sono stati condotti su una specifica HOVER platform chiamata TATIN-PIC (acronimo francese per Table Tactile Interactive – Plateforme Intelligente de Conception), progettata e construita all’Université de Technologie de Compiègne. La prima fase, che ha visto quattro esperimenti, ha mostrato un livello di applicabilità soddisfacente, ha inoltre fornito molteplici piste di miglioramento in termini d’interazione uomo macchina. Grazie a questi feedback una seconda versione del dispositivo è stata creata. Tale versione, chiamata piattaforma Digital Project Space (DPS) è stata utilizzata per testare il successo del dispositivo in situazioni di reale utilizzo. Da questi test preliminari è emerso che gli utilizzatori sono rimasti soddisfatti dell’apporto fornito dal dispositivo, e che le performance sono nel caso peggiore equivalenti alla situazione attuale. Ulteriori e approfondite osservazioni di uso in situazioni reale sono necessarie per avere dei riscontri generalizzabili. Questo traccia gli scenari per il futuro; continuando la disseminazione nell’ambito industriale del dispositivo, sarà possibile ottenere dei riscontri quantitativi in termini diefficienza ed efficacia, grazie ai quali, estrapolare dei modelli prescrittivi dell’impatto del dispositivo sul processo di progettazione preliminare.

The simulation of physical systems in the early stages of conceptual designs has shown to be a key factor for adequate decision making and avoiding big and expensive issues downstream in engineering projects. In the case of aircraft cabin design, taking into account the thermal comfort of the passengers as well as the proper air circulation and renovation can make this difference. However, current numerical fluid simulations (CFD) are too computationally expensive for integrating them in early design stages where extensive comparative studies have to be performed. Instead, Zonal Models (ZM) appear to be a fast-computation approach that can provide coarse simulations for aircraft cabin flows. In this thesis, a Zonal Model solver is developed as well as a geometry-definition and meshing framework, both in Matlab®, for performing coarse, flexible and computationally cheap flow simulations of user-defined cabin designs. On one hand, this solver consists of a Fractional Step approach for coarse unstructured bi-dimensional meshes. On the other, the cabin geometry can be introduced by hand for simple shapes, but also with Computational Aided Design tools (CAD) for more complex designs. Additionally, it can be chosen to generate the meshes from scratch or morph them from previously generated ones. / <p>The presentation was online</p>