Search

Nowadays, the use of renewable energies has been boosted due to their accessibility. Costs are constantly being more accessible and efficiencies are increasing. This has raised an opportunity in photovoltaic applications, beyond roof solar installations, such as vertical or curved photovoltaic surfaces. This applications are tackled from construction and transportation sectors, as virtually any exposed surface to solar radiation may generate electrical energy. However, most commercial solar panels have a flat and rigid geometry, being difficult to adapt to amorphous surfaces. When analyzing a solar panel, this can be considered as multi-layer product, because it needs a reinforcement to compensate the fragility of the solar cells, glass to minimize the reflection of radiation. These layers play a key role, and have to be analyzed while considering curved solar applications. A Multi-Physics model is then necessary, while considering Mechanical, Electrical and Optical analysis. This paper presents the first of those three analysis, focusing in the reinforcement layer of a solar panel to estimate the implications of curved approaches. To do so, a 3D structural model is validated with finite element method. The effects of several parameters are considering, by analyzing the curvature radius and its variation by implementing different composite materials as reinforcement. The results may indicate a maximum curvature radius in solar modules to ensure the reliability of the solar cell, also an analysis of the variation of radius of curvature is presented given a particular composite reinforcement. This can introduce another perspective in modeling and manufacturing of this kind of systems from a multiphysics approach.

In South America the inland waterway transport is widely used in intermediate and minor cities located on the sides of big rivers. This is the case of the Magdalena river, in Colombia, which has been traditionally used for freight and passengers transport between communities with difficult land access. With the aim of upgrading the fluvial mobility in these communities, in a sustainable way, a first stage of design of a solar powered boat is proposed. To understand the influenced communities, in order to identify their needs, the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) tool was implemented, with the particularity that it uses, as inputs, the results from other preliminary design tools for analysing the need and the context. This enhances the possibility of a better process to translate Customer Requirements (CRs) into Engineering Characteristics (ECs). Additionally, a technical and competitive analysis was made to compare how other competitor products behave in agreement with the ECs. Finally, the QFD helped to prioritize the ECs, according to the impact on user's expectations. The global analysis showed that the case study has particularities, mainly because it requires low operation cost and high energy consumption, due to long trips with several passengers at high speeds.

Electric vessels represent a sustainable solution for fluvial mobility. However, their energy demand is higher compared to terrestrial vehicles, so that, increasing the hydrodynamic efficiency is mandatory. The purpose of this research is to estimate the hydrodynamic drag and battery capacity of an electric boat for passenger transport with the same performance of the boats with internal combustion engines currently operating in the Magdalena river, in Colombia. This estimation of hydrodynamic efficiency is carried out through both Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and statistical analysis for planing vessels. The results show the energy consumption estimation of the boat for a defined route, through different approaches, leading to the battery sizing. As the battery affects the total weight of the boat and the resistance is affected in turn, an iterative process is proposed. As the battery sizing through statistical methods shows uncertainties due to the variation of the results, the iterative method promises to be a practical and fast way to estimate the battery size for an electric boat in early design stages.

Inland waterway transportation is widely used in intermediate and minor cities in South America, the energy demand of this kind of transportation is much higher compared with street vehicles. Therefore, improving the efficiency of powertrains of boats is crucial to make electric-powered boats technology feasible. When a combustion boat is designed there are not as many energy limitations as in an electric-powered boat. Therefore, power requirements predictions consider high inefficiencies in some system stages, resulting in power overdimensioning. Thus, there are opportunities to achieve more efficient designs, considering the reduction of energy requirements without resulting in considerable losses in boat performance. To tackle this issue, this paper proposes a methodology for propeller selection according to the definition of a suitable electric motor for a given context, maximizing propeller efficiency and, consequently, reducing power demand. The proposed methodology was implemented in an interactive tool, designed to help in the selection of the correct electric-motor/propeller match in early design stages, under stationary conditions. An algorithm was developed to determine the efficiency of a propeller in a given operating point, for the particular case of open-water characteristics of B-series propellers and the power curve of a Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motor. Finally, a passenger electric-boat, designed to transport people and goods, in smallsize villages in South-America, is presented as a case of study.

Nowadays engineering design process requires the involvement of multiple partners from multiple disciplines throughout the Product Life Cycle (PLC). Consequently, the construction of numerical models became a difficult task due to the distribution of experts. This article proposes an agent based approach to support a coherent know-how elicitation, to enrich design problem analysis, based on the re-use of experiences and their storage in a standardized knowledge base. A set of Tutor-Agents (TAs) aid experts in the knowledge modelling process focusing on Variables, Domains and Constraints as a key component of engineering knowledge. A shared and coherent knowledge base is the main purpose of the proposed Multi-Agent System (MAS). The interaction among agents enables to highlight potential incoherencies during the modelling process to avoid inconsistent information. The Multi-Agent approach is implemented in a software prototype and a knowledge base can then be constructed, providing standardized Product Life Cycle (PLC) constraints (based on the product related knowledge) for creating models to be analyzed by traditional inference engines such as Optimization solvers, Constraint Satisfaction programming, etc.

Batteries are the largest contributor to the high value of electric vehicles. The lack of knowledge about the effect of driving style, charging strategies, and routes taken on battery degradation rests on the lack of real operating data describing these factors. For this reason, the design of a monitoring system that collects such information is proposed. Initially, in a variable prioritization stage, a functional analysis identifies the system variables and potential information collection points. Additional vehicle sensor information is collected through an OBD-II (The OBD term, stands from the acronym of “On Board Diagnosis (OBD)”) port data-logger. Subsequently, the function to data method prioritizes and reduces the set of variables for each operating state. Then, a finite state machine selects the set of monitoring variables accordingly. With this result, the instrumentation architecture of the vehicle is defined, as well as the development of a data-oriented web application, which allows visualizing, using different approaches, the variables previously defined.

The sizing of the power to be installed in a vessel depends on the desired Effective Power (\(P_E\)) and how efficient the energy conversion process is carried out in each of its components. Screw type are the most widely used propellers and their selection determines to a greater extent the overall efficiency of the unit. An interactive tool that accelerates the selection of the most efficient propeller for two different series, the Gawn and the B-Wageningen, is presented and is used for a design case of study where the required \(P_E\) of an electrically-powered vessel is known. The comparative analysis provided by the tool allowed to determine a difference in performance parameters of almost 10% between different propellers series, to estimate the installed power values, and to characterize the geometrical parameters for a commercial selection approach.

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) have sophisticated control mechanisms that help achieve optimal system operations and services. These mechanisms, imply considering multiple signal inputs in parallel, to timely respond to varying working conditions. Despite the advantages that control mechanisms convey, they bring new challenges in terms of failure prevention. The compensatory action the control exerts cause a fault masking effect, hampering fault diagnosis. Likewise, the multiple information inputs CPSs have to process can affect the timely system response to faults. This article proposes a failure prognosis method, which combines time series-based forecasting methods with statistically based classification techniques in order to investigate system degradation and failure forming on system levels. This method utilizes a new approach based on the concept of the system operation mode (SOM) that offers a novel perspective for health management that allows monitoring the system behavior, through the frequency and duration of SOMs. Validation of this method was conducted by systematically injecting faults in a cyber-physical greenhouse testbed. The obtained results demonstrate that the degradation and fault forming process can be monitored by analyzing the changes of the frequency and duration of SOMs. These indicators made possible to estimate the time to failure caused by various failures in the conducted experiments.

Photovoltaic V-Troughs use simple and low-cost non-imaging optics, namely flat mirrors, to increase the solar harvesting area by concentrating the sunlight towards regular solar cells. The geometrical dispositions of the V-Trough’s elements, and the way in which they are dynamically adjusted to track the sun, condition the optical performance. In order to improve their harvesting capacity, their geometrical set-up can be tailored to specific conditions and performance priorities. Given the large number of possible configurations and the interdependence of the multiple parameters involved, this work studies genetic algorithms as a heuristic approach for navigating the space of possible solutions. Among the algorithms studied, a new genetic algorithm named “GA-WA” (Genetic Algorithm-Weibull Arias) is proposed. GA-WA uses new heuristic processes based on Weibull distributions. Several V-Trough performance indicators are proposed as objective functions that can be optimized with genetic algorithms: (i) C e ‾ (average effective concentration); (ii) Cost (cost of materials) and (iii) T sp (space required). Moreover, from the integration of these indicators, three multi-objective indices are proposed: (a) I COE ( C e ‾ versus Cost); (b) MI COE ( C e ‾ versus Cost and C e ‾ versus T sp combined) and (c) MDI COE (similar to MI COE but with discretization considerations). The heuristic parameters of the studied genetic algorithms are optimized and their capacities are explored in a case study. The results are compared against reported V-Trough set-ups designed with the interactive software VTDesign for the same case study. It was found that genetic algorithms, such as the ones developed in this work, are effective in the performance indicators improvement, as well as efficient and flexible tools in the problem of defining the set-up of solar V-Troughs in personalized scenarios. The intuition and the more holistic exploration of a trained engineer with an interactive software can be complemented with the broader and less biased evolutionary optimization of a tool like GA-WA.

The aided decision processes are expected to improve the design tasks by the reduction of uncertainty, which is one of the principal aspects that interferes with designer choices. These methods can optimise the problem solution by the time reduction in the iterative decision-cycles that can be based on previous knowledge. This article is based in the utilisation of a knowledge based method in design heuristics, which are defined as a set of procedures that allows both, discovery and acquisition, of a solution for a particular problem by the implementation of a strategy, guided by knowledge derived from the experience. This is applied to design area by the extrapolation of technical or conceptual knowledge that has been previously applied and proven in similar problem-solving processes and providing reference points within designs processes as well. For this reason the research focuses on the development of a design case in order to evaluate the interaction between the user and the guided problem approach. The objective was the analysis between two different design processes by the comparison of the implementation of heuristics based method and conventional design techniques in a design case. The purpose was to compare the outcomes of both experiments, taking as a basis the following setup: The design case proposed was carried out by two different teams, where the first team was instructed to use conventional problem-solving approaches such as Pahl & Beitz and Ulrich & Eppinger and the second one was intended to use the heuristics based method. The design task given to both teams was the development of a methane production system by the use of organic waste with the incorporation of technologies to allow the variables control, in other words, an automated biodigester; this allows to have an outcome all teams easy to comparable between each other. Each team performed the task separately, in order to avoid external influence in the process. All of this to proof that with the aid of tools based on heuristic strategies might enhance the innovation and diversification in design alternatives and strengthens conceptual exploration by providing more detailed concepts in early stages of the process.

Summary The design of a battery pack commonly deals with high performance goals and challenging constraints in terms of cost, volume or weight. One of the most crucial variables to maximise is the nominal energy, which depends on the number of discrete battery cells that can be allocated and their individual technical specifications. This work proposes a systematic method to optimise the nominal energy of a constrained battery pack from the perspective of the series-parallel topology. A mathematical and graphical characterisation is presented on how the main battery's variables are related to a topology bounded to discretisation procedures. It was theoretically found that the effects of rounding the values of the topology may lead to a considerable loss of potential nominal energy, a risk that increases linearly with the number of series. The behaviour of the battery is assessed under nominal conditions and under the event of a cell failure. The theoretical analysis suggests that the detrimental effects due to an open-circuit increase as the number of series increases, while it is the opposite in the case of a shorted cell. The method is satisfactorily implemented in the development of two different battery packs for solar competition cars with limiting regulations. The candidate topologies outperformed the nominal energy of topologies defined without the method in up to 5%. It was also found that selecting an energy-maximising topology is not always the most convenient choice, because other variables may be of interest and are dependent on the topology as well. The method is of great use to guide the topology definition process in early theoretical stages, which is usually a compromise between allocating as much cells as possible within constraints, and approaching other performance goals such as a given nominal voltage or capacity. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The increasing offer of software tools for product development introduces methodological questions to design engineers in terms of the easiness of tool integration and design activities’ sequencing. Nowadays, Design Verification and Validation through prototyping techniques have been enriched with software solutions enabling virtual prototyping to take more product’s behaviors into consideration during analysis and simulation. It is the case of the Systems Engineering module in CATIA™ V6 that proposes a sequential “Requirements–Functional–Logical–Physical Design” (RFLP) approach to link conceptual design activities with 3D-models and simulation. Since some practitioners traditionally use these concepts, this article presents an analysis, based on action research, to evaluate the Design Verification activities as well as the tools integration offered by the new Product Lifecycle Management vision of CATIA™ V6. The analysis enabled authors to refine and propose a model’s nature-dependent design method, enriched from the basic RFLP concept. Additionally, the presented results also showed the benefits of using integrated approaches when designing complex products, represented in a case study on virtual Design Verification of an automotive sub-system.

Decision making processes in design often challenges designers to prioritise specifications and variables in order to develop solutions that are closer to the product's requirement goals. Concerning to support their decisions, different tools and methods are used by engineers and designers allowing to reduce uncertainty in design. Nevertheless, many of these decision support systems are focused in late design stages, such as detailed design and manufacturing design, even if the possibility to influence a new product is higher in early stages. The issues regarding to those situations are often associated to design processes related to multi-physics design, where the modification of geometric-related variables might affect the performance of the solution, and the analysis of tracking the influence of the modifications might generate reprocessing and loses of time, specially when those relations are tricky and are not easily identifiable by analysing equations and a manual analysis of requirements must be performed. This article is centred in proposing a traceability model for early design stages based in graph theory. The proposal supports the information generated in design, from the input requirements (linguistic field) up to mathematical modelling and variables definition (real numbers field). This information is arranged into different layers, allowing a multilevel approach in terms of information management. The model also features a novel solution for weighting vertex in graph model, featuring a model that balances the direction of improvement, the importance and flexibility of any specification and how its behaviour will affect the design variables associated to it. The goal of the proposed model is to offer to designers, since the conceptual design stage, a method that can show automatically the level of correlation between any pair variables and specifications by the use of information trees and featuring chains that can connect them whether there is or not a connection via equations.

This work aims to develop a prototype of a monitoring system for a Photovoltaic Charging Station (PVCS) installed in Universidad Eafit. The design is proposed according to the context of remote areas, which are off-grid or where utility grid’s quality is low, and considering the possibility of having standalone charging stations installed in such places. The proposed system integrates several hardware components and communication protocols by making use of Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Platform technology. The presented solution is a low-cost infrastructure and enables real-time monitoring and data storing for future analysis.

Current product design processes are demanding functionality improvements, in order to make the difference in the market. This situation has led designers, engineers and specialist to work together in order to develop new methodologies that might reduce development time and support the quality in the product. In this connection, several tools and methodologies have been proposed over the last decade centred in the combination of industrial design techniques with functional engineering design. Many of these new solutions were based into the treatment of patents in order to reduce the analysis time in terms of existing solutions and how those solutions could be implemented into creation of new products. This article presents the development of a creativity method, based on combination and mutation models, that supports patent search and analysis in the early design stages. The use of this method will be portrayed into the design of the locking system of a medical device used for the treatment of the camptocormia.

In the urge to make solar energy competitive enough to directly face fossil fuels, several approaches result crucial for their intended capacity to maximise the energy that can be produced with a given photovoltaic area. Low Concentration Photovoltaics (LCPV) and tracking methods can be integrated in V-Trough solar devices to increase their effective solar harvesting area through low-cost non-imaging optics. As a tool to support the design and simulation of such devices, this work proposes an analytical and numerical model that simulates the interactions of direct solar radiation with the V-Trough’s elements. The proposed model is design-oriented and was developed seeking high parameter flexibility, high geometrical detail and low computational demands. The model was experimentally validated through several simulations of V-Trough set-ups which results were compared against measurements with a testing platform. Through a non-parametric statistical analysis, the model proved to be satisfactory and highly accurate. Furthermore, the calculations regarding optical concentration performance were complemented with a cost analysis and integrated into a cost-effectiveness index. The results from this work serve as a useful modelling tool for designing and comparing alternatives of V-Trough solar devices.

Different isolated systems with conventional generation sources are installed in Non-Interconnected Areas (ZNI) in Colombia while off-grid renewable systems are a trending answer for the energy supply in these regions. The complementarity between different energy sources, a storage system and adequate control can substantially improve the reliability of isolated generation systems. In this context, the sizing of a Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) by means of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) is presented, considering the wind and solar resources specific to a representative rural location in Colombia. The methodology involves power curves for small wind turbines and the model for photovoltaic solar panels. The preliminary output consists of a weighted distribution for each technology, either wind or conventional photovoltaics, and is constrained by the Loss of Power Supply Probability (LPSP) and the Levelized Cost Of Electricity (LCOE). A second step consists of the optimization of the installed area for photovoltaic generation, considering a Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) system and aiming to maintain the initial fraction of generation for this resource. Finally, an analysis is performed on the reduction of area for solar generation to the increase in costs derived from the use of concentrators and other penalties associated with this technology.

The design process of an object, system or space must consider the physical, mental and psychological traits of its intended users. Moreover, the results of the design process are also defined by the attributes related to the context. However, current product design approaches does not offer a proper balance among the “human”, “artefact” and “context” dimensions. Consequently, a product design methodology that covers the overall Human-Artefact-Context system, from a cognitive and physical ergonomics point of view, is proposed. The generalization of the proposal is based on a synergic structure of User-Centered Design methodologies and ergonomic criteria that prevails throughout the product development stages. The latter ensures a better adaptation to specific context and user needs in a way that improves efficiency, security and consumer well-being.

Nowadays, engineering programs with Problem Based Learning methodologies, develop functional prototypes for demonstration purposes. Most of these ideas, many of them promising, are left behind once the academic term is over. Only a slight percentage of them are followed by an industrialization process, which is not formalized and it is based on third-party experiences. Even if well-known product design methodologies include some methods and activities oriented to evolve the product along its life cycle, they are not suitable for academic projects or they leave out some aspects of the local context. This has been an unexploited area, with high potential as there is no transcendence with academic projects; especially after all the time, effort, and creativity employed into a potentially profitable idea. In this way, the authors propose a methodology intended to allow the transition from academic functional prototype to a product ready to be industrialized according to the capabilities of the local context. Emerging economies, where industrial capabilities may be limited. The development of the methodology has been applied in a case study of an individual electric vehicle. This vehicle was developed with students and researchers within the Design Engineering Research Group (GRID) and it is intended to transport the persons responsible to distribute mail, and packages internally in the University campus. The object of such a case is to study the feasibility to promote this vehicle from functional prototype to a product ready to be industrialized under local industrial constraints.

Advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), computing, networking, mechanics and electronics are changing the people's way of life. Several research efforts are leading the design and development of Artifact and Service Combination (ASC) with the implementation of Ubiquitous Technologies (UTs) in multidisciplinary sectors. However, the design process of such systems often ends in the implementation of conventional approaches and tools. A Ubiquitous Design Support Environment (UDSE) comprising an application intended to guide the different activities, tools and resources applied at the conceptual design stage is presented. After needs analysis, multidisciplinary collaborations are also required in order to generate innovative conceptual solutions, focusing this approach in the conceptual design stage of traditional design methods. Some activities from the conceptual design stage are enhanced through the use of the UDSE as well as through the use of a novel ubiquity assessment tool for concept selection and validation of Ubiquitous Products and Services. Finally, a case study on a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) from textile sector, in a developing country, is presented to analyze and validate the presented concepts. An index to evaluate the ubiquitous level of product-service systems was proposed.A framework integrating methods and tools supported the conceptual design stage.Hardware-Software were integrated through a Ubiquitous Design Support Environment.An industrial implementation allowed the evaluation of a Ubiquitous service.

In the context of multidisciplinary complex systems design, modelling and simulation are key components in decision making. It allow engineers to validate design alternatives at early development stages. Consequently, it is possible to reduce uncertainty on requirements compliance and secure better decisions for downstream stages of product development. This article describes the analysis of a virtual prototype of an automated greenhouse irrigation system. It is modelled and compared with the real system implementation, finding some differences and similarities between both system testing approaches. The intrinsic dependence of experimentation and modelling is also discussed as both, experimental and random data, are important to be used as inputs to validate virtual models.

Computer tools usage has became one of the major trends in humanity and product design processes are not stranger to this situation. That is the reason why different computer tools (hardware and software) have been developed in order to support design tasks, enabling design processes to achieve more innovative solutions by offering more time to creativity. Nevertheless, the quantity and variety of available tools bring a high level of complexity and their articulation becomes an important need to be tackled, aiming to integrate hardware and software applications onto a single platform. This article describes the development of a collaborative design environment supported by the usage of computer tools for product design processes. The proposed model is based on the integration of different commercial hardware into a single platform. It is meant to support product design meetings of collocated design teams in a work station where all team members can interact with design concepts in a synchronous way. After the construction of a first functional solution, a redesign process was conducted to develop a platform where key aspects such as functionality, aesthetics and ergonomics were considered. Finally, the proposed solution is not only intended to perform as a stand-alone platform, but also as a networked workstation that will allow distributed design processes.

Engineering design is a knowledge intensive process -- Experts’ experiences from different product life-cycle stages play a key role in problem solving during design decision making by linking up knowledge to find better solutions for a specific design problem -- Different approaches have been used to support Collaborative and Concurrent Product Design, such as Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) modelling -- Additionally, due to the need of capitalizing these experiences, the Set of Experience Knowledge Structure (SOEKS) is used to store and manage experiences of decision making process -- However it was necessary to adapt the structure to property manage the constraints approach used in Engineering Design -- This article presents a proposed adaptation to SOEKS structure in order to be able to store and reuse CSP design experiences for further re-use and analysis of multiple experiences -- Finally, a case study is presented in order to show how the proposed approach can be used in the industrial application

Concentrating Photo Voltaic (CPV) systems maximize energy harvested from the sun with multi-junction solar cells of less area, reducing related implementation costs and reaching energy production thresholds up to 38,9 %. Nowadays, CPV systems are generally implemented in solar energy farms in a permanent location, however, these systems could be used in other dynamic contexts, such as vehicles or portable devices. In this way, mechanical and geometrical parameters related to manipulation, transportation and installation should be carefully considered at the design stage. Besides, each condition of use presents different variables affecting these parameters. In all, there is not an established architecture for these systems, opening up the possibility of radically changing their use, geometry and components. Therefore, a concept of a methodical process for designing of CPV systems is proposed in order to predict their behavior in terms of implementation and energy production. This might allow the development of robust concepts that can be adapted to different context of use as required, providing an itinerant character and thus extending the field of implementation of these systems beyond a static use. The relevant variables for the use of CPV systems are determined through experimentation considering the implementation of Fresnel lenses as light concentrators. This allows generating a structured design guide composed of different methods of measurement, selection and development. The methodical process is based on a perspective of functional modules considering needs, technical aspects and particular usage conditions of each design and it would provide appropriate guidelines in each circumstance.

Over the last decades many efforts are being made into either both, creating better products or improving processes, yet, generating more information, and usually leaving behind how to manage whole information that already exist and using it to improve the decision making process. This article is centred into the development of an information model that allows to have a multilevel traceability in early design stages, by definition of tracelinks of information at the design stages, where information evolves between from linguistic requirements into design variables. Regarding of the information the should be analysed the research is focused into the setting up of a graphic environment that will allow to determine relationships between different variables that exist in conceptual design, granting designers teams the opportunity to use that information in decision making situations in terms of knowing how changing one variable upsets any requirement. Finally, this article presents a case study of a design of a portable cooler in order to clarify the usage and opportunities present by the usage of the traceability model.

The racing solar cars are characterized by the constant pursuit of energy efficiency. The tight balance between energy inputs and consumption is the main reason to seek optimization in different areas. The vehicle weight is directly related to the energy consumption via rolling resistance of the tires. The relation between weight and energy consumption is quantified. The structural optimization techniques are studied and a series of rules is obtained to iteratively improve the shape of structural parts reducing its weight. The implementation is done in a practical case and satisfactory results are achieved.

Precise control of technical system variables in industrial processes and manned and unmanned missions is critical as their results should be achieved plenty. This takes place in Control Rooms (CR) where Operators make decisions based on the large amount of received data. This work proposes a method for weighting variables of a technical system based on their impact on the mission objectives. The relationships between variables and mission functions are defined using a Function to Data Matrix (FDM) in order to allow Operators to determine their criticality. The proposed method was applied for the mission control of the Racing Solar Vehicle Primavera1 which participated in the World Solar Challenge (WSC) 2013 in Australia.

This work presents an analysis about how the performance of silicon photovoltaic cells is influenced by the use of epoxy resin as encapsulation material with flat roughness. The effect of encapsulation on current at maximum power of mono-crystalline cell was tested indoor in a solar simulator bench at 1000 w/m² and AM1.5G. The results show that implementation of flat roughness layer onto cell surface reduces the maximum current inducing on average 2.7% less power with respect to a cell before any encapsulation. The losses of power and, in consequence, the less production of energy are explained by resin light absorption, reflection and partially neutralization of non-reflective coating.

This article will present the experience in the development of an intercontinental collaborative project named “Global Factory”, being the first massive academic exploration of this new way of engineering work. The main goal of the project, was to collaboratively design a virtual factory to produce vehicle combustion engines, by using the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software CATIA V6. It was developed collaboratively by students from different universities around the world with distributed work and a centralized database. Therefore, interdisciplinary work was encouraged, leading students to collaborate with colleagues from different disciplines and countries. Students were subject to real conditions of international work and the implied working conditions (e.g. cultural aspects, time-frames, communication limitations, use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), etc.). Furthermore, they had to deal with the natural complexity of the technical work as well as the global interaction aspects, being a complicated task to be developed in a novel tool. Finally, the paper will describe the analysis of the project and the educational aspects that students had to face. This project sets the basis for preparing engineers of the future, who will work in a global environment.

In solar vehicle competition, the available space for installation of the solar panel in the car is limited. In order to optimize space, it is difficult not to install solar modules in areas impacted by shadows, even if they cause reduction of efficiency in the overall photoelectric generation. Shadow patterns arise from the relative position of the sun to the earth, and the relative position of the vehicle towards both of them. Since vehicle, earth and sun are moving in semi-predictable patterns, computer simulations can cross and match data from such sources to forecast generation behavior. The outputs of such simulations are shadow patterns on the surface of the vehicle, indicating locations that are suitable or unsuitable to install solar cells. This paper will show the design procedure of the solar panel for a Challenger Class solar vehicle that participated in the World Solar Challenge 2013, intended to increase the net energy collection. The results obtained, illustrate how the employment of a computational tool can help in the acquisition of both qualitative and quantitative information, related to shadows position and their impact on energy collection. With data inputs such as vehicle geometry and its relative position towards the route, the tool was used to evaluate different possible configurations of solar panel module distribution and select the ones that are more convenient to the given scenario. Therefore, this analysis allows improving the solar panel design by considering important variables that were often overlooked.

Solar competition cars are a very interesting research laboratory for the development of new technologies heading to their further implementation in either commercial passenger vehicles or related applications. Besides, worldwide competitions allow the spreading of such ideas where the best and experienced teams bet on innovation and leading edge technologies, in order to develop more efficient vehicles. In these vehicles, some aspects generally make the difference such as aerodynamics, shape, weight, wheels and the main solar panels. Therefore, seeking to innovate in a competitive advantage, the first Colombian solar vehicle “Primavera”, competitor at the World Solar Challenge (WSC)-2013, has implemented the usage of a Concentrating Photovoltaic (CPV) system as a complementary solar energy module to the common silicon photovoltaic panel. By harvesting sunlight with concentrating optical devices, CPVs are capable of maximizing the allowable photovoltaic area. However, the entire CPV system weight must be less harmful than the benefit of the extra electric energy generated, which in adjunct with added manufacture and design complexity, has intervened in the fact that CPVs had never been implemented in a solar car in such a scale as the one described in this work. Design considerations, the system development process and implementation are presented in this document considering both the restrictions of the context and the interaction of the CPV system with the solar car setup. The measured data evidences the advantage of using this complementary system during the competition and the potential this technology has for further developments.

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are rapidly proliferating in different applications. Their system features significantly differ from those of linear complex systems (LCSs). Consequently, they pose novel challenges with regard to ensuring the dependability of system operation. Maintenance of CPSs raises new theoretical and practical issues. To guarantee a high level of dependability, new and efficient system maintenance principles should be explored and operationalized in various contexts. This paper reports on the first results of the authors' work in this direction. A comprehensive literature review has been conducted with the objective of identifying the specific features of LCSs and CPSs. We analysed the major maintenance principles and approaches currently applied to complex systems to see how they can be applied to CPSs. We found that the existing maintenance principles have various relationships with CPSs: (i) some of them cannot be considered in the context of CPSs due to incongruent system features, (ii) some of them can be adapted due to certain partial congruencies, and (iii) some of them can be applied directly due to the congruency of some system features of LCSs with CPSs. It was also found and demonstrated through a number of practical examples that many specific maintenance principles need to be developed for CPSs. We assert that the system features of CPSs without parallel in LCSs primarily reveal what sort of new maintenance principles and approaches are needed. The ultimate goal of our on-going research is to define and test these new maintenance principles. In this paper, we identify and define these principles, starting from the unique system features of CPSs and aiming to develop a maintenance advisory system. Kiberfizični sistemi (KFS) se hitro širijo na različnih področjih. Lastnosti teh sistemov se v veliki meri razlikujejo od lastnosti linearnih kompleksnih sistemov (LKS). Zagotavljanje brezhibnega in zanesljivega delovanja je zato velik izziv, ki zahteva razvoj novih načel snovanja, implementacije in vzdrževanja. Doseganje visoke stopnje zanesljivosti je ena novejših teoretičnih in praktičnih nalog v zvezi s KFS, še posebej pri kiberfizičnih sistemih, ki so ključnega pomena za poslovanje. Znano je, da je tudi za vzdrževanje takšnih sistemov potrebno razviti in uveljaviti nova načela, ki se lahko uporabljajo v različnih kontekstih.

Electric mobility has become an important issue worldwide; proof of this is that all the transportation areas are tending towards a green approach for their business by using renewable energies. In parallel form, mobility for disabled people is a global concern right now, specifically how to improve the independency and raise the standard of living of people in this situation. Electric mobility solutions have provided an important advance in the independency of patients. However, as occurs with emerging technologies the price is quite high, especially for developing countries such as Colombia. This work presents the design of an electric power kit for manual wheelchair, with the aim of making it adaptable for different wheelchair brands available in the Colombian market.

Knowledge sharing among partners in collaborative and concurrent engineering processes is becoming more critical for decision-making in Product Design Engineering (PDE). The approach presented in this article proposes a Fuzzy Logic (FL) based semi-automatic support for reaching agreements in the definition of variable’s domain under a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) modelling process. A negotiation model is proposed, including suggestions about preferred domains for a variable that it is used for more than one expert. Competence of the users involved in the negotiation is measured with a set of developed indexes. A Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) is used to calculate user’s indexes and suggestions about the domain are made based on the proposed domains and competence index of the experts. The proposal is included in a Multi-Agent System (MAS) for supporting distributed knowledge modelling.

During new product development, knowledge must be exchanged across organizational, geographical, cultural, and language barriers [1]. Emerging technologies such as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) combined with Business Process Modelling (BPM) tools provide means to enable collaboration among distributed participants specifically in the product design process. In this paper, an alternative approach for planning and development of projects that requires knowledge management and information integration in small and medium enterprises, is presented. A case study in the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is performed and, as a result, the methodology is applied to support the design and construction of waste treatment plants. Finally, the design of the proposed approach is presented including how engineering processes were identified, analyzed and improved through BPM and PLM.