From Thoughts to Reality

Terrence Mak

What is imagination?

What is modelling?The Cutty Sark

Greenwich, UK

Design in the Cave

Imagination and Modelling

• Abstract• Human-centric• Expressed in pictures,

movie, sound etc.• Imagination• No boundary and

unlimited• Not feasible

• Delicacy• Perspective• Mathematical• Logical• Spatio-temporal• From rough to detailed• Optimization– Searching for the best– Implementable

What the differences between Engineering and Physics

• Physics • Engineering

A Flow From Thinking to Prototyping

• See the board

Sketches

From Imagination to Drawing

Drawing -> Drawing (Advanced) -> Prototyping -> Optimizing

Prototyping

• You can have discovery– Seeing– Feeling– Hearing

• Go back to modelling and do prototyping again

• Engineering needs prototypes– Strengthen the models– And …?

Prototyping and Optimization

Still not working …

• Discrepancy between the thoughts and reality– Perspective– Scale– Timing

• Find out from – Modelling– Prototyping– Evaluation

• Then, do it again…(usually 100 times)

Try, and try again … until it works

A General Practice

• Thoughts• Models -> Thoughts• Prototypes -> Models• Evaluations -> Prototypes • Optimization -> Prototypes

This is engineering

• What have you learnt?

An Example

• A Flying Robot– Thoughts – like an airplane– Models – Forces, acceleration, …– Prototyping – Evaluation – Speed, stability, control …– Optimization – (objectives, constraints, variables)

Six degrees of freedom

The motion of an aeroplane has the six degrees of freedom of a rigid body, which described as:Translation:1. Moving up and down (heaving);2. Moving left and right (swaying);3. Moving forward and backward (surging);Rotation4. Tilting forward and backward (pitching);5. Turning left and right (yawing);6. Tilting side to side (rolling).

Prototyping

Evaluation

• Visualize the landscape

• Find out (sub)optimal solutions

• Define objective(s)• Subject to

constraint(s)• Define variables

Optimization

A case study

Using the Model-based Design

• Automatic real-time trading machine• Real-time EEG systems for car control• Human-computer interaction• Real-time system for air pollution

measurement