From sustainable development to design and the enthusiasm for creating that is alien to robots
If we look at these words systematically, we need to determine what they mean individually and what they mean together. And not only in the historical, contemporary, but above all in the future meaning of this word (expression).
The word sustainable can be found in the media in connection with concepts such as life, society, development, etc. Historically, it dates back to 1968, when the Club of Rome was founded, bringing together recognized people from many countries involved in world development. Studies [1], [3] have been published on computer simulations of population behavior for forecasting development in various time horizons. Most of the modeled variants predict a significant decline in the standard of living related to the exhaustion of sources and environmental pollution in the years 2020 to 2060. Information is also provided by the so-called the Brundtland report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), published in book form in 1987 [2]. At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the term entered mass consciousness.
The main tasks of sustainable development include, in particular, defining concepts that would be able to limit the impact of population on the natural environment (and especially reduce the so-called ecological footprint).
- Renewable sources should be used at a maximum rate that allows them to be renewed.
- Non-renewable sources should be used to the maximum
- at the speed at which their replacements will be built, to which it will be possible to switch smoothly.
- The intensity of pollution cannot exceed the assimilation capacity of the natural environment.
- Some of today's technologies should be invested in reducing pollution, reducing waste and increasing efficiency (of products, energy, production processes, ...)
There are three pillars of sustainable development: environmental, economic and social. Economic consists of all economic activities in society. It plays a role in environmental protection on the producer and consumer side, creates sources of financing for repair and protection, and supports the innovation cycle not only towards improving ecological friendliness, but also increasing the utility value of the product. The environmental pillar overlaps with the social and economic levels. The basic premise is the protection of biodiversity. It is based on the fact that in a limited system unlimited growth is impossible. The activities of the social pillar consist in balancing inequalities between particular social groups and individuals. It focuses on the issues of eliminating poverty, equal access to basic hygiene and medical care, and suppressing manifestations of discrimination, racism, xenophobia and religious intolerance. Also on intergenerational cohesion and integration of socially excluded people (disabled or seniors). The seventeen sustainable development goals were presented by the UN as a development agenda until 2030 [4]. Sustainable actions should be characterized by conscious modesty and, at the same time, selectivity of choices. “A truly higher standard of living does not lie in consumption leading to loneliness, but in one's own, active and creative approach to the world…” [5]. The slogan of this understanding of sustainable development was a quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: "We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, but we borrow it from our children."
The principle of sustainable development is clear. However, its implementation raises a number of questions. Isn't sustainable development basically just a way to better manage non-renewable sources? Does sustainable development want to preserve only the value of natural capital? How can the possible needs of future generations be defined? How long can economic growth, which is always rapid, be sustainable? Can strong economic growth be matched with the needs of today's and tomorrow's population? Is permanently sustainable development even possible? Do the models take into account all possible factors of future development? Is it even in our best interest to concern ourselves with what comes after us? And other.
At the same time, practice brings a number of related concepts and models. We are talking about the digital economy as a revolutionary method of allocation, but it is not described in a sufficient way to enable an applicable formalism to be created in artificial intelligence based on such a description. In psychology, numerous methods of supporting creativity have been developed. They can be divided into individual and collective. Collective methods include, for example, brainstorming, synectics, the KJ method, the keys and needs method, the Taguchi method of solid design and others.
There are several ways to decide whether a given product of inventive or engineering activities can be called an innovative concept. One of them is used by specialists from the Intellectual and Industrial Property Office, for example the presence of the so-called "inventive level". The second way is to indirectly assess the quality of innovative concepts based on the economic and innovative result of their application. The third way is to quantify and possibly measure innovative quality. For this purpose, the following are used, among others: principles of fuzzy logic and the principle of violating the structural invariance of known solutions, as a manifestation of exceeding the framework and the appearance of something unexpected. From the point of view of size, creative products can be divided into micro-creative products, e.g. small experiments and rationalization conclusions, better formulation of the problem, etc., as creative results of ordinary everyday activity, and macro-creative products, e.g. new hypotheses, parts of the theory, new technologically significant ideas, etc., as results whose use has deep significance for a given field and as mega-creative, as epoch-making discoveries and theories that fundamentally influence the state of knowledge of the entire society.
It is much more important to determine the degree of novelty, with the results of the creative process divided according to whether they were created by simple aggregation or on the basis of a process of synergy.
In technical sciences, the Altschuller TRIZ / ARIZ method (Theory of Resheniya Izobretatielskich Zadacz / Algoritm Reszenija Izobretatielskich Zadacz, 1959) developed in Baku, Azerbaijan, was quite well introduced and gradually gained popularity in the former Eastern bloc. In the Czech Republic, it has been developed since 1993. The ARIZ methodology for solving technical tasks was extended with the IM (invention machine) knowledge system, which combines the ARIZ methodology and functional cost analysis FNA (Trizing). Another technical support is the Knowledgist and Goldfire Innovator semantic search engine, which combines both previous systems.
The ARIZ algorithm has three basic principles - goal orientation, problem definition and the use of knowledge (heuristics) to overcome technical and physical contradictions, as well as mental operations and processes that make it possible to overcome various mental barriers (inelastic thinking, narrowly formulated problems, etc.). The ARIZ algorithm is a combination of dialectical logic, fantasy and the generalized experience of inventors from the past and present. The ARIZ methodology is goal-oriented approach and always selects and develops one, best and most stable solution.
Other conceptual design methods include, for example, the knowledge-oriented GALILEO (OSullivan, 2002) or AIDA (Rentema, 2000), the core of which are three artificial intelligence tools - case-based reasoning (CBR), rule-based reasoning ( Rule-Based Reasoning and modeling using constraint conditions (Constraint-Based Geometrical Modeling).
In addition to a number of methods for supporting creativity, methods and techniques for supporting the designer's work have also been developed over time. The first design of a calculating machine - a calculator with a graphic mode, which, however, was never implemented in practice, was presented in 1945 by Vannevar Bush. It was only in the early 1960s that General Motors, Lockheed, NASA and Bell Labs used computers with the ability to interactively handle graphics on a monitor. However, large computer manufacturers such as IBM, DEC, Control Data and Texas Instruments have ignored this area. The first projects of these systems were most often implemented by clients or research institutes, e.g. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Utah and Xerox PARC in California. In the 1970s, several dozen systems were developed that solved computer support tasks in various fields and differed in their level of complexity and quality. From them, about fifteen solutions gradually crystallized, which were sources using information and communication technologies. Thanks to them, the entire management structure of enterprises is changing and new areas are emerging. This is a process that has been permeating society in recent years, related to the concept of the information society, for which global access to information made available via digital networks is crucial [6]. We learn about the circular economy, which deals with ways to improve the quality of the natural environment and human life by increasing production efficiency. It divides the materials used into two separate and independently circulating circles, guided by a separate logic. One operates on easily degradable organic materials that have minimal impact on the biosphere. The second one uses synthetic materials in products, which can then be isolated, reused and used so that it is not necessary to introduce them back into the biosphere [7].
The English word design comes from the Latin de-signare, meaning "to designate", "to designate", and then also gained the meaning "design". Since the mid-20th century, it has been adopted in many languages, including Czech. The aim of design is to combine the functional and aesthetic sides of the designed object or system in the most coherent way possible. Therefore, it requires both artistic and technical skills and knowledge. In terms of the field of application, we distinguish service design, industrial design, product design, internet design, graphic design, playful design, web design and others.
At the same time, the term "sustainable design" means a comprehensive set of solutions, procedures and technologies enabling the design, development and production of products with minimal impact on the natural environment and society. The principles are used in a variety of fields, all of which serve to design, develop and produce products that support sustainable development. It should be noted that the word design has a much broader meaning in English than in Czech and in this context it rather means development, design and own construction.
Historically, many authors (Poincaré, 1909) distinguished several phases of a creative project. There is an analogy here to the phases of searching for solutions in the context of problem solving. From a psychological point of view, design is problem solving [8]. We can distinguish a preparation phase in which the need is identified - the existence of a problem is identified, a conscious or unconscious incubation phase in which reflections and thought experiments take place and, based on them, an understanding of the problem, an insight phase with the generation of potential solutions and their evaluations, mutual comparison. in the verification and evaluation phase and implementation as the realization of the best solution along with testing and documentation in order to communicate about them and the final evaluation.
The concept of product life cycle is very important for the proposed methodology. Each product is subject to life cycles with six phases: specification and planning, conceptual design, product design and technical preparation of production, production, product use and disposal.
Knowledge about the product life cycle indicates the irreplaceable importance of design phases. The own costs of the project phase are very small compared to the production costs. This leads to underestimating the project phase and underestimating the time needed for this phase. Decisions made during design have the greatest impact on the costs, quality and development period of the product.
In the first phase - creating specifications, the engineering project deals with creating a product that meets market needs. The market is understood as a place for selling a product. A failure is a situation in which a product does not meet market expectations (even if it is a perfect solution). Understanding the needs of the market is a necessary condition for the success of the project and the designer. Requirements are defined here in terms of goals and constraints, as immeasurable and measurable quantities, e.g. cheap, pleasant, capacity 1 liter, three-speed, etc. A goal tree and a means tree are created and worked through repeatedly. At this stage, it is important to develop the quality function by "translating" customer requirements into measurable technical specifications, prioritizing requirements and wants, testing - benchmarking the competition against a set of requirements and a new set of requirements and goals.
Together with the ordering party, a specification of the design of the future product is created, a document which is a means of comparing design solutions, market analysis, comparison with competitors, etc. The specification distinguishes the requirement and the wish, e.g. the requirement is an accuracy of 5%, while the wish is an accuracy of 3%.
Planning is also part of the specification phase. The plan is the basis for success in project management, where you need to set project goals, identify individual tasks, define the goals of each task and estimate its time and personnel expenditure, create stages of individual tasks with an estimate of the costs of their implementation and the total project costs.
The design process is a complex and slow activity. Product development often takes several years and involves a larger number of work teams. In the design and redesign process, a distinction can be made between preliminary design phases, in which the requirements, functions and properties of the designed system are formulated. In this phase of the project, the designer comes up with "what he wants to create" and is not too interested in "how to create it", then in the conceptual design phase the goal is to formulate the basic principles of operation of the designed system. At this stage, the designer deals with how and on what principles the designed system will operate. However, he is not interested in the technical details of production (implementation). Conceptual design can be divided into system, component, and configuration design. Component design is considered the most interesting because this area contains a huge number of diverse elements and principles that are difficult to present using ordinary methods, and its heterogeneity is quite a challenge.
The design process ends with a detailed project specifying the specific appearance of the product (shapes, dimensions, material, etc.). In these phases, concept generation and evaluation are carried out in different stages using various techniques. To generate concepts, e.g. functional decomposition or generating concepts from functions is used, e.g. Zwicki's morphological analysis or value analysis. Pugh's decision matrix method can be used to evaluate the concept. It makes maximum use of the implemented solutions in the field of mathematics, physics, chemistry, geometry, etc. as well as computer support, e.g. CAD/CAM and many others, in accordance with a given branch of knowledge.
After determining “what is to be created”, we need to say “how we will create it”. From the point of view of the difficulty of the problems being solved, we can distinguish different types of construction tasks from "re-designs" - routine designs included in the remaining construction process, through qualification construction, where the task is to select an item from a list, e.g. selecting a product from a catalog, configuration construction, in which all the elements are already constructed and the task is to assemble them into a whole, e.g. assembling a computer from components, up to parametric construction, in which the product is described by parameters and their mutual limitations, the task is to select them in such a way that the values of the final parameter are maintained . Finally - original construction, in which the task is to create a product that does not exist before.
Creativity is very important in the above tasks. The word creativity comes originally from the Latin word creâre, which means to beget, to create, to give birth, to establish, etc. As a technical term, the word creativity probably gained popularity thanks to the English word create. The Czech equivalent of this word - being creative - has a completely clear etymology. The original meaning of a word or its previous meanings are the domain of comparative linguistics or analytical psychology. Today, we can see in them, for example, the requirements of the practical usefulness of a creative solution - those who "did not create" did not survive.
As already mentioned, in the case of the creative process phase, there is usually a phase of incubation and illumination (insight), which are fundamental to the creative process. Their internal mechanisms are used to a greater extent outside development institutions. The beginning of the 1980s was marked by the introduction of the Unix operating system to the detriment of older closed systems, and institutions developing computer support systems that did not follow this trend disappeared or significantly lost their importance. This period was characterized by the fact that large companies began to dominate, producing difficult and very complicated program systems for computer support of design, and then technical activities - computer support of production.
The history of computer support for production dates back to the 1950s, when the concept of digitally controlled machines was proposed. It was the first signal of the entry of electronics and later information technology into the field of production support. But it was only the creation of the concept of digitally computer-controlled (CNC) production machines, dating back to 1970, that enabled the broader development of computer production support systems. Complex systems are being created covering the area of both computer support for product design and computer support for its production. The most important company in this period was Computervision, which dominated the aviation and automotive industries. IBM developed its own CAD/CAM system, which was later connected to the CATIA system. In the early 1990s, six companies came to the fore: Computervision, EDS/Unigraphics, SDRC, PTC, Matra Datavision and Dassault Systemes, which also now dominate the field of large CAD/CAM systems.
The field of personal computers (PCs) was of little interest to CAD/CAM systems for quite a long time due to their low computing power. It was only in the mid-1990s, with the introduction of Pentium processors, that PCs began to compete with Silicon Graphic workstations, and the development of CAD/CAM programs enabled a much wider range of users to use their capabilities.
The benefits of using computer programs are incomparable to traditional procedures. They provide the possibility of graphical editing, regardless of whether it is about simple operations or deeper operations, such as checking correctness, making changes between databases, generating data for products, etc. They can work on libraries of symbols and structural elements and use entire blocks connections and structural wholes to work on subsequent projects. A significant advantage is the electronic form of prepared projects and their now simple and reliable archiving. Computer support makes routine tasks easier and prevents inattentional errors. There are also disadvantages related to electronic data being damaged by internal or external processes, the transparency of their display, but the main disadvantage so far is their price.
However, the role of the designer is still irreplaceable. A designer is a creative person who looks at the problem being solved not from the point of view of given algorithms, but from the point of view of experience, ideas, estimates, momentary inspiration and patient work. The computer, or its programs, only fulfills previously set algorithms - always exactly the same, always at the command of a human, without its own will, without experience, without fantasy, without fatigue, but also without passion.
Computer support for the creative process has the ambition to become a good helper. It can increase and improve the quality of designers' creative output. Also, a computer can be a good servant and a bad master. Leaving to computers activities that have previously been specific to humans and gave them satisfaction will not be beneficial if, lured by the vision of great discoveries, we voluntarily become their servants or employees.
Literature:
[1] Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers, J., Behrens, WWIII: The limits of
growth. Universe Books, NY 1972
[2] Our common future. United Nations, A/42/427 1987
http://netzwerk-n.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/0_Brundtland_Report-
1987-Our_Common_Future.pdf
[3] Meadows, DH, Meadows, DL, Randers, J.: Beyond the limits. Chelsea green
publishing, 1992 ISBN9780930031558
[4] Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
United Nations, A/RES/70/1 2015
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld
[5] Rynda, I.: Trvale udržitelný rozvoj
http://www.cenia.cz/web/www/web-pub2.nsf/$pid/MZPMSFHV0HSB/$FILE/tur.pdf
[6] The Opte Project – Originally from the English Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_map_1024.jpg
[7] McDonough, W., Braungart, M.: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make
things. North Point Press, NY 2002 ISBN 978-0-86547-587-8
[8] Andrejsek, K., Beneš, J.: Methods řešení technical problems, SNTL, Praha, 1984
Doc.Ing. Bohumil Horák, Ph.D.
He works at the Department of Cybernetics and BMI, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, VŠB-TU Ostrava. He studied mechanical technology and robotics. He completed his doctoral thesis in Electronics in 1998 with a habilitation in the field of technical cybernetics. He deals with robotics, artificial intelligence and alternative energy sources. Since 2000, he has been leading a research group dealing with the measurement and management of renewable and alternative energy sources. He is the director of a number of research projects. Currently, ongoing projects are focused on education in the field of low-carbon economy and CO2 sequestration technologies from metallurgical processes. It is the leader of VŠB-TUO in the field of motivating high school students to further education. It has been organizing Solar Power and Robotic League programs and competitions for years. He lectures at foreign universities in England, Iceland, China and other countries. He is the administrator of the Fuel Cell Laboratory and the CPIT VŠB-TUO Prototype Laboratory. It runs the Trianon Joint Research and Monitoring Center in Český Těšín and the KAIPAN Joint Institute for Research and Development of Electromobility in the town of Smržovka.
Contact:
VŠB-TU Ostrava, FEI, cat.450, 17.listopatu 15, 708 00 Ostrava-Poruba,
Tel./fax: 59 -732 -9339 0 70 E-mail: bohumil.horak@vsb.cz,