Search

The militarisation of Artificial Intelligence Diplomacy has resulted in the development of heavy weapons that are more powerful than traditional weaponry, fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and cause unnecessary suffering. Superpowers and middle powers have made significant investments in digital technologies, resulting in the production of digital weapons that violate international humanitarian law and human rights standards, and complicate the achievement of global peace. Armed drones and militarised robots cause unnecessary pain and suffering to helpless civilians. These weapons have been used to combat terrorism, but, surprisingly, have not addressed issues of terrorism that affect post-Cold War international relations. As a result, the use of armed drones is causing more harm than is necessary to achieve the objective of war. There is a call for international artificial intelligence (AI) governance, as well as a need to understand the effects and serious threats that armed drones pose to international humanitarian law (IHL), as well as to peace processes in international relations and global cooperation. Scholars, policy-makers, human rights activists and peace practitioners should participate more actively in debates about the military application of AI diplomacy, in order to develop effective AI diplomacy rules and regulations. This serves to mitigate the risks and threats associated with armed drones on IHL and international human rights standards, which are the foundations of the post-modern world.

Accurate and well-managed medical records play a major role in high-quality health care. They are a valuable asset that allows hospitals to treat patients in an effective and efficient way. They also play an important role in health care governance, providing evidence in court cases between patients and hospitals. However, in Africa, medical records are not given much academic attention. Good record-keeping has been hampered by a poor management, as well as a lack of trained personnel who understand how to record and keep these records. This study is aimed at exploring the utilisation of blockchain technology in improving medial records at African hospitals. The reserach is qualitative, comprising desktop research of secondary material and its analysis. It finds that poor medical records in hospitals contribute to the prevalence of disease in African countries, which results in funds that could be invested in development projects being diverted to health care instead. It also shows that 4IR, specifically blockchain-based technology, could play a significant role in the management of medical records in Africa. It could help staff to capture and maintain more accurate medial records, and ensure their security and longevity. Moreover, it could improve access to medical records for all health practitioners. Patients could also access their records, thus helping them to evaluate and manage their own health.

International audience; Value Analysis (VA) is a collaborative method that could be used to make a decision in the early phase of complex projects. In this framework, Stakeholders are involved into the process of decision-making and project success is facilitated. Systeme Architechting (SA) is a set of processes used for the conceptual phase of the design of complex systems while System Engineering (SE) is the set of processes used for the design phase of the system. The difference resides in the information on which the decision-making is based: it is very abstract in the architecting phase while it is materialized in the engineering phase. In complex projects, Stakeholders are multiple and carry specific technical, social and environmental expectations that define their perceived Value of the project. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that VA and SA are two complementary approaches to collect and analyse Stakeholder needs in a complex project. The article presents an analysis of the literature review on VA and SA / SE, which shows the complementarity of these approaches to involve Stakeholders in the upstream phases of the design of complex systems. Based on this analysis, an illustration case is proposed to show how to integrate VA into SA to understand the needs of Stakeholders. The article concludes that the two methods VA and SA can be combined to analyze and would allow following several dimensions of Value (economic, social and environmental) within a complex project.

International audience; Stakeholders are key elements of complex technical projects. They can determine orientation, evolution and success of the project. They can cause uncertainties, changes in objectives and lead the project to failure. In this context, it is always more important to involve them in project decisions. Value Analysis (VA) is a means to introduce management and decision-making in design of complex projects, based on stakeholder needs. A method named Function Analysis aims at identifying and treating functions that the system has to complete. However, this functional approach does not allow some non-functional attributes to be included in the design phases. This is a lack identified by some engineering companies. The proposed paper aims at identifying the challenges encountered by the Stakeholder approaches to translate their needs into nonfunctional dimensions to deal with VA practices to design technical solutions. The research methodology combines a classical bibliographical analysis on VA that led us to show FA limits. Thus, we propose a Stakeholder-based “Non-Functional Analysis” to determine the non-functional attributes to characterize for the design of complex projects, and an industrial company’s feedback practices on a case study. This will allow practitioners to have a systems approach to Value in the context of a VA but it will also allow scientists to compare theory and lack of practice around the identification and characterization of the needs of a set of stakeholders.

Due to social, environmental and technical evolutions, complex technical projects (numerous stakeholders and several/high level expertises) need to evolve in their management practices. Many management and design methodologies exist to limit costs and resources used in a project. The proposed paper aims at identifying the challenges encountered in complex projects’ management and determining how one of them, the Value Management, should be evolved. The research methodology combines a bibliographical analysis (on engineering methodologies for complex projects’ management) and a demonstration of Value Management interest on a case study to address sustainable stakes.

This paper proposes a recursive interval-valued estimation framework for identifying the parameters of linearly parameterized systems which may be slowly time-varying. It is assumed that the model error (which may consist in measurement noise or model mismatch or both) is unknown but lies at each time instant in a known interval. In this context, the proposed method relies on bounding the error generated by a given reference point-valued recursive estimator, for example, the well-known recursive least squares algorithm. We discuss the trade-off between computational complexity and tightness of the estimated parametric interval., 11 pages, 4 figures

The chapter explores financial exclusion, its causes, and consequences in society. The chapter found that the existing discrepancy in financial inclusion between the developed and developing world is driven by financial exclusion that makes it difficult for financial service providers to expand outreach to the poor at affordable prices. The chapter aims to investigate the role of mobile financial service design and development in dealing with financial exclusion. It was found that mobile financial services are promoting financial inclusion in various markets. However, few studies have been undertaken on the benefits of mobile financial services in dealing with the high rates of financial exclusion. The chapter recommended that to achieve financial inclusion, there is need for mobile financial services providers to take into account customer experience through the ease of using the phone interface. The chapter concluded that there is need for scholars in the fields of finance and economics to conduct research in the areas of mobile financial services and their role in society.

International audience; The quality of requirements is fundamental in engineering projects. Requirements are usually expressed partly or totally in a natural language (NL) format and come from different documents. Their qualities are difficult to analyze manually, especially when hundreds of thousands of them have to be considered. The assistance of software tools is becoming a necessity. In this article, the goal was to develop a set of metrics supported by NL processing (NLP) methods supporting different types of analysis of requirements and especially the dependencies between requirements. An NLP approach is used to extract requirements from text; to analyze their quality, links, similarities , and contradictions; and to cluster them automatically. The analysis framework includes different combinations of methods such as cosine similarity, singular value decomposition, and K-means clustering. One objective is to assess the possible combinations and their impacts on detections to establish optimal metrics. Three case studies exemplify and support the validation of the work. Graphs are used to represent the automatically clustered requirements, as well as similarities and contradictions. A new contradiction analysis process that includes a rules-based approach is proposed. Finally, the combined results are presented as graphs, which unveil the semantic relationships between requirements. Subsection 4.8 compares the results provided by the tool and the results obtained from experts. The proposed methodology and network presentation not only support the understanding of the semantics of the requirements but also help requirements engineers to review the interconnections and consistency of requirements systems and manage trace-ability. The approach is valuable during the early phases of projects when requirements are evolving dynamically and rapidly.

The importance of early phase cost estimation is presented and argued.Most appropriate literature cost models to the issue are identified and reviewed.The suitability of literature cost models is assessed and discussed.Relevant cost drivers are identified.A cost estimation outline is proposed to support assembly cost prediction. The aim of this research is to support early phase cost estimation for assembly systems design and automation decision. During this phase, various alternatives of assembly systems with different automation levels can be generated. The alternatives generation is performed using available information on product design, assembly sequences, and planned production information. The issue is to assess given alternatives, identify, and opt for the most appropriate one. Several criteria have to be considered in this decision. The economic aspect represents one of the most preponderant, including cost and profitability prediction. The importance and challenges of this complex issue are highlighted in this paper with feedbacks from manufacturers and the literature. The literature in the field is reviewed, presented, and analyzed. For this sake, a selection of cost models is performed covering a wide chronological range, journals, and fields including assembly and manufacturing models. Classification techniques of cost estimation works are presented and exploited in the proposed review. It is used to filter and discuss models suitability for the defined assembly automation decision issue. The most appropriate models are more thoroughly reviewed and discussed. Useful literature costing techniques, features, and relevant cost drivers are also identified. They cover multiple aspects as production information, resources features or performances. Finally, the review findings are illustrated by a cost estimation outline proposal to support early phase cost prediction for assembly systems design and automation decision.

This edited book by Michael Lund and Steve Macdonald applies a problem solving approach in what they call ‘non-official peacemaking’ to six case studies: Burundi, Cyprus, Estonia, Guyana, Sri Lanka...

International audience; An approach for assembly time estimating following sequence and process modelling since the conceptual phase of new assembly systems design is proposed in this work. The purpose is to support the decision about their levels of automation (LoA) following a dedicated modelling language labeled ASML offering a better visibility about processes design and analyses. ASML provides an easy way of defining several systems alternatives based on an initial ASML model representing assembly motions using a standard vocabulary and structured executing architectures. The correlation of early phase modelling with time estimating proposed in this paper to support LoA decision is up to us new to the literature. The approach of modelling and time estimating was tested on assembly examples and a computerized tool was also developed and tested. Several related applications such as processes time performances evaluating, time savings, productivity assessment, lines balancing, and cost estimating are proposed as well as other possible future applications presented as perspectives and future works that can be supported by the defined environment dedicated to early phase assembly systems design and automation decision.

In this paper, the problem of the control law design for interconnected identical systems ensuring the global stability and the global performance properties is under consideration. Inspired by the decentralized control law design methodology using the dissipativity input-output approach, the problem is reduced to the problem of satisfying two conditions: (i) the condition on the interconnection and (ii) the condition on the local subsystem dynamics. Both problems are efficiently solved applying a (quasi-) convex LMI optimization and standard H∞ synthesis. The proposed design methodology is applied to the control law design of a synchronous PLL network.

The role of preventive diplomacy is to prevent the emergence of violent conflicts, to prevent on-going conflicts from spreading and to prevent the relapse of an already settled conflict. The purpose of this article is to critically assess the existing gaps within the concept of preventive diplomacy that render it less appropriate in preventing and managing African conflicts in the post-Cold War era. The article gives an overview of the historical development of preventive diplomacy, referred to as orthodox preventive diplomacy. It examines the existent missing link within the concept of orthodox preventive diplomacy, and explains why the concept was ineffective in resolving African conflicts and preventing their recurrence. In conclusion, it is asserted that, given the fact that both the character and the agents of conflicts changed from interstate to intrastate, a new preventive diplomacy is needed to successfully prevent deadly conflicts before they occur. A qualitative research method, with an exploratory approach, was adopted.

In the present article, an alternative methodology is presented to tackle the filtering problem in presence of unknown bias. The basic idea is to construct an H ∞ estimator of the estimation error due to the unknown bias. The bias aware filter can be implemented by means of two filters, namely the standard H 2 Kalman filter and the H ∞ estimation error estimator. On the other hand, the bias aware filter can also be implemented as a single filter. Depending on user's need, one or the other implementation can be done.

International audience; The sizing of the solar installation of an individual dwelling is a problem which can be solved in many ways. The approach described in this paper is a simplified procedure of considerable interest. It requires only a small quantity of data and can be computed in a short time. The performance of this procedure was evaluated by a more complex sizing method based on detailed simulation. The simplified procedure was applied to the case of an individual dwelling using a solar collector field to produce domestic hot water and space heating. The building and the solar installation have then been modelled with the software TRNSYS 16 and their behaviour was simulated during a whole year. The results obtained are particularly close to the ones expected by the simplified sizing procedure.

Papier complet disponible sur : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09521976; International audience; A pattern recognition technique associated with a new state estimator is developed in order to supervise electrical process. For this purpose, diagnostic features are extracted from current and voltage measurements for monitoring different operating modes. Then, a feature selection method is applied in order to select the most relevant features which define the feature space. In this frame, the classification is realized by a non-parametric method (“k-nearest neighbors” rule) with reject options. However, this method does not take into account the evolution of the operating modes. Thus, it is necessary to enhance the initial knowledge database. For that, a polynomial approach allows characterizing the intermediate states of each operating modes and an original use of Kalman algorithm allows predicting the evolution of the partially known modes. A simple behavioral model is used to describe the evolution of the pattern vector. An estimation step provides the parameter of such model and a prediction step determines the future evolution of the pattern vector.This approach is illustrated on an asynchronous motor of 5.5 kW, in order to detect broken bars under any load level. The experimental results prove the efficiency of pattern recognition methods in condition monitoring of electrical machines.

This article is an attempt to prepare the ground for the analysis and theorization of the connection between the body and technical devices emerging from miniaturized wearable technologies. The research object is a secular and common “body object,” namely, eyeglasses. The article reviews the social history of this artifact and analyzes its patterns of use, showing how the distributed sociotechnical networks of action containing these simple optical systems are constantly deconfigured and reconfigured. In other words, the device is not simply subject to physical incorporation. The unstable balance between the artifact's projection onto the surrounding space and its attachment to the physical body is analyzed through the heterogeneousness of bodies coming into play as the device is socially embodied. As the corporal frame and physical, distributed, and social bodies overlap, the notion of “bodies object” emerges. This covers the artifact-related and social environment, the plural nature of which could be of...

In the present paper, a new strategy for robust filtering problem of linear time-invariant (LTI) continuous time system is proposed. The key idea consists in generalizing the structure of a linear state estimator of the Luenberger class. As a matter of fact, the closed loop form of this class of state estimator can be assimilated to a closed loop control problem. Then, the standard correction term can be viewed as a Proportional controller. In this paper, we propose a more general form of controller in order to obtain the robustness. An example shows the efficiency of the proposed approach.

In the present paper, the H ∞ fixed-interval smoothing problem is treated in the context of continuous-time Lipschitz nonlinear systems. The problem is solved by the combination of a forward and a backward H ∞ filters. In order to fulfill this objective, the original H ∞ smoothing problem is split into two subproblems of H ∞ filtering, namely, the H ∞ forward and backward filtering. The solution is obtained in terms of Riccati equations. The proposed approach shows its efficiency on a synthetic example.

International audience; The H-infinity smoothing problem for continuous systems is treated in a state space representation by means of variational calculus techniques. The smoothing problem is introduced in an H. criterion by means of an artificial discontinuity that splits the problem in term of H-infinity forward and H-infinity backward filtering problems. Hence, the smoother design is realized in three steps. First, a forward filter is developed. Secondly, a backward filter is developed taking into account the backward Markovian model. The third step consists of combining the two previous steps in order to compute the H-infinity smoothed estimate. An example shows the efficiency of this proposed smoother.

Concurrent Engineering (CE) approaches depend heavily on efficient and reliable communication between the people involved in the design, engineering, industrialisation and manufacturing of products. To address this need, we propose an approach to facilitate joint solutions to product design problems within a CE integrated team by supporting textual and graphical information in the form of sketches. We introduce a new and ergonomic groupware tool working on a network of PCs: MICA-Graph. This involves the exchange of technical messages (textual and graphical) and capitalisation of relevant knowledge. Our tool supports the description of technical problems, message exchange among users, monitoring of the problem solving process and the documentation of technical solutions. It also provides facilities to structure and archive knowledge and know-how learned from new methods of design sketch retrieval. The tool has been developed and evaluated, primarily to feed back manufacturing knowledge to design teams in the context of product change requests.

La differentiation fondee sur la reduction des delais de creation de l'offre (" time-to-market ") et de service au client (" velocite ") est l'une des armes concurrentielles les plus repandues dans les organisations industrielles. Neanmoins, ce qu'on constate est que ces deux aspects sont traditionnellement abordes de maniere separee dans la mise en œuvre des strategies. Le resultat est que la logistique operationnelle se heurte souvent aux contraintes imposees par une conception des produits inadaptee. Dans cet article, les auteurs defendent l'idee qu'une voie essentielle d'amelioration de l'efficacite des Supply Chains passe par la mise en place de deux mecanismes. Le premier concerne la prise en compte des aspects logistiques lors des phases amont du developpement. Le deuxieme mecanisme preconise l'integration des fournisseurs dans une logique de co-developpement pour reduire le processus de creation de l'offre.

In this paper we argue that co-operation is a particular way to co-ordinate an industrial activity and that it is particularly suited to collaborative design activity. Through a well documented case study of the development of a front truck axle, we point out several key features of co-operation in an industrial setting. We particularly pay attention to the interfaces between the actors involved in the collaborative process. We observed the pre-eminence of the representations and the objects created, manipulated, and finally we claim that they support knowledge creation and therefore allow the development of a common understanding of the design situation (i.e. the problem and the solution). We propose the concept of ``intermediary object'' as a conceptual framework for the involvement of objects in the design process. We demonstrate the power of this concept in the analysis and modelling of particular design situations and in the development of specific objects that foster co-operation in real design situations.

—The robust filtering problem for uncertain discrete-time systems is treated in this paper. An ǫ-contaminated framework is adopted to design the robust filter in presence of model uncertainties. The result is presented in term of Toeplitz matrix equations. The proposed approach does not require a formal modelling of uncertainties. Meanwhile, the ǫ-contaminated robust filter is equivalent to the minimum variance filter with a stochastic representation of the uncertainties. An example shows the effectiveness of the approach.

This paper presents a new approach for integrating downstream activities of forged part design in a concurrent engineering con text. We show how a CAD application, integrating specific know-how, can enable co-design between the different actors involved. We develop two dimensions of activity, i.e., a technical aspect and a human aspect. On the technical side, we present the application structure and the un derlying mechanical models. On the human side we draw mainly from our industrial experience in the field of forging. This led us to build two models of the design phase. These models are illustrated by two typical case studies. We then show how the design of closed die parts can be distributed among three main actors. These actors are: the design actor, the manufacturing actor and the forging actor. They can be lo cated in the same company, or in different departments or located in distant companies. From this model, using two scenarios, we show how our tool can improve the design process and facilitate the exchanges between the different actors. We then show how a specific forging ori ented CAD application can function as a coordination tool in the design process of forged parts. It is a mediator of this activity, carrying spe cific information and allowing different actors to access specific knowledge and impose their own constraints on the product.

International audience; The robust filter design and the robust feedforward controller design are particular cases of a larger class of problems: the robust open-loop problems. In this article, we consider a class of uncertain open-loop plants, where a filter needs to be designed to ensure that the plant satisfies chosen specifications. The representation of uncertainties is made in a very general framework: the Linear Fractional Transformation (LFT). Associated with the Dynamic Integral Quadratic Constraints framework, it allows the consideration of many classes of structured uncertainties. This paper proves that the design of a filter ensuring a robust L2-gain or H2 performance for the complete plant can be expressed as a convex optimization problem involving Linear Matrix Inequalities Constraints which can be solved using an efficient algorithm.

In this paper, we describe a robust control law for distributed PLL network using H∞ optimization problem. The controller can be uniformly applied on all distributed nodes and guarantees good stability margins, enhanced performance and reduced jitter noise. A 2-dimensional Cartesian mesh network structure is considered without using any feedback loop phase information propagation to eliminate undesirable mode-locked states.

International audience; The aim of this paper is to discuss the opportunities and the weaknesses of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) technology to support collaborative design process. Whereas Product Lifecycle Management tools are deployed in many firms, only few studies highlight their impact on design processes. Engineering literature focus on the technology itself (and not on processes) and management literature does not deeply investigate this matter. The study is based on a 3 years analysis of a PLM system project in a large French company, int the sector of small domestic appliances. The research design is based on a single case study which corresponds to a business unit dedicated to Linen Care product family. In the first part, we highlight how PLM offers functionalities that facilitate the stakeholder coordination during the design process (Stark 2004). This IT tool offers a structured framework for collaborative Engineering and fosters the definition and standardisation of workflows and intermediary objects that are produced and used during the design process. In the second part of the paper, we discuss the weaknesses of that technology to support the day to day collaboration and the creation of new objects. We show that PLM enables to share elaborated design information whenever it fails to support data elaboration process. Social aspects of collaboration like confidence, engagement are not taken into account in the PLM systems. Finally, we highlight that the implicit model of coordination in PLM exclude cooperation. This case study allows us to discuss the necessity fort different collaborative workspaces which refer to different design collaboration needs.

At the embodiment stage of the product development process (PDP), the definition of mechanisms that allow actors in the design process to exchange immature (e.g. uncertain, incomplete) information is of great importance to ensure reliable communication among actors and for the good progress of the process. Computing systems, such as PDM systems and CSCW systems, are hard to cope with immature design information. This paper presents how a maturity framework can improve the collaborative design process. The focus is put on the collaboration between designers and engineers.

L'essor des nouvelles (micro- et nano-) technologies va dans le sens d'une association de plus en plus etroite entre l'artefact et le corps ; la miniaturisation des techniques et leur portabilite accrue œuvrent en faveur d'objets portes voire (ou dits) incorpores, comme autant de protheses informationnelles ou communicationnelles perturbant le statut classique des artefacts, reposant sur l'exteriorite... Cet article se propose de raisonner les formes de ce " couplage " entre l'homme et son equipement. Le detour par l'exploration d'un objet seculaire et ordinaire comme les lunettes permet de poser quelques premiers jalons dans l'analyse des relations entre incorporation et exteriorite, entre continuite et discontinuite des associations avec l'objet. En nous appuyant sur l'exploration de l'artefact et de ses modalites d'insertion sociotechnique dans l'histoire jusque dans leurs formes contemporaines, nous suggerons de reintroduire les circonstances materielles et environnementales dans l'analyse du couplage sujet-objet. L'artefact corporel est sujet a un re-questionnement permanent au fil de son engagement dans une pluralite de situations, d'un attachement continu au corps a une incorporation au reseau sociotechnique environnant

An H/sub /spl infin// smoother has been developed (Blanco et al., 2000) and it gives good results for noise uncertainties. Nevertheless, when uncertain parameters appear, its performance decreases significantly. Therefore, an estimator robust to noise uncertain properties and parameter uncertainties is presented. The robust H/sub /spl infin// smoother for uncertain systems is developed as a combination of two robust H/sub /spl infin// filters. The robust performance, for both noise and parameter uncertainties, of this new approach is evaluated on a simple example.

The aim of this article is to build up an estimator robust to noise uncertain properties and unknown initial conditions in an H/sub /spl infin// setting. Hence, a new H/sub /spl infin// approach to state estimation, based on a double treatment of the measurement, is presented. An optimal control based technique is used giving rise to an H/sub /spl infin// smoother. In order to compare its performance to the H/sub 2/ smoother, two simple examples, applied to estimation and deconvolution, are developed. Simulation results show the ability of the presented tool to handle with biased noise properties.

The efficiency of the design process relates closely to the management of information. However, different types of information used in design cannot be managed by the same rules. In the paper, a characterisation of the nature of information in the design is proposed. Based on the literature, the role of preliminary information in design process performance is presented. The process of elaboration of information is also described and modelled. Based on different types of information and on a maturity management model, a unified framework is proposed. This framework allows to manage the whole information types within different workspaces. This approach tends to offer a continuity of management tool between the information exchanged in planned activity and the information exchanged in day-to-day collaboration. To illustrate this framework a PIQUANT tool is presented.

The earlier designing process of technical artefacts requires collaborative activities among various disciplines. The organisation requires the actors to exchange the preliminary information, which is non-mature. Designers often make decisions relying on the information that is invalid and not finalised. Current computing systems, particularly those that are intended to manage the technical data Engineering Data Management System (EDMS), such as Product Data Management (PDM) are hard to conciliate with the dynamic and the evolutionary aspects of the design data. Design data are partially integrated in PDM and represent consolidated and valid states. This article is based on a qualitative study of the engineering projects. The framework proposed in this article represents preliminary information management models. They are based on the maturity of information and workspace concepts. The present model-based framework reports only the two workspaces, among four that correspond with the management of preliminary information. We argue that such management supports designers in their day-to-day collaboration and allows them to exchange preliminary information.

International audience; This paper investigates the possibility of a scenario-based design approach to increase the efficiency of an existing open innovation platform. This platform shows a great potential for shuffling ideas, but the users report some difficulties in making the design process convergent. From the detailed analysis of a new product design case, we first make a diagnosis of the current platform in order to explain the ill-convergence issue. We then focus on one of the identified weaknesses of the platform: the lack of a shared vision of the needs between the stakeholders, and we propose to improve the existing design process by a new approach based on a scenario-based design framework.

International audience; The aim of the paper is to analyze the rationale of production of C-trees used in innovative design workshop implementing C/K theory. Data had been produced within industrial creative workshops in four Medium industries. Workshops had been conducted by the researchers and 5 C-tree had been produced and analyzed. Existing patterns and rationale in the construction of the C-trees are researched. The Analysis of the content and structure of the C-trees shows that five types of partition are used. The sequence of partition doesn't show any pattern. The subjectivity of the representation is illustrated. Mechanisms of systematic expansion of C space are also illustrated through the C-tree analysis. Based on case study, the paper discuss practical use of C-tree as intermediary object.

International audience; The frugal innovation approach takes place in developing countries to develop simple but essential products for low-income population. This approach asks for careful trade-offs to target a just-enough between cost reduction and essential value of the product. In this paper, we aim at understanding how the essential value of a product is defined during early design phases, and how it guides the " just-enough " between affordability and performance. Our study of five frugal products in India shows three strategies that define differently the essential values and their associated just-enough: design by aggregation, design by extension, and design by focalization. Design by focalization seems to answer frugal design issues, as it isolates the essential value in order to reduce drastically the overall cost. The introduction of the concept of Non-Trade-Offs (NTO), meaning the non-negotiable elements that guide design choices, helps understanding how to separate this essential value from additional functionalities. Our study gives new directions for both practionners and researchers towards a design for essential value, in developing countries but also in westerns countries.

International audience; The aim of this research is to support assembly lines designers in conceiving new processes with optimal automation levels selection. Several alternatives with various automation options may exist. Graphic representations and analyses of the different designs are needed. The finality is to offer a quick, exhaustive, and reliable way of modelling alternatives based on a given product design. In this sense we propose a new assembly tasks vocabulary to be combined to an existing lower layer vocabulary of elementary motions and a graphic modelling language. These developments deal with an existing automation decision approach as an extension allowing to overcome identified gaps and to ease its implementation and computerization. The proposal facilitates assembly systems alternatives generation with automation options consideration based on an initial representation. The generated alternatives are then subject to further analyses with regard to automation criteria and performance indicators considering planned production targets.

International audience; In this paper, we present a numerical method based the Lyapunov theory to estimate the attraction domain of a class of nonlinear systems. This problem is motivated by the analysis of linear attitude controllers for the control of Vertical TakeOff and Landing (VTOL) vehicles such as quadrotors. These linear controllers are typically designed in order to ensure local stability around the hover point. The purpose of this work is to estimate their attraction domain around this point. The proposed attraction domain estimation method requires to solve a convex optimization problem involving parameter-dependent Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI). This problem is generally difficult to solve as it is an infinite dimensional optimization problem. However, we reveal that the specific structure of the VTOL vehicles attitude model can be exploited to make this LMI problem finite dimensional and thus numerically solvable.

International audience; Collaborative design is a collection of the co-operated efforts undertaken by a team of designers. Due to multi-actors interaction, conflicts can emerge from disagreements between designers about proposed designs. Therefore, a critical element of collaborative design would be conflict resolution. In this paper, the DEPNET methodology is introduced to support conflict management. This methodology is based on a Unified Modelling Language (UML) traceability model to extract the data dependencies network. This will allow identifying the conflict resolution team as well as evaluating the impact of a selected solution. A case study within an industrial partner is described to illustrate this methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to first review and then propose methods for determining the appropriate levels of automation for assembly operations. Based on a literature review in decision making methods, an evaluation against method requirements is made. The analysis shows that no single method fulfills all the defined requirements, yet two methods are identified that jointly address all the requirements: Boothroyd’s and Dewhurst (B&D) method and the Dynamo method. B&D and Dynamo methods are then combined into a new method, exploiting elements of each. An additional step for graphical modeling of the assembly processes using the Assembly Sequence Modeling Language (ASML) is integrated to facilitate alternative exploration. This newly proposed method is discussed and revealed promising in the field of assembly systems Level of Automation (LoA) measurement and improvement.

International audience; Fondé sur une approche ethnographique et longitudinale d'un projet innovant, cet article propose de suivre l'activité d'une équipe projet à travers la façon dont elle déploie l'introduction d'un questionnement autour des valeurs d'usage dans le pilotage du projet. Il tente d'ouvrir la boîte noire de l'activité de conception en s'intéressant aux médiations par lesquelles se négocie concrètement l'incertitude sur la valeur : comment s'opèrent les allers-retours entre les dispositifs intermédiaires d'instanciation d'un concept innovant et la définition de ses propriétés ? Comment sont orchestrées les différentes formes de mise à l'épreuve du concept dans la stabilisation des choix sociotechniques ?

International audience; In global organisation, collaboration within distributed team is a crucial issue. Many companies are organizing communities of practice to improve experience sharing. These communities are mediated by collaborative platforms. Among collaborative functionalities, forum are expected to support distant asynchronous collaboration. But few studies show the effectiveness of this tool to support effective collaboration in the context of engineering design activity. The paper study the interactions through forums of two Virtual communities of practices of experts within R&D teams of international company. A coding scheme is proposed to analyze and characterize the online interactions. Through these two case studies, we demonstrate that a forum can support asynchronous argumentative activities and thus enhance global collaboration in distributed R&D organizations. The proposed characterization of collaboration can be a step to dynamic evaluation team interaction.

International audience; Elicitation of requirements is a key step of the design activity. The building of a shared understanding of design requirements is essential to the performance of the design. Personas and scenarios are used in order to define end users and their needs. Their usage is becoming more and more popular, especially in Software and System Engineering and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Our hypothesis is that scenarios and personas improve shared understanding of functional re- quirements between co-designers. In order to test this hypothesis, an empirical study has been undertaken in a laboratory context. This paper presents the proto- col of the study and discusses the indicators used for measurement of shared un- derstanding.

National audience