Design News has a highly creative, intelligent, and innovative audience.
The more I read and respond to comments on the stories posted on our site, the more impressed I am with you, our readers, and your knowledge. Many audience members not only have theoretical knowledge in the areas they've trained in to track down problems, but also the kind of practical, hands-on experience that makes it possible to fix washing machines or re-engineer a lawnmower. We see both in the Sherlock Ohms and Made by Monkeys columns.
But I also see readers make creative, interesting comments on posts that go beyond immediate concerns, along the lines of "what would happen if you combined this feature or technology over here to solve a design problem with that entirely different other product class over there." For instance, in my recent article, 3D Printing & Robots at MD&M West, a thread started during a discussion about Rethink Robotics' Baxter, mentioned in the article as being designed from the ground up to be safer around humans. Readers were discussing various methods of making robots sense that a human was present or nearby, not a part to be picked up, so the robot would not run into the human or harm them in any way.
One reader commented:
I wonder if the flesh-sensing technology used in saws (i.e. table saws) would be able to be integrated into the 'skin' of a robot to help it identify humans. Since the saw companies are resisting using the technology, perhaps the robot industry would be able to incorporate it.
That kind of cross-platform creative thinking reminded me of the best of Silicon Valley-style innovation, which is where we got the now overused, but once illuminating, phrase "thinking outside the box."
As it turned out, other readers chimed in with some experience about that SawStop technology and the result is it may not make sense for robots. But that's important to know. It's especially helpful to know why, so engineers can make up their own minds and decide if the trade-offs are worthwhile, or if perhaps the technology could be applied in other designs.
For example, one reader said the SawStop technology has a sensing mechanism that wouldn't work around humans, an expensive reset process, and a tendency toward false stops. Another said SawStop has licensing fees, presumably expensive ones, and pointed out one reason it may not have caught on in the power tool industry was the need for retooling.
What if this was an idea that would work in this application? Maybe Rethink Robotics has already thought of it, but maybe they haven't. Or maybe one of their competitors would be interested in this idea. But all the potentially great ideas like this tend to get buried on the comment boards.
So I'd like to propose a forum on Design News that focuses on innovative, problem-solving design ideas where individual engineers and companies like robot manufacturers can trade comments and suggestions like these. What do you think? What are your ideas about how this could or should work? Please give us your suggestions in the comments section below about how to pull these ideas together, and what kind of forum it should be.
Saw a slideshow on how plastics are fighting disease. Immediately, I thought of developing living plastics. A plastic with it's own DNA controlled ability to reproduce and eventually obtain conscious awareness. Now how cool is that?
Yes, Ann, I agree and wanted to say that, too. The forum would definitely need some type of moderation to keep things on point. We do tend to go way off topic here in our free-for-all topic forum. (Myself included! But I think it's OK sometimes to do this, as it fosters discussion.)
Yes, I agree with this, too, Dave. I think there is still a lot of good information to share that protects IP as long as people walk the fine line between being both careful and open about ideas. And I think people in the U.S. are always so much more careful because of the whole fear of lawsuits and all of that, whereas there isn't such a litigation culture in other countries so they can be more open as a whole.
Dave, in that case, we can go for a 2 fold scrutiny for presenting a fair idea/technology by protecting the IP rights too. there is no doubt that the reader or listener has to get a fair idea about technology/project without revealing the entire thing.
"So I'd like to propose a forum on Design News that focuses on innovative, problem-solving design ideas where individual engineers and companies like robot manufacturers can trade comments and suggestions like these."
Ann, I think we need similar forums for express our ideas and innovations. Where you are planning for it; I would like to suggest for another tab in our home page.
Well it's really a good forum; everyone involved has the knowledge and experience which make it interesting to be a part of. A good opportunity to share experiences, knowledge and best practices. Design Ideas forum would be great way to share innovative ideas.
One idea is more of a message board or forum type of interface that allows "threads" to be created on specific design topics where users can pose a question, or solicit information. I regularly visit some college basketball websites that use this type of interface. It's great to have good moderators who help keep everything organized and help spur discussions.
Ann, I agree with Dave Palmer whe he says it's a good idea if done right. Right now, many of our articles (as you pointed out) turn into mini-design forums. This might be a chance to create a little repository -- all the design ideas in one place.
@Ann: I think it's a good idea, if done right. Engineers share design ideas and experiences at technical conferences all the time. Obviously it's important to be careful about intellectual property, but on the whole, being open is an advantage.
I've noticed at conferences that U.S. companies are often much more cagey about what they will and won't present, compared to Japanese companies. I've seen some presentations from U.S. companies that were a complete waste of time, since all of the useful data was withheld. In contrast, when Japanese companies decide to share something, they don't hold back any of the details. This seems like a much more reasonable approach.
ttemple, thank you, those are very good points. I think posting experiences from past lives is mostly what I had in mind, similar to what we do now, but in a more focused setting that's easier to find and contribute to.
The 100-percent solar-powered Solar Impulse plane flies on a piloted, cross-country flight this summer over the US as a prelude to the longer, round-the-world flight by its successor aircraft planned for 2015.
GE Aviation expects to chop off about 25 percent of the total 3D printing time of metallic production components for its LEAP Turbofan engine, using in-process inspection. That's pretty amazing, considering how slow additive manufacturing (AM) build times usually are.
A $1,500, hand-operated, bench-model, plastic injection machine crowdsource-funded via Kickstarter can be used to mold small, quality, plastic parts inexpensively, on demand.
The federal government is launching competitions to kickstart three more manufacturing innovation institutes, including one focused on Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation.
The airframe of Airbus's A350 XWB consists of a bigger proportion of carbon-fiber-reinforced composite structures than any other commercial jet to date: over 53 percent by weight.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
16 
