The thesis focuses on in two vital and interrelated aspects of modelling design support systems, they are: how innovative solutions may arise, and the knowledge-base's extension and maintenance. The dilemma 'reproduction versus creativity' is identified as one of the main deadlocks that the design methods' debate, research in Computer Aided Architectural Design, CAAD, and Artificial Intelligence, AI, have faced in the last thirty years. A hybrid approach is then proposed as a means of overcoming these difficulties, where a rudimentary evolving design support environment is developed. It draws inspiration from three areas of Artificial Intelligence: knowledge-base systems, connectionist models, and case-based reasoning (CBR). However, it differs fundamentally from conventional knowledge-base systems, connectionist models and CBR tools, in its architecture, although strongly inspired by these underlying theories. The main benefits and contributions of this hybrid system are an incremental selfextending feature able to minimise substantially the dependency on knowledge engineer intervention, and an interactive support to innovation by augmenting the designer's creativity.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the engine of economic growth and job creation. Governments have devoted considerable resources to increase their competitiveness in the market. Several design support programmes (DSPs) have emerged from this investment to promote design as a strategic resource for innovation and business growth. Although existing research indicates that an effective use of design can enhance the business performance, a lack of interest amongst SMEs to work with designers is cited in several studies. Despite the great amount of money, energy and time that has been spent on design support for SMEs, there is still a lack of knowledge about effective delivery and evaluation. This thesis focuses on the problem of finding better ways to assist SMEs with design for economic growth by evaluating the effectiveness of design support for SMEs. This research, therefore, has examined the activities of UK-based DSPs, investigated the expertise of design consultancies and inquired about the self-image of designers in order to expand the knowledge of design support for SMEs. The research applied an interpretive paradigm, where multiple realities are recognised as socially constructed. Data was gathered through interviews with individuals representing DSPs, SMEs, design consultancies and government support agencies assisting SMEs. Observation of business support events and publicly available documents were used as additional sources. A thematic analysis and a systematic metaphor analysis were employed to examine the resulting data. The research has highlighted a number of key issues that are pivotal to the success of design support for SMEs. This PhD research also proposes two explanatory frameworks to contribute to design theory and practice: a seven-step evaluation framework for planning and evaluating the outcomes of DSPs and a re-framing of the generalist-specialist dilemma that can inform the activities of design consultancies and DSPs and can guide designers to improve their expertise.

This research introduces a method to aid the design of products or parts to be made using Additive Manufacturing (AM), particularly the laser sintering (LS) system. The research began with a literature review that encompassed the subjects of design and AM and through this the need for an assistive design approach for AM was identified. Undertaking the literature review also confirmed that little has been done in the area of supporting the design of AM parts or products. Preliminary investigations were conducted to identify the design factors to consider for AM. Two preliminary investigations were conducted, the first investigation was conducted to identify the reasons for designing for AM, the need for a design support tool for AM and current challenges of student industrial designers designing parts or products for AM, and also to identify the type of design support they required. Further investigation were conducted to examine how AM products are developed by professional industrial designers and to understand their design processes and procedures. The study has identified specific AM enabled design features that the designers have been able to create within their case study products. Detailed observation of the case study products and parts reveals a number of features that are only economical or possible to produce with AM. A taxonomy of AM enabled design features was developed as a precursor for the development of a computer based design tool. The AM enabled design features was defined as a features that would be uneconomical or very expensive to be produced with conventional methods. The taxonomy has four top-level taxons based on four main reasons for using AM, namely user fit requirements, improved product functionality requirements, parts consolidation requirements and improvement of aesthetics or form requirements. Each of these requirements was expanded further into thirteen sub categories of applications that contained 106 examples of design features that are only possible to manufacture using AM technology. The collected and grouped design features were presented in a form of a database as a method to aid product design of parts or products for AM. A series of user trials were conducted that showed the database enabled industrial designers to visualise and gather design feature information that could be incorporated into their own design work. Finally, conclusions are drawn and suggestions for future work are listed. In summary, it can be concluded that this research project has been a success, having addressed all of the objectives that were identified at its outset. From the user trial results, it is clear to see that the proposed tool would be an effective tool to support product design for AM, particularly from an educational perspective. The tool was found to be beneficial to student designers to take advantage of the design freedom offered by AM in order to produce improved product design. As AM becomes more widely used, it is anticipated that new design features will emerge that could be included in future versions of the database so that it will remain a rich source of inspirational information for tomorrow s industrial designers.

The continuing trends of miniaturisation, mass customisation, globalisation and wide use of the Internet have great impacts upon manufacturing in the 21st century. Micro manufacturing will play an increasingly important role in bridging the gap between the traditional precision manufacturing and the emerging technologies like MEMS/NEMS. The key requirements for micro manufacturing in this context are hybrid manufacturing capability, modularity, reconfigurability, adaptability and energy/resource efficiency. The existing design approaches tend to have narrow scope and are largely limited to individual manufacturing processes and applications. The above requirements demand a fundamentally new approach to the future applications of micro manufacturing so as to obtain producibility, predictability and productivity covering the full process chains and value chains. A novel generic modular reconfigurable platform (GMRP) is proposed in such a context. The proposed GMRP is able to offer hybrid manufacturing capabilities, modularity, reconfigurablity and adaptivity as both an individual machine tool and a micro manufacturing system, and provides a cost effective solution to high value micro manufacturing in an agile, responsive and mass customisation manner. An integrated framework has been developed to assist the design of GMRPs due to their complexity. The framework incorporates theoretical GMRP model, design support system and extension interfaces. The GMRP model covers various relevant micro manufacturing processes and machine tool elements. The design support system includes a user-friendly interface, a design engine for design process and design evaluation, together with scalable design knowledge base and database. The functionalities of the framework can also be extended through the design support system interface, the GMRP interface and the application interface, i.e. linking to external hardware and/or software modules. The design support system provides a number of tools for the analysis and evaluation of the design solutions. The kinematic simulation of machine tools can be performed using the Virtual Reality toolbox in Matlab. A module has also been developed for the multiscale modelling, simulation and results analysis in Matlab. A number of different cutting parameters can be studied and the machining performance can be subsequently evaluated using this module. The mathematical models for a non-traditional micro manufacturing process, micro EDM, have been developed with the simulation performed using FEA. Various design theories and methodologies have been studied, and the axiomatic design theory has been selected because of its great power and simplicity. It has been applied in the conceptual design of GMRP and its design support system. The implementation of the design support system is carried out using Matlab, Java and XML technologies. The proposed GMRP and framework have been evaluated through case studies and experimental results.

The global industry is gradually moving towards automation nowadays. Thetool for design support is a required tool for auto companies and relatedcompanies. The tool for design support is a tool based on Microsoft Excel, the mainobjective is to build an Interactive Tool for analysis, outputting productparameters and generating reports through Case Based reasoning (CBR),Decision Tree and Programming in Excel VBA. Through Excel’s calculationand analysis generate intuitive report instead of time-consuming and labour-consuming measurement, towards calculation and analysis automation. Thus,it can reduce working time and decrease labour consumption.

Le contexte dans lequel vivent les organisations évolue. Elles doivent faire face à quatre nouveaux enjeux principaux : l’appartenance à des pôles et réseaux, le centrage sur les connaissances et l’innovation, la responsabilité sociétale et l’intégration de nouveaux comportements au travail. Ces nouveaux enjeux font apparaître de nouvelles parties prenantes des organisations (pouvoirs publics, société, associations, communauté scientifique, entreprises partenaires…) et diversifient leurs attentes (création d’emplois, création de connaissances, protection de l’environnement…). Ainsi, les critères d’évaluation de la performance de ces organisations se multiplient et se diversifient. Les modes de conception et de pilotage existants doivent être adaptés. Ce travail met en œuvre une recherche-action au sein de la plateforme d’imagerie préclinique MIRCen (Molecular Imaging Research Centre) du CEA, appartenant au pôle de compétitivité Medicen Paris Region ainsi qu’à divers réseaux nationaux et internationaux. Il repose sur une démarche valeurs, une approche processus et une vision systémique. Il met en évidence la nécessité de repenser la performance des organisations faisant face à ce nouveau contexte, à travers leur création de valeurs au pluriel (scientifiques, économiques, sociétales, éthiques, environnementales…), de façon à prendre en compte les aspects multi parties prenantes et multicritère. Il propose une démarche intégratrice originale permettant de modéliser cette création de valeurs et d’adopter de nouveaux modes de conception des processus et de pilotage par les valeurs adaptés à ces organisations. Il aboutit à la mise en place d’un outil opérationnel d’aide au pilotage par les valeurs qui intègre ces propositions et qui permet de répondre de façon dynamique à un ensemble d’attentes de parties prenantes, en passant par l’implication de tous les acteurs de l’organisation dans son pilotage. / The context, in which organisations exist, is changing. They need to cope with four main issues: the belonging to clusters and networks, the focus on knowledge and innovation, the social responsibility and the integration of new behaviours at work. These new issues imply new stakeholders of organisations (such as authorities, society, associations, scientific community or business partners) and diversify their expectations (such as jobs creation, knowledge creation or environmental protection). Thus, the criteria which are necessary to evaluate properly the performance of organisations are multiplying and diversifying. Existing design and management ways must be adapted. This work carries out an action-research within the preclinical imaging platform MIRCen (Molecular Imaging Research Centre) of the CEA, which belongs to the Medicen Paris Region cluster and to other national and international networks. It is based on a values-oriented method, a process approach and a systemic view. It gives rise to the necessity of reconsidering the performance of the organisations which face this new context, through the creation of multiple kinds of values (such as scientific, economic, societal, environmental or ethical), in order to consider the multi-stakeholders and multi-criteria aspects. It proposes an original integrative approach, which enables to model this creation of values and to adopt new ways to design processes and to manage by values, suited to these organisations. It leads to the setting up of an operational management support tool, which enables to carry out these propositions and to meet dynamically a group of stakeholders’ expectations, involving the active implication of all actors of the organisation in its management.

This masters thesis is about how to enhance creativity and investigates the design process of interaction designers, in terms of the creative process, design support tools and especcially through a concept presented in this thesis. The concept is called DSTZ (Design Support Tool Z) and suggests ways in how to support a designer in the creative process. An empirical study was carried out in the thesis that consisted of a survey conducted on 8 "interaction designers" investigating how interaction designers work and if they require or need any design support. A design survey was later conducted on 18 "interaction designers" of which 9 were professionals and 9 were students, to investigate the concept DSTZ and the creativity enhancing aspect. The resuls from the empirical studies show that a design support tool is desired and DSTZ has features that are useful and can enhance creativity. The features consist of 8 palettes and 3 funtions that are manifested in DSTZ. Further investigation is required in order to find data that support the statement that creativity can be enhanced through a design support tool.

La lumière naturelle éclaire l'espace architectural créant les conditions nécessaires pour accueillir des activités humaines. La fonction d'éclairage de la lumière naturelle est associée à une autre dimension plus sensible attribuant une identité et une singularité à l'espace conçu. La maîtrise du comportement lumineux est une activité complexe qui fait appel à une multiplicité de facteurs dont la caractérisation est confrontée à l'incertitude et l'imprécision des informations disponibles durant les phases conceptuelles du projet. L'objectif de notre recherche est de proposer une méthode d'assistance qui prend en considération les propriétés des phases amont de conception pour aider le concepteur à intégrer ses intentions d'ambiance de lumière naturelle. Nous proposons une méthode d'assistance structurée selon un processus déclaratif permettant au concepteur d'expliciter ses intentions d'effets de lumière naturelle et de les traduire en solutions architecturales potentielles qu'il peut intégrer dans son projet. Cette méthode considère les intentions d'ambiance de lumière naturelle comme une information source à utiliser pour proposer une aide à la conception pendant les phases préliminaires du projet où elles constituent les seules informations disponibles. Cette méthode offre des fonctionnalités capables de gérer l'incertitude qui caractérise les phases de recherche et de formalisation d'idées. Notre méthode d'assistance a été implémentée dans un prototype d'outil dont l'apport cognitif et la capacité d'accompagnement des activités de conception ont été évalués et analysés dans un cadre expérimental de conception de projet / The daylight illuminates the architectural space and creates the necessary conditions to accommodate human activities. The illuminating function of daylight is joined to another sensitive dimension that attributes a distinctive identity to the designed space. The control of daylight in architectural environment needs some detailed and precise characteristics about aperture and walls features. The multiplicity of these characteristics is faced with the inaccuracy and the uncertainty of the design information available during the early steps. Our research aims to propose a design support method that takes into account the early design step features and helps designers to integrate there daylight atmosphere intentions in project. We propose a design support method structured as a declarative modelling process. The declarative process helps the designer to declare his daylight intentions and to translate them to potential solutions that could be integrated in his project. This method considers the designer intentions as the main design information used to help designer during the early design steps. The proposed method provides functionalities that could operate the inaccuracy and the uncertainty of the ideas research and formalisation steps. Our design support method was implemented in a prototype design support tool. The cognitive contribution and the ability to support the design activities of the proposed tool was evaluated and analysed in an experimental design context

Les choix des matériaux et de leurs procédés de mise en oeuvre connaissent et vont connaître des évolutions marquantes dans le monde de l’architecture. A l’époque actuelle, les évolutions sont largement induites par les techniques, mais aussi les représentations et les préceptes qui apparaissent avec l’émergence de la notion de développement durable dans notre société.Les outils d’aide à la conception existants à l’échelle des matériaux portent principalement sur les dimensions physiques (thermique, cycle de vie des matériaux, consommations, etc.). Nos travaux se questionnent sur l’intégration des dimensions techniques, écologiques et sensibles des matériaux dans un outil d’aide à la conception basé sur l’utilisation de la référence. L’activité référentielle est une approche propre aux phases initiales de projet. Ces phases correspondent aux premières propositions décisives, qui restent peu assistées par les outils numériques.Nos travaux visent à mettre en évidence les différentes caractéristiques des matériaux, mais surtout leurs interactions. Cette étude se distingue des approches classiques des matériaux, où généralement les différentes solutions constructives sont présentées matériau par matériau. En effet, nous nous basons sur une structuration de données et de connaissances interdisciplinaires (architecture, urbanisme, paysage, aspects esthétiques, aspects techniques, aspects cognitifs, approche de la perception, approche environnementale, etc.).Ces recherches tendent vers une première proposition d’un outil d’aide à la conception nommé DILEM’MAtériaux qui prend en compte les différentes dimensions des matériaux dans leur contribution à la genèse d’idées fondatrices, à la définition d’un ou des parti(s), ou concept(s) propres aux phases initiales de projet / The choice of materials and way of implementation is known and will be known as a significant growth in the world of architecture. Actually, changes are largely induced by technical dimension, but also representations and precepts that appear with the emergence of the concept of sustainable development in our society.Design support tools about materials scale focus on the physical dimensions (thermal, life cycle, refreshments, etc.). Our work is questioning the integration of technical, environmental and sensible dimensions in a design support tool based on reference. The referential activity is a specific approach in the initial phases of designing on a project. These phases correspond to crucial choice, which remain poorly assisted by digital tools.Our work aims to highlight the different characteristics of materials, but also their interactions. This study differs from conventional approaches of materials, which generally, constructive solutions are presented material by material. Indeed, we rely on a data structure and interdisciplinary knowledge (architecture, urbanism, landscape, aesthetic, technical, cognitive, perception approach, environmental approach, etc.).This research tends to be a first proposal for a design support tool named DILEM'MAtériaux that takes into account materials in their contribution to origin of founding ideas and definition of concept, in the initial phases of designing on a project.

Concevoir une structure composite consiste à relever un défi de taille : alors qu'un ingénieur qui conçoit un produit mécanique à base de matériau métallique se concentre principalement sur le développement d'une forme qui garantira un comportement spécifique, l'ingénieur pour qui le problème de conception est celui d'un produit à base de matériaux composites doit trouver la meilleure combinaison forme - structure de matériau. Ainsi, il doit aussi concevoir simultanément un matériau et la topologie produit. La combinatoire s’avère être complexe et les espaces de solutions de très grande taille.Les outils de CAO et de simulation par éléments finis n'offrent pas au concepteur une approche permettant d'explorer les espaces de recherche de manière interactive et rapide. Le travail de thèse conduit à une nouvelle approche numérique permettant de manipuler chaque paramètre de conception caractérisant une structure composite, quelle que soit l’échelle à laquelle il est pertinent.Premièrement, le modèle de comportement paramétrique et réduit (Parametric and Reduced Behavior Model, PRBM) est un modèle dit séparé. Il permet :1- une approche multi-échelle : les paramètres mécaniques de la structure sont explicitement décrits comme issus de la qualité matérielle de chaque fibre, de la matrice, de chaque couche et de la topologie même du stratifié,2- une approche multi-physique: indépendamment le comportement mécanique de chaque couche et de chaque interface est traité pour donner lieu au comportement du stratifié. Des situations de comportements statiques et dynamiques sont étudiés. Dans le cas du comportement dynamique, le caractère visco-élastique est devenu un enjeu conceptuel.Deuxièmement, une méthode mixant dérivées non entières et usage de la méthode PGD a permis la réalisation du PRBM. Intégré dans un modèle de connaissance paramétrique (Parametric Knowledge Model, PKM) auprès de modèles de connaissances experts, il constitue la base d'une méthode interactive d’aide à la conception.Le PKM est traité par une méthode d'optimisation évolutionnaire. De ce fait, le concepteur peut explorer de façon interactive les espaces de conception. Pour qualifier nos modèles et notre PRBM, nous étudions 2 problèmes de conception de structures stratifiées. Les solutions déterminées sont qualifiées vis-à-vis de simulations par éléments finis ou selon une approche empirique. / The design process of laminated composites faces a major challenge: while an engineer designing a metallic based mechanical product is mainly focusing on the development of a shape that will guarantee a specific behavior, the engineer designing a composite based product must find the best combination of the shape-material structure. Therefore, he must simultaneously create a material and the product topology. The number of design solutions can be huge since the solution space is considerable.Standard CAE systems (CAD, Finite Element Simulation) do not provide an approach to explore these solution spaces efficiently and interactively. A new numerical procedure is proposed to allow engineers to handle each design parameter of a laminated composite structure, each at its relevant scale.First, the Parametric and Reduced Behavior Model (PRBM) is a separated model that enables reasoning based on1- A multiscale approach: the mechanical parameters of the structure are explicitly described as coming from the material quality of each fiber, the matrix, each layer and the topology of the laminate,2- A multiphysical approach: independently the mechanical behavior of each layer and each interface is processed, leading to the behavior of the laminate. Some situations of static and dynamic behavior are studied. In the case of dynamic behavior, the creeping becomes a conceptual issue.Secondly, a method mixing fractional derivatives and the Proper Generalized Decomposition (PGD) method allowed the creation of the PRBM. Integrated into a Parametric Knowledge Model (PKM) with other expert knowledge models, the PRBM makes the basis of an interactive method of design support.The PKM is processed by an evolutionary optimization method. As a result, the designer can interactively explore the design space. To qualify our models and our PRBM, we study two problems of design of laminated composite structures. The solutions determined are qualified versus finite element simulations or according to an empirical approach. / El diseño de una estructura compuesta es un desafío mayor, mientras que un ingeniero que diseña un producto mecánico con materiales metálicos se concentra principalmente en el desarrollo de una geometría que garantice un comportamiento específico, el ingeniero que diseña un producto con materiales compuestos debe encontrar la mejor combinación forma – estructura del material. De esta manera, el ingeniero debe diseñar simultáneamente el material y la topología del producto, razón por la que esta combinación se vislumbra compleja, puesto que los espacios de solución son gran tamaño.Las herramientas CAO y de simulación por elementos finitos no ofrecen al diseñador una metodología que permita explorar los espacios de solución de manera interactiva y rápida. Por lo tanto, este trabajo de tesis propone un nuevo enfoque numérico que permite manipular parámetros de diseño que caracterizan la estructura compuesta, cualquiera que sea la escala de pertinencia.Como primera medida, el modelo de comportamiento paramétrico y reducido (Parametric and Reduced Behavior Model, PRBM) es un modelo definido de manera separada que permite:1- Un enfoque multiescala: los parámetros mecánicos se presentan de manera explícita en términos de las propiedades de cada fibra, de la matriz, de cada capa y de la topología del mismo apilamiento.2- Un enfoque multifísico: el comportamiento mecánico de cada capa y cada interface se modela de manera independiente para dar lugar al comportamiento del apilamiento. Se estudian situaciones de casos de comportamiento estático y dinámico. En el caso dinámico en particular, se tiene en cuenta también la característica viscoelástica de las interfaces.Como segunda medida, un método que combina derivadas no enteras y el uso de la descomposición propia generalizada (PGD), permite la realización del PRBM. Este constituye la base de un método interactivo de ayuda al diseño, pues está integrado dentro de un modelo de conocimiento (PKM) que también incorpora mejores prácticas aprendidas por expertos.El PKM es utilizado por un método de optimización evolucionaria. De esta manera, el diseñador puede explorar de manera interactiva los espacios de solución. Para validar nuestros modelos y el PRBM, se estudian dos problemas de diseño de estructuras apiladas. Las soluciones obtenidas se comparan con respecto a simulaciones obtenidas por el método de los elementos finitos y con respecto a resultados experimentales.