Marie Curie Actions: Inspiring Researchers - Imdea

Starting from scratchin product designWhether it is a coffee machine or a power plant, every product – inthe broadest sense of the word – goes through a lengthydevelopment process. During the Comode project at HelsinkiUniversity of Technology in Finland, French Marie Curie FellowEric Coatanéa focused on the all-important initial stages of thisprocess. ‘The early design stage of the development processhas long been considered as the strategic phase, where morethan 75 % of the cost of future products is constrained,’ heexplains. At the same time, it is the key phase for other factorssuch as the environmental impact.And this is where the Comode project comes in: taking aholistic, multidisciplinary approach, Professor Coatanéaaimed to reduce both environmental impact and the cost ofproduct design processes, while at the same time improvingperformance, reliability and safety.His research targets the period when the idea for a newproduct takes shape. ‘It’s based on the simple fact that thedesign process, like most human activities, can be seen asa decision process. The decisions we take at the beginningof a project have an extremely big impact later.’ The decisionprocess for most kinds of products or services is driven bycentral considerations such as function or life cycle. ‘By defi ningthese key concepts fi rst, it’s easier to link them and supportthem with the help of mathematical tools later,’ he says.Box + sand = mouldThis approach may sound highly theoretical, and indeed itis, but it has led to tangible results. Together with a team ofscientists, Professor Coatanéa has developed a prototype toolfor the sand-casting process. The tool combines software withelectronic and pure mechanical engineering, and revives an oldmethod of the foundry industry. ‘It’s a bit like when kids play inthe sand,’ the scientist jokes. ‘Basically, we tried to develop atool that was able to automatically create three-dimensional (3D)shapes. These 3D shapes are fi rst designed on the computerOntology development in Protégé for a semi-automatic synthesis of design solutions (François Christophe, Eric Coatanéa)69