A CASE STUDY IN MULTI-DISCIPLINARY DISTRIBUTED COLLABORATIVE DESIGN

摘要

Researchers at the University of NorthrnCarolina at Chapel Hill and the University ofrnUtah participated in a collaborarive, remore,rnrapid design and manufacturing experiment.rnSeveral domain experts at widely disrriburedrngeographical locations worked on arnchallenging multi-disciplinary designrnproblem producing a rugged, compact andrnlight-weight housing for a Viieo See-rnThrough Head-Mounted Display to be usedrnin image-guided surgical procedures. Thisrnwas used as a case study to validate andrnmorivare ongoing research in a distributedrnengineering design and manufacruringrnsystem.rnThe hypothesis was thar Net-based use of arnhighly supportive integrated, collaborativerndesign and manufacturing environment wouldrndramatically expedite the design andrnmanufacruring process. Using the alreadyrnexisting Alpha-1 design and manufacruringrnenvironment as a platform, we embarked on arnproject ro collapse the normal six-monthrncycle of design and prototype iterations into arnsingle three-week period of collaborariverndesign. The lessons learned demonstrate thernpotential success of the hypothesis, and alsornprovide a basis for further research into toolsrnand environments needed to supportrnintegrated collaborative design, engineering,rnand manufacrure.rnWe discuss the resulrs of the experimenr,rnapplication of the exisring distributed designrnsystem, the supporting system architecture,rnand possible future research issues brought tornlight by the experiment.