The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the use of Search-based Procedural Content generation (SBPCG) to help a designer create levels for different game styles. I show how SBPCG can be used for level generation in different game genres by surveying both paper and released commercial solutions. I then provide empirical data by using a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to evolve levels in two different game types, first one being a space puzzle game, and the second a platform game. Constraints from a level designer provide a base to create fitness functions for both games with success. Even though difficulties with level representation make it hard for a designer to work with this technique directly, the generated levels show that the technique has promising potential to aid level designers with their work.

A three dimensional wing design tool with analysis functions has been developed with embedded Euler/Navier-Stokes flow solver and a three dimensional hyperbolic grid generator. A graphical user interface has been constructed using PYTHON script language and the tool was enhanced with pre-processing and post-processing capabilities. Analysis and design procedures are demonstrated with automatic grid generation, automatic series solution and automatic graphs and reports generation.

abstract: Interior design continues to re-define itself as a discipline that presents designers with new problems that require innovative solutions. This is particularly true in the case in office design. The transformation of the office environment from the standard bullpen configuration to today's dynamic, flexible, and open floor plans has required new design methodologies that incorporate tools and technologies that are readily available to interior designers. Today, increased use of teams in the workplace challenges interior designers to create environments that accommodate both group and individual tasks (Brill, Weidermann & BOSTI associates, 2001). Collaboration has received considerable attention as organizations focus on productivity and reducing costs to compete in a global economy (Hassanain, 2006). Designers and architects should learn to create environments that respond to dynamic, moveable, and flexible work methods. This web-based research study explores the use of pattern language as a new tool for designing collaborative work environments. In 1977, Christopher Alexander and his associates developed `Pattern language' (Alexander, Ishikawa & Silverstein, 1977) as a design formulation methodology. It consists of a series of interrelated physical elements combined to create a framework for design solutions. This pattern language tool for collaborative work environments was created based on research by Lori Anthony (2001). This study further builds upon current trends and research in collaborative work environments. The researcher conducted a pilot test by sending the web-based tool and an online questionnaire to all graduate students and faculty members in the fields of interior design and healthcare and healing environment (HHE). After testing its validity in The Design School at Arizona State University, the same tool and questionnaire was sent to the employees of one of the leading architecture and interior design firms in Phoenix, AZ. The results showed that among those design professionals surveyed, the majority believe pattern language could be a valuable design tool. The insights obtained from this study will provide designers, architects, and facility managers with a new design tool to aid in creating effective collaborative spaces in a work environment. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S.D. Design 2011

Över 60% av de textilier som slängs i Sverige är fortfarande i användbart skick och genomsnittssvensken slänger cirka 8 kg textilier per år. Efterfrågan på textilier ökar trots det stora överflödet och det beräknas finnas ett underskott på ca 5 miljoner ton cellulosabaserade fibrer redan vid år 2020. För att leda konsumenter till att agera mer hållbart kan designers ta hjälp av olika designstrategier. Användandet av hållbara designstrategier kan förlänga ett plaggs livscykel och ett av dessa sätt kan vara att göra om befintliga plagg för att passa nuvarande behov hos konsumenten. Befintliga designverktyg saknar innehåll om omfärgning, trots att forskning visat att detta är en av förändringarna konsumenterna främst vill kunna göra på sina plagg. Syftet med denna studie är att utforma ett designverktyg som skapar rätt förutsättningar för omfärgning av bomullsplagg i konsumentfasen. Studien är avgränsad till att endast undersöka förutsättningarna för bomullsplagg och tar inte hänsyn till ekonomiska perspektiv.   Det här arbetet består av en litteraturstudie samt en empirisk studie. Litteraturstudien behandlar ämnena bomull, designverktyg samt färg och beredning av bomull. Det huvudsakliga empiriska materialet har samlats in via intervjuer med verksamma inom området färg och beredning samt en miljökemist. Säkerhetsdatablad från marknadens största textilfärgstillverkare har undersökts. Resultatet visar på flera faktorer som påverkar en omfärgning samt tar hänsyn till dessa i det skapade designverktyget. Faktorer som kan påverka resultatet är bland annat val av material och sytråd samt val av behandlingar och beredningar. Resultatet visade även att utfallet av den nya färgen är beroende av plaggets ursprungsfärg. / Over 60% of the textiles thrown away in Sweden are still usable and the average Swedish person throws away approximately 8 kg of textiles per year. The demand for textiles is increasing despite the abundance and it is calculated to be a deficit in cellulosic fibers in 2020 with 5 million tons. To lead consumers to act more sustainable, designers can use different design strategies. The use of sustainable design strategies can prolong the life cycle of a garment and one way to do it is by redesigning existing garments to fit the need of the consumer. Existing design tools are lacking content about redyeing, even though research has shown this is something the consumers would like to be able to change in their garments. The purpose of this thesis is to develop av design tool that creates the right conditions for redying cotton garments in the consumer phase. The study is delimited to only examine the conditions for cotton garments and does not take economic perspectives into account.   This study consists of a literature study and an empirical study. The literature study treats the subjects cotton, design tools, colour and finishing. The main empirical material is collected through interviews with people in the field of colour and finishing and with an environmental chemist. Safety data sheets from the biggest textile colour manufacturers on the market in Sweden has been studied. The results of the study show several factors that can affect the result of the redyeing process and takes these factors in consideration in the development of a design tool. Factors that can affect the result of a redyeing process are the choice of materials and sewing thread and choice of treatments and finishes on the fabric. The result also found that the outcome of the new colour is dependant on the original color of the garment.

Submitted by Geandra Rodrigues (geandrar@gmail.com) on 2018-01-09T17:20:41Z No. of bitstreams: 1 isabelastiegert.pdf: 19493173 bytes, checksum: 659e1c490a0f43a49ac63c7d75c1bfd2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-01-23T11:30:57Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 isabelastiegert.pdf: 19493173 bytes, checksum: 659e1c490a0f43a49ac63c7d75c1bfd2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-01-23T11:30:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 isabelastiegert.pdf: 19493173 bytes, checksum: 659e1c490a0f43a49ac63c7d75c1bfd2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-25 / O paradigma tradicional de projeto nas áreas de Engenharia, Arquitetura e Urbanismo é caracterizado, em grande parte, por uma lógica linear e desconexa entre as áreas que compõem o ciclo de vida de uma nova construção. Há situações nas quais deficiências relacionadas ao projeto são identificadas pela falta de comunicação entre os diversos projetistas que atuam na fase inicial do empreendimento. Como resposta a essa demanda, é possível encontrar os princípios preconizados pela Engenharia Simultânea (ES) e pela metodologia Design For Excellence (DFX — projeto para excelência ou projeto para "x"), dentro da qual encontram-se dois outros conceitos: Design For Maintenance (DFM — projeto para manutenção) e Design For Safety (DFS — projeto para segurança). Sabe-se que a construção civil, em todo seu processo, envolve muitos fatores e agentes, e que o projeto arquitetônico é um dos primeiros itens desse percusso. A pesquisa mostrou-se pertinente, inicialmente, pela importância e potencialidade do projeto no ciclo de vida de empreendimentos da construção civil. Aliado a isso, atualmente, é possível compreender que a manutenção predial possui vantagens que a coloca como possibilidade de valorização do empreendimento, em longo prazo. Além disso, esta fase, de uso e manutenção, mostra-se como a de maior duração em toda a vida da edificação. Desse modo, a previsão para a realização da manutenção do edifício traz benefícios para toda a edificação, e seu pensamento durante o projeto arquitetônico pode acarretar ganhos em todo o ciclo de vida do empreendimento, além de ser algo exigido para projetos de habitações. Como recorte, dentro da temática da manutenção predial, optou-se por tratar a segurança dos trabalhadores que atuam nesta atividade, em altura, por ser um expressivo fator gerador de acidentes de trabalho na construção civil. Assim, o problema inicial identificado foi a falta do pensamento dos projetos para a manutenção e segurança durante o arquitetônico e como esse novo conhecimento poderia ser agregado de forma eficiente. Para incorporar, de modo pragmático, esse novo conceito nas tarefas diárias dos projetistas da área, esta pesquisa propôs a criação de uma ferramenta para aplicação desse conceito na rotina dos profissionais. Para alcançar esse objetivo, foi realizada revisão de literatura, em bases de dados nacionais e internacionais, sobre o processo de projeto em arquitetura, o projeto para manutenção e segurança em altura, limitando a busca a itens relacionados à segurança do trabalho em altura, no recorte da pesquisa (pintura, limpeza e manutenção de revestimentos em fachadas) e pesquisa em campo junto ao cliente principal para recolhimento de sua demanda. Como método de abordagem, o que melhor se encaixou para o perfil da pesquisa foi o hipotético-dedutivo e a pesquisa identificou-se como quantitativa e qualitativa. Como resultado, houve respostas positivas e satisfatórias quanto à pertinência do tema, quanto ao produto escolhido, seu desenvolvimento, teste e validação. Quanto a expectativas futuras, espera-se que a ferramenta computacional criada seja incorporada ao processo projetual arquitetônico. / The traditional design paradigm in the Engineering, Architecture and Urban Planning fields is characterised mainly by a linear logic disconnected to the other fields that form the life-cycle of a new building. There are situations where deficiencies related to design result from a lack of communication between the various members of the design team who are involved in the initial phase of the project. As a response to this demand, one can find the principles of Simultaneous Engineering (SE) and of the Design For Excellence (DFX) methodology, where two other concepts are to be found, namely Design For Maintenance (DFM) and Design for Safety (DFS). It is known that the whole process of construction involves several factors and agents and that architectural design is one of its first steps. This research has proved to be pertinent, initially, because of the importance and potential of the design phase in the life-cycle of construction projects. Associated with this, building maintenance is perceived nowadays to have advantages that make it a possibility of valuing projects in the long term. In addition, this use and maintenance phase is also the longest one in the life of a building. Therefore, anticipating the necessity of a building's maintenance is beneficial to it on the whole and thinking of this during the architectural design phase can result in gains throughout the project's life-cycle, besides already being required for housing projects. As a topic extracted from the general field of building maintenance, we opted to study the safety of workers who undertake this activity at heights, for it is an expressive cause of accidents in construction. The initial problem to be identified was thus the disregard to maintenance and safety during the architectural design phase and how this new knowledge could be employed efficiently. This research then proposed the creation of a new tool that could integrate this new concept in a pragmatic way to the daily tasks of designers working in this field. In order to achieve this goal, a literature review was made in national and international databases that contained bibliography concerning design process in architecture, design for maintenance and safety at heights. Our search was limited to items related to safety at heights comprised by our topic (painting, cleaning and maintenance of façade coatings) and field research in contact with the main costumers of such demand. The hypothetic-deductive approach method was the most suitable one for this research, which was both quantitative and qualitative. As a result, there were positive and satisfactory responses regarding the topic, the chosen product, its development, testing and validation. As for future expectations, a computer device is to be created so as to be integrated to the architectural design process.

In this report we present a graphical tool, Behavioral Analysis of Spacecraft Systems (BASS), that can be used by spacecraft designers to perform system-level behavioral analysis of small satellites. The domain-specific spacecraft meta-model is created in the visual modeling tool Generic Modeling Environment (GME) such that spacecraft designs created using the meta-model appear familiar to the spacecraft designers. Users can model scenarios that are to be verified for the design in BASS. The graphical models are assigned formal semantics facilitating the creation of formally verifiable spacecraft models. The C++ application that translates the modeling objects to equivalent mathematical representation of interest is called BASS Interpreter and is bound to the meta-model. BASS Interpreter that generates Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) semantics for the visual spacecraft models is supported in the current work. The model-checker for CSP called Failures Divergences and Refinement (FDR) is run to explore the state-space of the spacecraft process model to comment on the design. We demonstrate the feasibilty and advantage of incorporating BASS into initial design phases of small satellite development by successfully verifying the design of Tomographic Remote Observer of Ionospheric Disturbances (TOROID).

Développer, à partir de zéro, un drone imitant le vol battu de l'insecte est une tâche ambitieuse et ardue pour un designer en raison du manque de savoir-faire en la matière. Pour en accélérer le développement pendant les phases de design préliminaires, un outil modélisant les phénomènes aéroélastiques du vol de l'insecte est un véritable atout pour le designer et est le sujet de cette thèse. Le cœur de cet outil est un solveur éléments finis 'structure' couplé, en utilisant une approche par tranche, à un modèle aérodynamique quasi-statique du vol de l'insecte prenant en compte la flexibilité de l'aile, à la fois selon l'envergure et la corde, mais aussi ses grands déplacements. L'ensemble est conçu de manière à contenir le coût de calcul tout en étant assez modulaire pour s'adapter à un large panel d'applications. Afin de valider l'intégralité de cet outil, un processus en deux étapes a été entrepris avec d'abord une approche numérique et ensuite une validation expérimentale grâce à un banc de caractérisation dédié. Les résultats du modèle concordent de manière satisfaisante dans les deux cas, capturant l'amortissement dû aux forces aérodynamiques, et ouvrent ainsi la voie à son utilisation pour le design de drones à ailes battantes. Pour démontrer l'intérêt de cette approche lors des phases de design préliminaires, deux applications sur un nano-drone résonant sont réalisées: la définition d'une stratégie d'actionnement efficace et la recherche d'une géométrie d'aile potentiellement intéressante d'un point de vue aérodynamique, en couplant l'outil de modélisation à un algorithme génétique. Les résultats obtenus sont cohérents avec ceux trouvés dans la nature et sont en cours d'implémentation sur le drone. / Developing insect-like flapping-wing drones from scratch is an ambitious and arduous task for designers due to a lack of well-established know-how. To speed up the development of such vehicles through the preliminary design stage, a framework modeling the aeroelastic phenomena encountered in insect flight is an asset and is the subject of this thesis. Its kernel is a FEM based structural solver coupled in a blade-element approach to a quasi-steady aerodynamic model of insect flight accounting for the wing flexibility, both in the spanwise and in the chordwise direction, and for its large displacement. The complete framework is devised so as to maintain the computation load low while being modular enough for a wide range of applications. To validate the overall aeroelastic framework, a two-steps process has been undertaken with in one hand numerical studies and in the other hand experimental ones acquired on a dedicated test bench. The framework computation agrees satisfactorily, capturing the damping due to the aerodynamic force, and thus paves the way for preliminary design applications of a flapping-wing vehicle. To exhibit the capabilities of the framework as a preliminary design tool, two applications on a resonant nano air vehicle are performed: the definition of an efficient actuation strategy and the search of an aerodynamic potentially interesting wing geometry by plugging the framework to a genetic algorithm. The results are coherent with the ones found in nature and are under implementation on the nano air vehicle.

Cette thèse a pour objectif de donner une définition générale et mesurable de la difficulté du gameplay dans un jeu vidéo. Elle propose une méthode et un outil pour mesurer cette difficulté. La méthode de mesure couramment employée est en effet principalement heuristique et propre au contexte de chaque jeu. Nous proposons une approche générique d’analyse du gameplay qui prend en compte l’apprentissage du joueur et permet une évaluation statistique de la difficulté d’un gameplay. Dans un premier temps, la thèse explore les liens entre difficulté, game design, et plaisir de jouer. Nous étudions diverses formes de difficultés : sensorielles, logiques et motrices. Après diverses expérimentations d’analyse automatique de gameplay, nous détaillons notre modèle de mesure de la difficulté, et l’analyse en challenges et capacités d’un gameplay, ainsi que le logiciel associé. Finalement, nous présentons une expérience, dont l’objectif est de tester la faisabilité et la précision de notre modèle. / The goal of this thesis is to propose a general and measurable definition of the difficulty in video games. The current approach, widely adopted, is mainly heuristic, and depends on each game’s context. We propose a generic way to analyse a gameplay, taking into account the player’s apprenticeship, which allows to statistically evaluate the gameplay’s difficulty. The thesis first explores the links between difficulty, game design and the player’s enjoyment. Then, we study different types of difficulties, sensory, logical and motor. After a few experiments on automatic gameplay analysis, we detail our measurement model, base on the splitting of gameplay into challenges and capacities. We present the developed software, and report an experiment that we ran to test the feasibility and accuracy of our measuring technique.

L'inertie thermique constitue un atout essentiel pour stocker l'énergie reçue par le bâtiment et la restituer quand cela est nécessaire : elle permet d'emmagasiner les apports gratuits issus du rayonnement solaire pour réduire les consommations énergétiques liées au chauffage en présence d'une isolation performante. En été, son association à la ventilation nocturne contribue à évacuer l'énergie stockée au cours de la journée limitant ainsi les surchauffes à l'intérieur du bâtiment. Une exploitation optimale de l'inertie passe par une sélection appropriée des matériaux de construction lors de la phase d'avant-projet et par le développement de stratégies visant à exploiter leur capacité de stockage. Les outils de simulation thermique dynamique dont on dispose permettent de modéliser de façon assez précise les transferts de chaleur dans l'enveloppe du bâtiment mais leur niveau de finesse n'est pas nécessairement adapté aux besoins des concepteurs au moment de faire les choix les plus fondamentaux. Néanmoins ils demeurent indispensables non seulement pour la validation de ces choix mais aussi pour le développement de méthodes destinées à améliorer l'exploitation de l'énergie avant de procéder à la réalisation d'un projet. Ce travail a consisté à développer une méthodologie de conception basée sur deux approches complémentaires : la première approche permet de décrire le comportement détaillé du bâtiment à l'aide d'un modèle de simulation dynamique performant développé dans la plateforme SimSPARK qu'on a eu l'occasion de comparer aux mesures expérimentales de la plateforme INCAS. La seconde est basée sur le développement de l'outil simplifié CoSPARK qui à partir de la connaissance de quelques éléments clés, permet de déterminer les caractéristiques appropriées de l'enveloppe pour favoriser la performance énergétique des bâtiments. La dernière partie de ce travail a été consacrée à l'optimisation de stratégies d'une part en activant l'inertie thermique dans le cas d'une ventilation nocturne adaptative pour l'été et d'autre part en réduisant les consommations de chauffage en hiver dans le cas d'un plancher couplé à une installation solaire en utilisant le modèle de référence SimSPARK. / Thermal inertia is a key asset to store energy received by the building and release it when needed : in winter, when used with a good insulation, it can store solar heat gains available during the day (collected via different systems) and restitute them during the night thus reducing energy consumption. In summer, building thermal mass coupled with an efficient night ventilation helps remove the energy stored during the day, which limits overheating periods inside the building during the next day. Optimal use of thermal inertia results from an appropriate selection of building materials during the preliminary design phase and the development of strategies to exploit their storage capacity. Actual thermal simulation tools allow for higher accuracy in heat transfer modeling through the building envelope. However, their level of precision is not necessarily adapted to the needs of designers during the design phase when making the first choices. Nevertheless, they remain indispensable not only for the validation of these choices but also to develop methods to improve the management of the energy prior to the completion of a project. This work aimed to develop a design methodology based on two complementary approaches : the first method uses the accurate building response evaluated using a dynamic simulation model developed in SimSPARK simulation platform that we had the opportunity to compare with experimental measurements on the INCAS platform. The second one consists on using the results of a simplified tool (CoSPARK) to determine, with only few design key elements, the appropriate characteristics of the envelope that optimize the energy performance of the building. The last part of this work exposes some strategies that help take full advantage of the thermal mass inertia ; on one hand, for summer comfort, with the use of an adaptive night ventilation control, and, on the other hand, for winter periods, by reducing heating consumption using a radiant floor heating coupled with a solar system.

This work concerns the validation of two 1D Turbine Design Tools, AXIAL by Concepts NREC and TML by GKN Aerospace, and is purely computational. By using the KTH Test Turbine as a reference frame, these two software programs were set up to simulate its performance, and the results consequently validated against existing experimental data from the turbine. The main objective of this work is to investigate the performance prediction abilities of the 1D Design Tools for a variety of turbine parameters such as efficiency, mass flow, power output and degree of reaction, and study the accuracy of these predictions under given boundary conditions, namely turbine stage inlet pressure, temperature and pressure ratio. The main focus of the simulation was to evaluate the impact of the choice of loss model in the 1D Software Tools for estimation of losses. Thus, in order to gain a better understanding of differences and similarities among the scope of available loss models, as well as deviation models, a literature study was performed. Additionally, in order to extend the knowledge of the detailed performance prediction characteristics of these software tools in regard to the loss model implemented, the individual loss coefficients (profile, secondary, trailing edge, tip clearance and incidence) were studied and analysed. The impact of chosen pressure ratio on the 1D simulation accuracy was also investigated. The software tool used and the loss model selected were both found to be of great significance to the accuracy of the simulated performance. The pressure ratio (PR) used for simulation also proved to be of great significance, with simulations performed at an elevated PR providing considerably more accurate results than at the design PR, suggesting that the majority of loss models are more accurate when estimating with higher PR. The KTH Test Turbine stage validated in this work featured a number of special geometrical features of inconvenient nature for 1D simulations. In order to account for this, a number of correction coefficients were developed and implemented and their individual effect on the simulated performance studied. Another special feature of the turbine stage studied was the lean angle of the stator, which impact on the 1D simulations was also investigated. Additionally, a number of different user selectable parameters in AXIAL and their impact on the simulations were investigated. The geometry correction coefficients and stator lean angle were found to be of negligible impact to the overall estimated performance, while the user selectable parameters in AXIAL proved to be of relatively big influence on the simulated results. Lastly, using the TML software tool, the concept of stator-rotor disc cavity flow known as 'purge flow' was simulated and validated against reference data. Purge flow serves to inhibit the inflow of hot air from the main annulus to the inner hub and simultaneously cool the rotor blades. The TML software was found to overestimate the losses associated with the use of purge flow, although providing relatively coherent trends for parameters such as efficiency, mass flow and power, suggesting that a correction coefficient applied to the overall losses from purge flow could potentially provide better overall accuracy in the simulations. / Swedish TURBOPOWER Research Program