Self-Organizing Systems Design Method

1. Self-Organizing Systems Design Method Jordan Hall Mohsin Waqar Nathan Young ME6101 – End of Semester Presentation 7 Dec 2006

2. Q4S (Modified): “How should the Pahl & Beitz systematic design method be augmented and personalized to support the concurrentrealization of technical systems for a global market place in a distributed environment based on self-organization concepts?”

3. World of 2020: Vision

4. World of 2020:Requirements List for Design Method General • Design method must be systematic Augmented • Support multidisciplinary/distributed design team Personalized • Support concurrent engineering practices • Parallel information flow

5. Develop and define the construction structure: Task Eliminate the weak spots 1) Preliminary form design and calculation Market, Company, Economy Check for errors, disturbing influences, and minimum costs 2) Select best preliminary layouts Prepare the preliminary parts, Plan and clarify the task: 3) Refine and improve layouts production, and assembly doc 1) Identify customer desires: ethnographic research, in use studies, etc. 2) Clarify task Determine efficiency of integration 3) Develop Master Validation Plan 4) Elaborate a requirements list Definitive Layout Requirements List Prepare production and operating documents: (Design specification) 1) Elaborate detail drawings and parts lists 2) Verify and validate 3) Complete production, assembly, transport, and operating instructions Develop the principal solution: 4) Check all documents 1) Identify essential problems through abstraction 2) Establish function structures 3) Search for working principles and working structures Product Documentation 4) Combine and firm up into concept variants 5) Perform safety/manufacturing process simulations Solution Concept (Principal Solution) Continuous Improvement/Manufacture Evaluate and specify DfX Product Realization Subdivide Tasks Plan of Action Our Personalized and Augmented Pahl and Beitz Systematic Design Method

6. Plan of Action Our Plan: Deliver a comparison between the Pahl & Beitz (P&B) systematic design method and design methods for self-organizing systems. Phase I Communicate with Advisor Phase II (working structure) Start Develop Common Vision Clarify Task Plan Validation Develop Req. List for Project Abstract Project ID Core Ideas Relate Core Ideas Develop Best Outline A (function structure) (principal concept) Conduct Background Research Conduct On-going Research Phase III Conduct On-going Research Phase V Identify Parallel Info. Flow Phase IV Write Section 1 Continue Research . . Subdivide Tasks Develop Rough Draft Proof Read and Refine Verify and Validate Submit Report A Digest Feedback (layout) Write Section n Define DfX

7. Project Tasks 10/5 10/7 10/21 10/21 11/2 11/14 11/14 11/19 11/21 11/30 12/2 12/11 Complete Systematic Design Research Master Validation Plan Verification & Validation Crux of Task Report Outline PEI Diagram Rough Draft Gap Analysis Requirements List for Deliverable Requirements List for SOSDM Complete SO Research Final Report Phase I Phase II Phase III Phase IV

8. Verification and Validation Theoretical Structural Validation (Square 1): Is the method internally consistent?YES 1) P&B core transforms are retained. 2) Requirements list for project deliverable is satisfied. Empirical Structural Validation (Square 2) Is our research project appropriate for the method?YES/NO/MAYBE 1) An open-ended problem is posed. 2) Team work was required. 3) Time was constrained. 4) Constructs of method are applied. But not all augmentations utilized. Empirical Performance Validation (Square 3) Did the method contribute to the success of our research project?YES 1) Met our targets for content, quality and time. Theoretical Performance Validation (Square 4) Is there utility of the method beyond our research project? YES 1) Suitable for technical research papers.

9. Why Self-Organization? Why SO? Mohsin: I am interested in machine intelligence. I saw this project as an opportunity to learn more about robust systems that can manage themselves. Why this Project? Nathan: I realize that it is critical to always grow as an engineer. I saw this project as an opportunity to diversify my engineering portfolio due to its broad scope and interdisciplinary requirements. Why systematic design? Jordan: I am interested in the practical application of a method such as Pahl and Beitz in the future. Self-organization is an interesting challenge for systematic design processes. How can systematic design be used to create Self-Organizing Systems?

10. Systematic Design Process • Information Flow Diagrams • Top-Down Process • “Divergent-Convergent” • Abstract → Concrete • Based on Requirements

11. Centralized Leadership Agents Information Flow Information Flow Bottleneck Self-Organization ________________ • Efficiency • Robustness • Multi-stability • Distributed Control • Information Flow M S R E

12. Examples of SO in Practice __________________ • Self-assembly - 2D Arrays - 3D Structures • Multi-agent Robotics - Chain - Lattice - Swarm

13. Self-Organizing Systems Design Methodology A few requirements for SOSDM: • Supports various system architectures. How many elements are there and what is their complexity? • Defines interaction rules between agents How much is behavior of an element constrained? • Defines functions/capabilities of each agent Are agents generalists or specialists? • Defines the decision structure (hierarchy vs. autonomous) Who makes decisions? • Define metrics for evaluating macroscopic/global behavior. • How do you evaluate the system?

14. Critical Analysis – The Gap What are the similarities between SOSDMand P&B? • Systematic • Information Flow • Requirements List What are the differences between SOSDM and P&B? • Function Structure • - How can the nature of a function structure differ between design methods? • Indirect Design • - What is meant by indirect design and how is that unique to SOSDM? • Evolution of System in Design • - This is not biology. Why am I talking about evolution?

15. Future Questions This is an invitation to think with us as we look to the future of SOS design. Please RSVP… • Can the system function structure be dynamically reconfigured? Can this occur autonomously? • What tasks must occur between manufacturing of the SOS and release to customer to verify system performance? • Is there a way to concurrently design the algorithm and agents for a system? In essence, is the algorithm somewhat generic to SO systems? • What technologies are currently available to develop these types of systems? • What are the core information transforms of a SOSDM?

16. Lesson Learned… Nathan: I gained insight into the fundamental principles of adaptive systems. I discovered the need for an adaptive systems design method that I will continue to investigate in my research. Jordan: I gained an understanding of the state of the art in self-organizing systems design. I also gained a deeper understanding of the Pahl and Beitz method by comparing it to self-organization design methodologies. Mohsin: I learned that more involvement from mechanical engineers is needed to balance the work of computer scientists and improve the feasibility of self-organizing systems.