ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / One of the most important characteristics of an aircraft is its capability to return to its stable trimmed flight state after the occurrence of a disturbance or gust without the pilot intervention. The evaluation of such behavior, known as the aircraft stability, is divided into three sections: Lateral; Directional; and Longitudinal stabilities. The determination of the stability of an experimental aircraft requires the execution of a Flight Test Campaign (FTC). For the stability FTC the test bed should be equipped with a complete Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI) System which is typically composed by: a Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) Data Acquisition System (DAS); A sensor set; An airborne transmitter; and A data recorder. In the real-time operations, live data received over the Telemetry Link, that are processed, distributed and displayed at the Ground Telemetry System (GTS) enhances the FTC safety level and efficiency. The due to the lack of reliability, recorded data is retrieved in the post mission operations to allow the execution of data reduction analysis. This process is time consuming because recorded data has to be downloaded, converted to Engineering Units (EU), sliced, filtered and processed. The reason for the usage of this less efficient process relies in the fact that the real-time Telemetry data is less reliable as compared to recorded data (i.e. noisier). The upcoming iNET technology could provide a very reliable Telemetry Link. Therefore the data reduction analysis can be executed with live telemetry data in quasi-real time after the receipt of all valid tests points. In this sense the Brazilian Flight Test Group (GEEV) along with EMBRAER and with the support of Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) started the development of several applications. This paper presents the design of a tool used in the Longitudinal Static Stability Flight Tests Campaign. The application receives the Telemetry data over either a TCP/IP or a SCRAMnet Network, performs data analysis and test point validation in real time and when all points are gathered it performs the data reduction analysis and automatically creates Hyper Terminal Markup Language (HTML) formatted tests reports. The tool evaluation was executed with the instruction flights for the 2009 Brazilian Flight Test School (CEV). The result shows an efficiency gain for the overall FTC.

ITC/USA 2009 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fifth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 26-29, 2009 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / In an experimental flight test campaign, the usage of a real time Ground Telemetry System (GTS) provides mandatory support for three basic essential services: a) Safety storage of Flight Tests Instrumentation (FTI) data, in the occurrence of a critical aircraft failure; b) Monitoring of critical flight safety parameters to avoid the occurrence of accidents; and c) Monitoring of selected parameters that validates all tests points. At the operational side the test ranges typically works in two phases: a) In real time where the GTS crew performs test validation and test point selection with Telemetry data; and b) In post mission where the engineering crew performs data analysis and reduction with airborne recorded data. This process is time consuming because recorded data has to be downloaded, converted to Engineering Units (EU), sliced, filtered and processed. The main reason for the usage of this less efficient process relies in the fact that the real time Telemetry data is less reliable as compared to recorded data (i.e. it contains more noise and some dropouts). With the introduction of new technologies (i.e. i-NET) the telemetry link could be very reliable, so the GTS could perform data reduction analysis immediately after the receipt of all valid tests points, while the aircraft is still flying in a quasi-real time environment. To achieve this goal the Brazilian Flight Test Group (GEEV) along with EMBRAER and with the support of Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) started the development of a series of Decision Aid Tools that performs data reduction analysis into the GTS in quasi-real time. This paper presents the development and the evaluation of a tool used in Air Data System Calibration Flight Tests Campaign. The application receives the Telemetry data over either a TCP/IP or a SCRAMnet Network, performs data analysis and test point validation in real time and when all points are gathered it performs the data reduction analysis and automatically creates HTML formatted tests reports. The tool evaluation was carried out with the instruction flights for the 2009 Brazilian Flight Test School (CEV). The results present a great efficiency gain for the overall Flight Test Campaign.

This research attempted to discover how Additive Manufacturing (AM) can best be used to increase the value of personalised consumer products and how designers can be assisted in finding an effective way to facilitate value addition within personalisable product designs. AM has become an enabler for end-users to become directly involved in product personalisation through the manipulation of three-dimensional (3D) designs of the product using easy-to-use design toolkits. In this way, end-users are able to fabricate their own personalised designs using various types of AM systems. Personalisation activity can contribute to an increment in the value of a product because it delivers a closer fit to user preferences. The research began with a literature review that covered the areas of product personalisation, additive manufacturing, and consumer value in product design. The literature review revealed that the lack of methods and tools to enable designers to exploit AM has become a fundamental challenge in fully realising the advantages of the technology. Consequently, the question remained as to whether industrial designers are able to identify the design characteristics that can potentially add value to a product, particularly when the product is being personalised by end-users using AM-enabled design tools and systems. A new value taxonomy was developed to capture the relevant value attributes of personalised AM products. The value taxonomy comprised two first-level value types: product value and experiential value. It was further expanded into six second-level value components: functional value, personal-expressive value, sensory value, unique value, co-design value, and hedonic value. The research employed a survey to assess end-users value reflection on personalised features; measuring their willingness to pay (WTP) and their intention to purchase a product with personalised features. Thereafter, an experimental study was performed to measure end-users opinions on the value of 3D-printed personalised products based on the two value types: product value and experiential value. Based on the findings, a formal added value identification method was developed to act as a design aid tool to assist designers in preparing a personalisable product design that embodies value-adding personalisation features within the product. The design method was translated into a beta-test version paper-based design workbook known as the V+APP Design Method: Design Workbook. The design aid tool was validated by expert designers. In conclusion, this research has indicated that the added value identification method shows promise as a practical and effective method in aiding expert designers to identify the potential value-adding personalisation features within personalisable AM products, ensuring they are able to fully exploit the unique characteristics and value-adding design characteristics enabled by AM. Finally, the limitations of the research have been explained and recommendations made for future work in this area.

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For a little less than twenty years, researchers have worked on integrating Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Multi-Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA). Several contributions have been done by integrating DEA with different MCDA methods to bring this field to what it is today. After studying the course of Multi-Criteria Data Envelopment Analysis (MCDEA) integration through numerous works, the future of such an attempt can be questionable. For this aim, the PROMETHEE method in MCDA has been integrated with DEA. To the best of our knowledge, this synergy has been done for the first time in this thesis.Two synergies have been conducted: Using PROMETHEE in DEA and vice versa. The first contribution applies PROMETHEE in DEA to develop a new weight restricted DEA model. This new model has two main characteristics: more discrimination power between efficient units and engaging a priori information of decision makers in DEA. The second contribution uses both DEA and PROMETHEE to propose a new ranking technique. DEA is employed to generate a pairwise comparison matrix to be used in PROMETHEE for the purpose of ranking alternatives. The last contribution uses DEA in PROMETHEE. It presents a new algorithm to propose weights in the context of the PROMETHEE II method based on DEA. Furthermore, these two methods can be used in parallel. Comparing the results obtained from DEA and PROMETHEE in evaluating the performance of units enriches the analysis of decision-making problem by confirming the robustness of answers. The purpose of this integration is to provide some tools to help decision makers in the process of evaluating the performance of alternatives and analyzing the multicriteria decision-making problems. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Det blir allt tydligare att produktutvecklingsföretag konstant strävar efter högre grad av användarinvolvering. En välanvänd metod inom produktutveckling är “användarcentrerad design” som sätter användaren i fokus under utvecklingen. Produktutvecklingsföretag är alla överens om att användaren måste vara involverad i någon mån för att produkten ska tillfredsställa användarens behov. Denna typ av designprocess har ingen officiell metodbeskrivning, utan företag väljer själv hur och i vilken grad användaren involveras. Dock har utvecklingen av produkter för den generella populationen ändå etablerat ett förhållningssätt, men studier visar på att utveckling för hjälpmedel bör hanteras annorlunda. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka hur individer med kognitiva funktionsnedsättningar involveras i produktutvecklingsprocessen för hjälpmedel, men också hur produktutvecklingsprocessen måste anpassas på grund av användarens kognitiva svikt och medföljande behov. Inledningsvis genomfördes en litteraturstudie inom kunskapsområdet för att erhålla förståelse inom produktutvecklingsprocessen, generellt och specifikt för hjälpmedel och användarinvolvering kring det. Med denna kunskap bildades en teoretisk referensram. Därefter utfördes en empirisk studie i form av en kvalitativ undersökning, som jämfördes med litteraturstudien. Den kvalitativa undersökningen utfördes genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Respondenterna är från fyra svenska företag som arbetar med att utveckla hjälpmedel för individer med kognitiv funktionsnedsättning av varierande slag och svårighetsgrad. Resultatet av intervjuerna visade att datainsamlingen på användarna sker främst genom en tredje part då slutanvändaren har svårt att uttrycka sig samt att det finns många hinder från upphandlaren. Många hjälpmedel klassas även som medicintekniska vilket komplicerar involveringen av användaren och höjer även standarden som produkterna måste uppnå. Resultatet tyder även på att individer med kognitiva funktionsnedsättningar ibland undviker hjälpmedel eftersom det är stigmatiserande. / It is becoming increasingly clear that product development companies constantly strive for a higher degree of user involvement. A well-used method within product development is "user-centered design" which puts the user at the center during product development. Product development companies all agree that the user must be involved to some extent for the product to satisfy the user’s needs. This type of design process does not have an official method description, as companies choose how and to what extent the user is involved. However, the development of products for the general population has established an approach, but studies show that development for aid tools should be handled differently. The purpose of this work is to examine how individuals with cognitive disabilities are involved in the product development process for aid tools, as well as how the product development process must be adapted due to the user's cognitive impairments and accompanying needs. Initially, a literature review was conducted within the knowledge area to gain an understanding of the product development process, both in general and specifically for aid tools and user involvement in that context. With this knowledge, a theoretical framework was formed. Then, an empirical study was conducted in the form of a qualitative investigation, which was compared with the literature review. The qualitative investigation was conducted through semi-structured interviews. The respondents are from four Swedish companies that work on developing aid tools for individuals with various types and degrees of cognitive disabilities. The results of the interviews showed that data collection from users primarily occurs through a third party, as end-users have difficulty expressing themselves, and there are many barriers fromprocurers. Many aid tools are also classified as medical technology, which complicates user involvement and raises the standards that the products must meet. The results also indicate that individuals with cognitive disabilities sometimes avoid aid tools because they are stigmatized.