Date of Graduation

12-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Jensen, David C.

Committee Member

Nutter, Darin W.

Second Committee Member

Wejinya, Uche C.

Keywords

Applied sciences; Biologically inspired; Design; Fault adaptive design

Abstract

A design tool for Biologically Inspired Fault Adaption that utilizes the concept of strategy mapping was developed and the development process and testing is presented in this paper. The concept of strategy mapping is derived primarily from the field of military theory and supposes that for any given specific problem, that there exists a specific solution for, a single strategy can be identified for that solution/problem combination. This strategy, when applied to the specific problem yields the specific solution. This specific solution is referred to as the “tactics” of the strategy. The strategy can also be directly applied to a different specific problem which yields a different specific solution to the different specific problem. This concept is developed and applied to Biologically Inspired Design and uses biological analogs as the tactics for whatever design problem is being addressed in nature. A library of over 180 biological analogs that exhibit fault adaptive behavior was developed and for each analog the corresponding strategy was identified and cataloged in a design tool. The design tool uses a series of binary questions relating to the design problem to guide designers to the strategy that would have been exhibited in nature for their design problem. The tool also provides one or more example analogs of that strategy being implemented in nature for use as a direct inspiration and to see the strategy in action. This design tool was then tested using 11 groups of design students randomly assigned a design tool for biologically Inspirited Design of which were AskNature, The Strategy Mapping Tool and a generic internet search engine. The results were then compared against each other and from this the design tool using Strategy Mapping showed several clear advantages over competing design tools.

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