Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Custom Processor Design'

Customization of processors with instruction set extensions (ISEs) is a technique that improves performance through parallelization with a reasonable area overhead, in exchange for additional design effort. This thesis presents a collection of novel techniques that reduce the design effort and cost of generating ISEs by advancing automation and reconfigurability. In addition, these techniques maximize the perfomance gained as a function of the additional commited resources. Including ISEs into a processor design implies development at many levels. Most prior works on ISEs solve separate stages of the design: identification, selection, and implementation. However, the interations between these stages also hold important design trade-offs. In particular, this thesis addresses the lack of interaction between the hardware implementation stage and the two previous stages. Interaction with the implementation stage has been mostly limited to accurately measuring the area and timing requirements of the implementation of each ISE candidate as a separate hardware module. However, the need to independently generate a hardware datapath for each ISE limits the flexibility of the design and the performance gains. Hence, resource sharing is essential in order to create a customized unit with multi-function capabilities. Previously proposed resource-sharing techniques aggressively share resources amongst the ISEs, thus minimizing the area of the solution at any cost. However, it is shown that aggressively sharing resources leads to large ISE datapath latency. Thus, this thesis presents an original heuristic that can be parameterized in order to control the degree of resource sharing amongst a given set of ISEs, thereby permitting the exploration of the existing implementation trade-offs between instruction latency and area savings. In addition, this thesis introduces an innovative predictive model that is able to quickly expose the optimal trade-offs of this design space. Compared to an exhaustive exploration of the design space, the predictive model is shown to reduce by two orders of magnitude the number of executions of the resource-sharing algorithm that are required in order to find the optimal trade-offs. This thesis presents a technique that is the first one to combine the design spaces of ISE selection and resource sharing in ISE datapath synthesis, in order to offer the designer solutions that achieve maximum speedup and maximum resource utilization using the available area. Optimal trade-offs in the design space are found by guiding the selection process to favour ISE combinations that are likely to share resources with low speedup losses. Experimental results show that this combined approach unveils new trade-offs between speedup and area that are not identified by previous selection techniques; speedups of up to 238% over previous selection thecniques were obtained. Finally, multi-cycle ISEs can be pipelined in order to increase their throughput. However, it is shown that traditional ISE identification techniques do not allow this optimization due to control flow overhead. In order to obtain the benefits of overlapping loop executions, this thesis proposes to carefully insert loop control flow statements into the ISEs, thus allowing the ISE to control the iterations of the loop. The proposed ISEs broaden the scope of instruction-level parallelism and obtain higher speedups compared to traditional ISEs, primarily through pipelining, the exploitation of spatial parallelism, and reducing the overhead of control flow statements and branches. A detailed case study of a real application shows that the proposed method achieves 91% higher speedups than the state-of-the-art, with an area overhead of less than 8% in hardware implementation.

As embedded systems designers increasingly turn to programmable logic technologies in place of off-the-shelf microprocessors, there is a growing interest in the development of optimised custom processing cores that can be designed on a per-application basis. FPGAs blur the traditional distinction between hardware and software and offer the promise of application specific hardware acceleration. But realizing this in a general sense requires a significant departure from traditional embedded systems development flows. Whereas off-the-shelf processors have a fixed architecture, the same cannot be said of purpose-built FPGA-based processors. With this freedom comes the challenge of empirically determining the optimal boundary point between hardware and software. The fluidity of the hardware/software partition also poses an interesting challenge for compiler developers. This thesis presents a tool and methodology that addresses these codesign challenges in a new way. Described as 'compiler-directed codesign', it makes use of a suitably modified compiler to help direct the development of a custom processor core on a per-application basis. By exposing the compiler's internal representation of a compiled target program, visibility into those instructions, and hardware resources, that are most sought after by the compiler can be gained. This information is then used to inform further processor development and to determine the optimal partition between hardware and software. At each design iteration, the machine model is updated to reflect the available hardware resources, the compiler is rebuilt, and the target application is compiled once again. By including the compiler 'in-the-loop' of custom processor design, developers can accurately quantify the impact on performance caused by the addition or removal of specific hardware resources and iteratively converge on an optimal solution. Compiler Directed Codesign has advantages over existing codesign methodologies because it offers both a concrete point from which to begin the partitioning process as well as providing quantifiable and rapid feedback of the merits of different partitioning choices. When applied to an Adaptive PCM Encoder/Decoder case study, the Compiler Directed Codesign technique yielded a custom processor core that was between 36% and 73% smaller, consumed between 11% to 19% less memory, and performed up to 10X faster than comparable general-purpose FPGA-based processor cores. The conclusion of this work is that a suitably modified compiler can serve a valuable role in directing hardware/software partitioning on a per-application basis.

Dans cette thèse on s'intéresse à deux aspects différents : conceptuel et réalisationel, sur lesquels portent les quatre innovations présentées. Si celles-ci sont illustrées par une application au détecteur de contours de Deriche, elles sont facilement généralisables à d'autres détecteurs qu'ils soient basés sur le calcul de maxima locaux de la dérivée première, ou le calcul des passages par zéro du laplacien. Les filtres à réponse impulsionnelle infinie symétriques ou anti-symétriques peuvent être réalisés sous forme cascade. Le filtre de lissage peut être défini par intégration numérique du filtre dérivateur optimal. Tout filtre détecteur de contours à noyau large peut être considéré comme un filtre de lissage bidimensionnel à noyau large suivi d'un simple filtre Sobel. L’utilisation d'opérateurs blocs série offre le meilleur compromis surface rapidité pour l'intégration en ASICS ou FPGAS. Nous proposons une architecture câblée temps réel optimale en compacité et simplicité de la version récursive du filtre détecteur de contours de Deriche. Nous exposons la méthode qui conduit à notre solution. A travers cette expérience, nous souhaitons transmettre aux concepteurs d'outils de CAO un certain nombre d'idées qui doivent à notre avis être exploitées afin que des outils tels que les graphes flots de données ou les langages synchrones assistent efficacement l'architecte dans les problèmes d'ordonnancement, d'allocation et de repliement temporel du graphe vers l'architecture.

Co-design is a process that allows designers to develop products with greater insight to user needs through the participation of users in the design process. During this process what users say, make, and do is investigated using common research methods in combination with newer generative and exploratory approaches created for this purpose. Co-design encompasses many design practices. Despite the prevalence of the co-design process, a lack of studies into the education of designers on co-design have been implemented, leaving a gap of information that needs to be filled in order for co-design to become integrated into design education and practice. The purpose of this project is to understand the current state of co-design education in the U.S. and to assimilate popular teaching techniques, by surveying teaching methods of co-design within Industrial Design programs at U.S. Universities with reputations as leaders in the field. This project also aims to design a learning aid for Industrial Design students derived from the findings of interviews, materials review, and literature. A snowball sampling was performed with schools leaders in co-design. Schools were contacted and given a survey, interviewed with selected participants and assessed on their materials and practices on co-design. Various qualitative data analysis was performed with the surveys, interviews and materials. The conclusion includes a composite of common methods for teaching co-design, which are assembled into a learning aid artifact. The artifact incorporates findings into a practical outcome. The significance of this project is to further research into teaching methods of co-design as well as providing a common framework for design educators to follow in higher level learning institutions.

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Esta dissertação apresenta uma pesquisa a cerca da negociação no design de moda sobmedida, tendo como objetivo analisar os mecanismos usados pelos designers em momentos de conflitos durante o processo de projeto que envolve a participação do cliente. Para tanto é apresentado referencial teórico em dois capítulos. Onde inicialmente, são discorridos os conceitos de design, aspectos referentes aos processos e modelos de projetos de design, para por fim descrever o processo característico dos projetos de moda sobmedida. Segue-se a abordagem conceitos relativos a conflito e negociação, importância da negociação e meios para a solução de conflitos. A investigação em caráter exploratório com abordagem qualitativa foi realizada por meio a entrevistas semiestruturadas, buscando a visão dos designers, que foram submetidas à Analise de Conteúdo. Após apresentação dos resultados obtidos, são dispostas as discussões ampliando os conhecimentos sobre a compreensão de como designers de moda agem ao enfrentar momentos de conflito junto a seus clientes em projetos exclusivos. A pesquisa contribuiu para a discussão do tema, bem como foi esclarecedora em relação à prática de projeto de moda envolvendo os clientes.
This dissertation presents a research about the negotiation in custom-made fashion design, having as obtectives to analyse the mechanisms used by designers to solve conflicts during the design prosses involving the participation of the client. For this purpose, the theoretical reference is presented in two chapters, where it is discussed the concepts of design, aspects related to processes of the designers and tools for conflict resolution. It was carried out the exploratory research with qualitative approach through semi-structured in-depth interviews, seeking the view of designers who were submitted to the Content Analysis. After the presentation of the results obtained, it is presented the discussions, increasing the knowledge on the understanding of how fashion designers act when facing moments of conflict with their clients in exclusive designs . The research not only contributed for the discussion of the theme but was also illustrative as to the practice of fashion design involving clients.

The Motor Industry is set in a highly competitive and dynamic global arena constantly shaped by both external and internal forces. From an organisations point of view many of the external or macro forces are largely uncontrollable. Against this backdrop, players in the South African Motor Industry need to find new methods of differentiating themselves from competitors – One manner of performing this strategy is for Motor Dealerships to understand, meet or exceed customer requirements. In this research, the literature survey revealed the concepts of Total Quality Management (TQM) and fail-safing, the meaning of superior customer service and the importance of customer loyalty and retention. Customer service excellence levels of three Williams Hunt dealerships in the Port Elizabeth – Uitenhage metropole were measured by utilizing the SERVQUAL instrument for calibrating service quality. Customer expectations and perceptions were determined by means of the empirical study which yielded a service quality “gap.” From analysis of this gap and related findings, suggested improvements were suggested as a guideline for dealerships to utilise with the aim of improving customer service levels.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo estruturar a aplicação do Design for Testability (DFT) - procedimento que durante a fase de desenvolvimento de um novo produto incorpora regras e técnicas para tornar a execução de testes mais eficiente - no processo de elaboração de requisitos de testes de produção durante o desenvolvimento de sistemas aeronáuticos. A partir dessa aplicação, pretende-se obter a redução do ciclo de testes de produção em série de uma aeronave e a redução dos custos relativos a estes testes, além de realizar uma análise e otimização do processo atual. Para isso, foi necessária a análise do estado atual do processo e proposta de uma nova metodologia a fim de prover, além dos conceitos de DFT, robustez e padronização ao processo, garantindo assim o melhor aproveitamento dos recursos, a eliminação de desperdícios e a diminuição dos custos no processo produtivo. A aplicação do processo proposto foi simulada em parte do desenvolvimento de sistemas aeronáuticos em uma situação real, sendo evidenciados os ganhos obtidos a partir de sua aplicação, contribuindo com a redução de aproximadamente 33% do ciclo total de testes de produção durante a etapa de Montagem Final da aeronave.

Orientador: Ariovaldo Denis Granja
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo
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Resumo: Na abordagem do Custeio-Meta (CM), o custo é um parâmetro de entrada que norteia o processo de projeto, salvaguardando-se os requisitos de qualidade e o desempenho de suas funções na percepção do cliente ou usuário final para o alcance de um produto competitivo e inovador. A pesquisa tem como objetivo aplicar o CM no processo de projeto de uma unidade de Habitação de Interesse Social (HIS) em tecnologia Wood Frame, levando em consideração o contexto do Programa Governamental "Minha Casa, Minha Vida". Fundamentada no método da Design Science ou Pesquisa Construtiva, a pesquisa visa aplicar o CM neste processo, para posteriormente identificar as possíveis contribuições teóricas a partir dos resultados obtidos. A pesquisa utiliza técnicas e ferramentas características do CM para a estimativa de custo e tomada de decisão com foco no valor a partir da percepção do usuário final. Também busca identificar as dificuldades e oportunidades para a aplicação do CM neste contexto. Os dados utilizados como parâmetro de custo da Unidade Habitacional foram cedidos por uma empresa especializada na tecnologia Wood Frame. O processo de projeto foi desenvolvido por um grupo de pesquisadores, envolvendo docentes e discentes de diversas especialidades nas áreas da Arquitetura e Engenharia Civil. Como principal resultado, ao final da pesquisa, será gerado como artefato uma instância atual da aplicação do CM para o contexto proposto, visando à melhoria no atendimento das necessidades e requisitos para HIS do ponto de vista do usuário final, não se perdendo de vista os necessários controles de custo do produto. A orientação prescritiva desta pesquisa oferecerá novidade em relação aos trabalhos já disponíveis, à medida que apresentará resultados provenientes da aplicação prática do CM no contexto analisado e novas contribuições teóricas decorrentes da análise deste processo
Abstract: In the Target Costing (TC) approach, cost is regarded as an initial input to guide the Design Process considering cost, quality requirements and product performance from the end-users and client¿s perspective in order to improve the product through competitiveness and innovation. The main purpose of this study is to apply Target Costing during the design process for low-incoming houses in Brazil by using Wood Frame system. In the Brazilian context, the current low-incoming houses are supported by the Governmental Program called "My House, My Life" (MHML). In this research, the MHML Program will be discussed to deliver Wood Frame houses under the TC approach. Based on the Design Research Approach or Constructive Research, the study seeks to apply the TC to further identify theoretical contributions from the results obtained from its application. Supporting techniques and tools from Value Methodology were properly used to deliver the TC application assisting the cost estimation and decision making. It also aims to identify the difficulties and opportunities for the TC application in this context. The cost data was provided by a Brazilian company specialized in Wood Frame to estimate the initial cost of the product. The design process was developed by a research team including architects, civil engineers, contractors and suppliers. As outcome, the proposed application presents an instantiation for the TC application. Furthermore, the results indicates some directions for possible improvements from the end-users¿ wants and needs in order to fulfil such requirements due to cost controlling. The prescriptive study offers novelty for the TC studies in the construction sector and identifies some gaps related to the Target Costing in Social Housing with the aim to accomplish future studies
Mestrado
Arquitetura e Construção
Mestra em Engenharia Civil

Digital commerce is a natural part of our everyday life. To fast and easily be able to make purchases from our home without stress has become a matter of course for us. But the new way to make purchases places new demands on the sales, not least at the important customer meeting. The interaction between customer and seller disappears completely and known marketing methods must be adapted to the new conditions. How does the customer journey change when the step from discovering a product to buying it is just a few clicks away? The study aims to investigate and develop a digital sales process for a mobile game aimed for children. The process is based on the marketing framework See-Think-Do-Care and tries to answer questions like which components are needed in a sales flow? How can a product be adapted to different types of users and can UX design be used to get interested customers to buy the product? The method is divided into two different sections. One section for evaluating the chosen marketing framework and another for the development of the sales process. The development of the sales process was made stepwise by prototypes in different degrees of fidelity. The first part of the result ended up in the implementation of the marketing framework, a developed customer journey, and a compilation of ten guidelines to adhere to for increasing the conversion of new customers. The sales flow was then developed step by step from only showing the routing to be a clickable solution similar to the intended end product. The di↵erent prototypes were evaluated by user testing and it was shown that the largest problem was not to make users understand the sales flow, it was to make them understand the actual product. The hope is that the result of the study will be able to be tested in production and be used in the real sales of the product.

Design Thinking (designtänkande) är ett kundfokuserat förhållningssätt som används för att stödja innovation. Sedan starten har designtänkandet utvecklats från ett rättframt sätt att lösa tekniska designproblem till en komplex paraplykonstruktion för innovation och förhållningssättet har genom åren blivit ett allmänt accepterat och målinriktat tillvägagångssätt för effektiv produktutveckling. Flera av de praktiska användningsfallen som finns tillgängliga om designtänkande i forskning hänvisar till ett enskilt fall för att lösa specifika problem eller dess tillämpning i business-tocustomer företag. Syftet med detta examensarbete var att kritiskt undersöka hur designtänkande kunde implementeras i ett business-to-business (B2B)-företag med välutvecklade produktutvecklingsprocesser för att balansera kundfokus med produkt strategi. För att förstå effekterna av designtänkande i sådana företag undersöktes hinder som förhindrar designtänkandets implementering och möjligheterna med att införa det med hjälp av en fallstudie på Mycronic AB-kontoret i Täby, Sverige. Materialet i studien samlades in genom interna och externa kvalitativa intervjuer. Resultaten från intervjuerna användes för att föreslå ett ramverk och ett pilotprogram för att stödja Mycronic att införa principer för designtänkande i sin befintliga PDP. Målet med ramverket är att skapa förutsättningar för ett B2B-företag att anpassa sin produktutvecklingsprocess till designprinciper för att bättre förstå slutkundernas explicita och outtalade behov och behoven hos interna intressenter samt för att öka förmågan att identifiera rätt initiativ i ett tidigt skede av ett projekt.
Design Thinking (DT) is a customer centric approach for managing innovation. Since its inception, design thinking has evolved from a straight forward approach to solve engineering design problems into a complex umbrella construct for innovation and has over the years been widely accepted as a goal-oriented approach for effective product development. Several of the practical use cases available in the existing design thinking discourse refer to oneoff case for solving specific problems or its application in a business-to-customer set-up. Thepurpose of this master thesis was to critically examine how design thinking could be implementedin a business to business (B2B) company with well-developed product development processes(PDP) to balance customer centricity with product strategy. To understand the impact of design thinking in such companies, barriers preventing design thinking's implementation and the opportunities enabling its implementation were explored using a single case study approach at Mycronic AB office at Täby, Sweden. The material for the case study was gathered through internal and external qualitative interviews. The results from these interviews were used to propose a framework and pilot programs that would facilitate Mycronic to introduce design thinking principles to its existing product development process. The goal of the framework is to empowera business-to-business company with well-developed product development processes to adapt design thinking principles so as to increase their understanding of end customers' spoken and unspoken needs, recognize the needs of internal stakeholders, and improve their ability to secure the right initiatives in the early phase of a project.

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CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
Devido à dificuldade em se estimar os custos de operação associados ao monitoramento estatístico do processo nos trabalhos identificados na literatura, este trabalho tem por objetivo propor um modelo de otimização econômico para a carta de controle _X que considere as incertezas em relação aos custos variáveis e dependentes do desvio em relação à média do processo. O levantamento bibliográfico efetuado auxiliou no entendimento de como a incerteza em relação aos custos na utilização das cartas de controle são tratados. Percebeu-se o tratamento dos custos bem como do parâmetro de desvio do processo em relação a média _ como variáveis discretas e que impactavam na carta. A proposta aqui apresentada consiste em tratar não apenas o desvio em relação a média mas também dois dos custos associados à operação da carta de controle _X como variáveis aleatórias de distribuição contínua, inserindo assim um componente de incerteza na sua estimação. Desenvolveu-se assim uma nova formulação para o problema de otimização. Foram escolhidas instâncias para a otimização e comparados os resultados com os obtidos por autores da literatura. Os resultados foram obtidos por meio da metaheurística simulated annealing. Como resultados, o método mostrou-se eficiente, mostrando que o nível de dependência entre o parâmetro de mudança de processo e o custo e, da incerteza que se tem quanto aos valores definidos de custo de operação impactam nos custos totais de operação do CEP. A principal contribuição deste trabalho de pesquisa está na apresentação de uma formulação matemática de otimização da carta de controle _X que trata não somente o desvio em relação à média do processo mas também os custos de operação do CEP como variáveis aleatórias. A originalidade da formulação está em considerar os custos linearmente dependentes do tamanho do desvio do processo em relação a sua média.
Due to the difficulty in estimating the operating costs associated to the statistical monitoring of the process described in the literature, this paper aims to propose a model of economic optimization for the _X control chart that considers the uncertainties in relation to the variable costs and dependent on the deviation in relation to the average of the process. The literature review performed supported the understanding of how the uncertainty in relation to costs in the use of control charts is treated. The treatment of the costs as well as the parameter of deviation of the process in relation to the _ average were indicated as discrete variables and that impacted on the chart. The proposal presented here consists of treating not only the deviation from the mean but also two costs associated with the operation of the _X control chart as random variables of continuous distribution, thus inserting a component of uncertainty in its estimation. A new formulation for the optimization problem was developed. Instances for optimization were chosen and the results were compared with those obtained by authors described in the literature. The results were obtained through simulated annealing metaheuristics. As a result, the method proved to be efficient, showing that the level of dependence between the process change parameter and the cost, as well as the uncertainty regarding the defined operating cost values impact on the total cost of operation of the SPC. The main contribution of this research work is the presentation of a mathematical formulation of optimization of the _X control chart that treats not only the deviation in relation to the average of the process but also the operating costs of the SPC as random variables. The originality of the formulation is to consider costs linearly dependent on the size of the process deviation in relation to its mean.

O presente estudo realizou uma análise crítica do planejamento amostral de comunidades bentônicas de substratos inconsolidados. Para tal, foram realizadas análises de custo-benefício dos desenhos amostrais estratificados e não estratificados em ambiente computacional, através das estimativas de exatidão e precisão da amostragem. Os desenhos estratificados apresentaram melhor custo-benefício (mais exatos) do que os não estratificados, sendo que o desenho estratificado-hierarquizado foi considerado o mais custo-eficiente, com melhor precisão em comparação ao estratificado-aleatorizado. Além disso, desenho e esforço amostrais, descritor de comunidade, poder estatístico e complexidade da comunidade bentônica influenciaram a precisão da amostragem. Os conceitos obtidos foram testados em conjunto de dados reais, coletados na Enseada de Caraguatatuba (SP), com vistas à sua aplicação no âmbito do licenciamento ambiental. As tendências observadas para dados reais convergiram com as obtidas nos cenários computacionais. Quanto à aplicação no licenciamento ambiental, constatou-se que diferentes setores da sociedade divergem quanto ao número mínimo de amostras necessário para alcançar níveis adequados de precisão na avaliação de impactos ambientais. Os ambientalistas foram os mais conservadores e a comunidade científica os menos conservadores. Ainda, tanto no cenário virtual quanto no real, uma precisão de 10% resultou em esforços amostrais viáveis financeira e logisticamente, assegurando poder estatístico de 90% no teste de hipóteses
This study performed a critical analysis of the sampling planning of benthic communities in unconsolidated substrates. Cost-benefit analysis of the stratified and non-stratified sample designs were conducted in computational environment, through estimates of sampling accuracy and precision. Thestratified designs presented better cost-benefit results than the non-stratified ones, and the stratified-hierarchical design was considered the most costefficient, with better precision compared to the stratified-randomized. In addition, sampling design and effort, community descriptor, statistical power and complexity of the benthic community influenced sampling precision. These concepts were applied to real data sets collected in Caraguatatuba Bay (SP), with perspectives to its application in environmental licensing. The observed trends for real data converged with the computational scenarios. Regarding its applications for environmental licensing, it was observed that different groups in the society disagreed about the minimum number of samples necessary to achieve adequate precision in environmental impact assessment. Environmentalists were the most conservative group, while members of the scientific community were the least conservative one. Finally, both in real and virtual scenarios, a precision of 10% resulted in sampling efforts which were financially and logistically feasible, assuring a statistical power of 90% in hypothesis testing

The shift towards relationship marketing entails an increased attention directed to buildingcollaborative relationships in the business-to-business market. This has further contributed tothe current interest in the intraorganizational setting in the area of sales and key accountmanagement, and more specifically the notion of sales teams. In light of the above, the purposeof this study is to develop a conceptual framework emphasizing the intraorganizationalperspective of such teams. Within this context, the team’s design and processes have beenhighlighted in relation to its performance and ability to form relationships with customers. Toprovide insights to the purpose of this study a single-case study was conducted in a companyoperating within the cloud software industry. The analysis demonstrates how the design of theteam, depicted by the formalization of procedures and the heterogeneity of team members’expertise, constitutes the frame in which the processes are carried out. Further, the interplay ofcommunication, proactiveness and alignment of goals showed to constitute key processesenabling the team to build relationships with its customers. Thus, by providing a conceptualframework emphasizing the intraorganizational perspective of sales teams, this studycontributes to the theoretical discussion as well as to practitioners in the field.

CAPES : CNPq
Pessoas com paralisia cerebral apresentam grande diversidade de alterações posturais, sendo mais características as consequentes da espasticidade. Objetivando a otimização do desempenho funcional, juntamente com outros objetivos terapêuticos pode ser prescrito o uso órteses. Neste contexto a manufatura aditiva pode se apresentar como uma alternativa à fabricação de produtos personalizados de Tecnologia Assistiva, tais como as órteses. Para este fim a digitalização 3D é uma etapa importante, considerando que a geometria da anatomia do usuário será a referência para o desenvolvimento do produto em ambiente CAD 3D para posterior fabricação. No entanto os equipamentos de digitalização 3D possuem custos elevados, sendo um dos fatores que dificultam a popularização desta solução. Deste modo este trabalho visa avaliar a utilização de sistemas de baixo custo para realizar a digitalização 3D, no contexto do desenvolvimento de órteses personalizadas para punho, mão e dedos a serem fabricadas por manufatura aditiva. Foi proposto um método estruturado em três fases sendo: definição das ferramentas e sistemas a serem avaliados, definição dos parâmetros para avaliação e dos protocolos de utilização dos sistemas digitalização 3D; avaliação dos sistemas de digitalização 3D de baixo custo a partir da digitalização de uma peça padrão; e avaliação dos sistemas de digitalização 3D de baixo custo aplicados ao contexto de órteses para punho, mão e dedos. Os sistemas selecionados para a avaliação foram o Kinect 360 utilizando o programa Skanect, o sistema Kinect One com o programa 3DScan e o sistema ReMake com uma câmera Canon T3i. Os protocolos para a utilização dos sistemas de digitalização 3D de baixo custo foram: protocolo 1, com marcações visuais apenas no ambiente de digitalização; protocolo 2, com aplicação de adesivos coloridos sobre o objeto; e o protocolo 3, com a aplicação de linhas desenhadas à mão formando um xadrez sobre o objeto. Foi desenvolvida e fabricada uma peça padrão, composta por três elementos (um cone, um cilindro e um cubo seccionado). Para a avaliação dimensional foram considerados os parâmetros altura do cone, diâmetro do cilindro e medidas paralelas aos eixos X, Y e Z aferidas pela distância entre as faces opostas do cubo. Também foi realizada a análise dos desvios utilizando o programa Geomagic e uma avaliação da qualidade onde se verificou visualmente a formação dos vértices e das arestas. Para a avaliação aplicada ao contexto do desenvolvimento de órteses, foi aplicado mesmo procedimento sobre um molde da geometria do punho, mão e dedos confeccionado em atadura gessada. As digitalizações geraram 27 malhas 3D da peça padrão e 9 malhas 3D do molde. As avaliações indicaram que os sistemas Kinect 360 e Kinect One não apresentaram variação significativa entre os diferentes protocolos. Já o sistema ReMake foi o mais sensível, sendo o protocolo 3 o que gerou malhas 3D com os melhores resultados dimensionais e de qualidade em relação a todos os sistemas, com valores variando entre 0,07 mm e 0,27 mm nas análises dos desvios realizadas sobre a peça padrão.
People with cerebral palsy could have wide range of postural changes, the most characteristic are resulting from spasticity. Custom orthosis use can be prescribed in this context aiming increase functional performance and other therapeutic goals. The additive manufacturing is an alternative to the custom assistive products fabrication, such as orthoses. In this context 3D scanning is an important step, considering that the user anatomy is a geometric reference to product development in 3D CAD for further fabrication. However, the 3D scanners have high costs, one of the factors that hinder the popularization of this solution. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the use of low cost systems to perform 3D scanning in the context of custom orthoses development for wrist, hand and fingers to be fabricated by additive manufacturing. A three-phases method was proposed as follows: definition of tools and systems to be evaluated, definition of parameters for assessment, and definition of protocols for using 3D scanning systems; evaluation of low-cost 3D scanning systems using a standard piece; and evaluation of low-cost 3D scanning systems applied to context of orthosis for wrist, hand and fingers. The selected systems for the evaluation were 360 Kinect using Skanect software, Kinect One system with 3DScan software and the ReMake system with a Canon T3i camera. The low-cost 3D scanning systems used protocols were: Protocol 1, with visual markings only on the scanning environment; Protocol 2, with colored stickers application on the object; and protocol 3, with the use of hand drawn lines forming a chess pattern on the object. A standard piece was developed and manufactured, composed of three elements (a cone, a cylinder and a sectioned cube). The cone height, cylinder diameter and parallel measures to axes X, Y and Z were considered as the dimensional evaluation parameters. Also, a Deviations Analysis was performed using Geomagic software and a visual-quality evaluation that observed the formation of vertices and edges. For the evaluation on orthoses development context, the same procedure was applied on a cast of the wrist, hand and fingers. This cast was made of plaster bandages. The procedure generated 27 standard piece 3D mesh and 9 cast 3D meshes. The evaluations indicated that Kinect 360 and Kinect One systems have no significant variation between the different protocols. The ReMake system was the most sensitive, and the protocol 3 generated 3D meshes with the best dimensional and quality results among all systems. The deviations analysis performed on the standard piece indicated errors ranging between 0.07 mm and 0.27 mm for the ReMake’s 3D meshes.

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2004.
Advisor: Dr. Uwe Meyer-Baese, Florida State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 15, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 108 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

The share of people ordering goods and services online has been increasingly steadily, whilst consumers are becoming more astute, demanding further immersive, intuitive interfaces; while expecting seamless buying experiences across all channels. This Work Project aims to analyse whether PCDIGA, a Portuguese multi-channel electronics retailer, is in fact optimizing its after-sales business processes taking into consideration the customer experience, as to guarantee more convenience and reduce friction from it. Through the knowledge and data collected, suggestions were made as to redesign the firm’s after-sales service business processes using a design thinking approach.

碩士
銘傳大學
商品設計學系碩士在職專班
103
Service industry nowadays is the mainstream. More enterprises have become emphasized not only new experience service offering via customers’ viewpoints but also service efficiency and the effective service procedures by service design to attract customers, moreover, the service model is conversed from traditional passive service to contemporary active service for customers to satisfy customer experiential value by bringing diverse consumer experience than former. Service design is based on human being that means service and people are correlative closely each other. Design of service needs to get stockholders thinking that includes customer experience and enterprise process. This study aims to review standard service process provided by the enterprise, and Starbucks is an object of this study for the serial research processes including the pretest for loyal customers by questionnaire survey and soft systems methodology (SSM) as a research method, and furthermore, it shows three major ways including analysis and inductivity of issues, plan and design of objectives, interview and verification based on service design and provide a complete service design concept model for crowded reduction while ordering for Starbucks. The research results show that there are five stages for enterprise during promotional activities as follows: (1) make feasible ordering service processing objectives; (2) decide working scope of ordering service process; (3) decide ordering service processing model; (4) get ordering service processing design solutions; (5) practice, evaluation and modification. The model can be a reference for executive activity in coffee industry and a basis as following research for other industries in the future.

Project Work presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Marketing Intelligence
Dada a crescente evolução do número de dispositivos móveis, bem como a sua generalização na vida quotidiana, aliado ao crescente uso das aplicações de mensagens e aos avanços da inteligência artificial nos últimos anos, mostra-se incontornável o investimento no desenvolvimento de soluções móveis, que possibilitem facilitar e agilizar as tarefas do dia-a-dia. O uso dos chatbots têm vindo a ganhar algum destaque em diversas áreas de serviços, nomeadamente no serviço de suporte ao cliente, apresentando-se como uma ferramenta de otimização e de eficiência devido à sua capacidade de resposta a diversos pedidos de diversos clientes em simultâneo e em tempo real 24/7. Apesar desta tecnologia ainda se encontrar em fase intermédia de desenvolvimento, dá já mostras claras e inequívocas das suas potencialidades. Esta é já claramente uma opção a ter em conta, por parte das organizações que necessitam de um serviço de suporte ao cliente, como fator de satisfação dos seus parceiros, em horários alargados (24/7) e a custos de implementação e utilização controlados. O presente projeto, desenvolvido no âmbito da tese de mestrado em parceria com a empresa Cascais Próxima, visa o desenvolvimento e implementação de uma solução de chatbot (MobiBot) para o serviço de suporte ao cliente do MobiCascais. Pretende-se assim, avaliar se a solução MobiBot representa uma boa opção de complemento para serviço de suporte ao cliente do MobiCascais na ótica do utilizador e empresa. Numa fase inicial, foi feito o enquadramento do tema partindo do estado de arte do serviço de suporte ao cliente do MobiCascais e especificando o serviço de mobilidade suave do bike sharing, encontrando-se assim a base de fundamento para a o desenvolvimento e implementação desta solução. Das diversas reuniões com alguns departamentos da empresa Cascais Próxima, possibilitou a análise de requisitos e consequentemente a clarificação do âmbito do projeto. Na fase posterior, foi realizada uma revisão de literatura visando alargar o conhecimento e apoiar o projeto nas suas diversas vertentes, como a escolha da plataforma para o desenvolvimento, métricas que permitam avaliar o desempenho do MobiBot, estratégia para desenvolver e acompanhar a evolução do MobiBot, entre outros temas. Seguidamente, foi estruturada a metodologia de trabalho para todo o projeto, passando para o desenho da arquitetura e desenvolvimento do MobiBot que teve em conta os diferentes componentes a integrar, assim como a forma destes interagirem entre si. A fase seguinte consistiu no teste de usabilidade e análise do mesmo, para implementação de melhorias no MobiBot, antes que este fosse implementado na App do MobiCascais. Na fase de implementação e teste, foi dada a oportunidade aos utilizadores do MobiCascais de interagirem com a solução nos seus pedidos de suporte, gerando assim, registos destas interações que posteriormente foram analisadas com o objetivo de validar a utilidade do MobiBot na relação utilizadores / serviço de suporte ao cliente do MobiCascais. Deste modo, conclui-se que o MobiBot realizou com elevado sucesso as tarefas dentro do âmbito para o qual foi desenhado. Dada a verificação na diminuição das chamadas para o canal tradicional de telefone do serviço de suporte ao cliente do MobiCascais, confirmou-se ainda, o elevado valor acrescentado desta solução. Este projeto abre espaço para novos desenvolvimentos futuros, quer na ampliação do âmbito de ação do MobiBot, quer na qualidade do seu serviço. Palavras-chave: Suporte ao cliente, Chatbots, Métricas, Qualidade do serviço, Dialogflow, Processo de design, Teste de usabilidade, Fluxo de conversa, Comunicação.
Due to the growing number of mobile devices, as well as its generalization in daily life, combined with the increasing use of messaging applications and the advances in artificial intelligence during the last years, an investment in the development of solutions, which may facilitate and accelerate the resolution of the daily tasks, is almost mandatory. The use of chatbots has been gaining some prominence in several service areas, namely in customer support service, presenting itself as an optimal and efficient tool, due to its ability to respond to several requests from different customers simultaneously and in real time 24 / 7. Although this technology is still in an intermediate stage of development, it shows already evident and unequivocal potentials. This is clearly an option to be taken into account by organizations, which need an customer support service as a factor of satisfaction for their partners, in an extended timeframe (24/7) and under controlled implementation and use costs. This project, developed as part of the master's thesis in partnership with Cascais Próxima, aims to develop and implement a chatbot solution (MobiBot) for the customer support service of the MobiCascais. It is intended to evaluate if the MobiBot solution really represents a good complement to the customer support service of the MobiCascais, from the perspective of the user and the company. In an initial phase, the theme was defined based on the state-of-the-art of the customer support service of the MobiCascais and specifying the bikesharing service, finding that way the base for the development and implementation of this solution. From several meetings with some departments of Cascais Próxima, it was enabled the analysis of requirements and consequently the clarification of the scope of the project. In the subsequent phase, a literature review was carried out in order to expand the knowledge and support the project in its several aspects, such as the choice of the platform for its development, metrics that allow assessing the performance of MobiBot, the strategy to developing and monitoring the evolution of MobiBot , among other topics. Then, it was structured the working methodology for the entire project, moving on to the architecture of its design and development of the MobiBot, which considered the different components to be integrated, as well as the way they interact between each other. The phase after consisted in testing and analysing its usability, to implement the improvements in the MobiBot, before it was implemented in the MobiCascais App. In the implementation and testing phase, it was given the opportunity to some users from the MobiCascais to interact with the solution by their support requests, generating that way records of these interactions, which were analysed later in order to validate the usefulness from the MobiBot in the user / customer support service relationship from the MobiCascais. Therefore, it was concluded that MobiBot carried out with great success, the tasks within the scope for which it was designed. Due to the decrease in calls to the traditional telephone channel of the customer support service from MobiCascais, it also confirmed the add value of this solution. This project creates space for new future developments, both in expanding the scope of works from MobiBot as well as the quality of its service. Keywords: Customer support, Chatbots, Metrics, Service quality, Dialogflow, Design process, usability testing, Conversation flow, Communication.

Tese de Doutoramento - Leaders for Technical Industries (LTI) - MIT Portugal
Este projeto de doutoramento foi realizado em cooperação com a empresa Petrotec, uma das cinco maiores fabricantes mundiais de equipamentos para as áreas de distribuição e retalho da indústria petrolífera. O trabalho realizado contribuiu para o desenvolvimento de uma nova máquina de lavagem automóvel, que foi baseada num modelo existente, designado AquaStar, com os seguintes objetivos: reduzir a complexidade de fabrico, reduzir o tamanho e peso, aumentar a resistência à corrosão, e melhorar a eficiência de secagem, sem afetar significativamente o custo final. Ao longo deste trabalho, um novo conceito foi desenvolvido com base em restrições e objetivos identificados e, em seguida, uma nova estrutura e um sistema de secagem foram concebidos com o apoio de ferramentas numéricas. O comportamento mecânico da nova estrutura foi estudado, em condições normais de serviço e em situações de risco comuns, para definir suas características detalhadas e avaliar o seu desempenho. Adicionalmente, o novo sistema de secagem foi estudado e concebido, de modo a avaliar a sua eficácia no processo de secagem veículos representativos da gama coberta pelo equipamento. Finalmente, foi efetuada uma análise de custos para selecionar o tratamento superficial para a utilizar na nova estrutura, e o processo de fabrico mais adequado para os seus componentes mais relevantes. Com base nos resultados obtidos, foi possível reduzir tanto a dimensão como o peso da nova estrutura e o número de elementos estruturais utilizados, obtendo-se também uma modularidade melhorada, quando comparada com a do modelo anterior. Os resultados obtidos nos estudos numéricos permitiram concluir que a nova estrutura é capaz de suportar as condições de serviço e de risco mais comuns. Para além disso, foi possível confirmar que o desempenho global do novo sistema de secagem é satisfatório. Com base na análise de custos efetuada, a quinagem e chapa e a galvanização por imersão a quente mostraram ser as alternativas mais económicas para a produção e revestimento superficial da nova estrutura. O protótipo construído permitiu confirmar todos os resultados numéricos obtidos. Espera-se que este trabalho contribua, em geral, para o conhecimento global do projeto de equipamento e, especificamente, para a conceção de máquinas de lavagem automóvel, dado que o estudo realizado incorpora um problema complexo de engenharia de sistemas.
This PhD work was done in cooperation with Petrotec, one of the five largest manufacturers of the world concerning the equipment for the oil industry’s distribution and retail. The work done contributed to the development of a new rollover carwashing machine based on an existing model, named AquaStar, with the following objectives: reducing manufacturing complexity, size/weight reduction, enhancing corrosion resistance, and improving the drying efficiency while keeping costs minimized. Throughout this work, a new concept was developed based on the identified constraints and objectives and then a new structure and a drying system were designed with the support of numerical tools. The mechanical behavior of the new structure during normal working operations and a possible hazard was modeled to define its detailed characteristics and to evaluate its performance. Additionally, the new drying system was studied, in order to model its drying efficiency on actual vehicle models. Finally the most cost effective surface finish treatment for the new structure, the most appropriate manufacturing process selection, and a number cost studies are presented. Based on the results, the new structure is considerably lower in terms of weight, dimension, and the number of structural elements used, while has an enhanced modularity as compared to the previous model. The results obtained in the numerical studies allowed concluding that the new structure is very well capable of withstanding the service conditions. Moreover, the overall drying performance of the new drying system is satisfactory. Based on the cost studies, sheet metal forming and hot dip galvanization were shown to be the most cost-effective alternatives for surface finish treatment and processing technologies for external components. The experimental prototype of the machine confirm machine behavior the results achieved by the numerical tools. This work is expected to contribute to the overall knowledge of machine design in general and carwashing machine in specific since it comprises the study of a complex systems engineering problem.