The Dawn of a New Design Science, Heralding the Emergence of Super-Designers

Yoshiyuki Matsuoka (Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering)

It is said that the 21st century will see a rapid increase in "design for extraordinary situations." This refers to the design of artifacts used in unconventional dynamic environments, such as deep-sea exploration vehicles, microrobots that swim through blood vessels, and objects used in space, the deep sea, or at micro and nano scales. However, since these are environments that designers and engineers cannot experience firsthand, we cannot simply rely on the conventional approach of depending on their experience-based creativity and intuition. Therefore, design that leverages science and engineering will be essential in the future, and it is crucial to advance research in "design science," which is useful for realizing this.

Against this backdrop, my laboratory is first tackling research on new design theories and methodologies that express the human act of "design" with "mathematics." Based on these theories and methodologies, we are also advancing the research and development of new design systems based on collaboration between designers and computers. One example is the "emergent design system," which focuses on the diversity of living organisms and emulates the mechanisms of their developmental processes from an engineering perspective. By incorporating knowledge from developmental biology into this computer system, we have succeeded in enabling the computer itself to generate diverse design proposals that meet the requirements. We have now also started research on integrating this system into robots, allowing the robots themselves to adaptively change their own shape to new environments, much like a plant.

My laboratory also provides design education with the aim of fostering "super-designers" who are capable of both conventional artistic industrial design and engineering design that utilizes scientific knowledge. Several of our graduates are already active as this new type of designer. If you are interested, please visit our laboratory's website.