Seamless Digital-Physical Prototyping

Seamless Digital-Physical Prototyping

The product development process requires an orchestration of physical and digital models of different qualities, fidelities, and capabilities.

A huge amount of work goes into managing these models, transferring between the physical and digital worlds, updating designs, and trying to align the information that each model and prototype provides.

But imagine instead that all models were intelligently linked across the digital and physical worlds. Where design changes in any model automatically update the others. Where test results are automatically shared and integrated wherever they are most useful. Where the physical world and digital world in engineering grow together and take the best of both, with no need for systems or work to bridge the gap between.

As part of a 4-year project we are developing the next generation of digital / physical models and systems, creating a fully integrated tool chain that allows engineers to work in the media that they want, when they want, and leverages the speed of computation and physicality of the real world to vastly increase understanding and capability while simultaneously reducing design cycle time and cost.

Recent Posts

  • 21st Century Prototyping exhibit at ICED 2023 - Setting the stage to show the community our technical capabilities and upcoming research, this week the 21CP team exhibited a range of demos at the ICED 2023 conference! We had three sets of demos up and running for attendees to try: Design in VR: Aman led the charge with a… Read More
  • 21st Century Prototyping at the ProSquared Network+ Launch - This week Chris and the team joined the launch event for the new ProSquared Network on the Democratisation of Digital Devices. This 5-year network aims to connect industry and academia to find new ways to overcome production barriers at lower volumes, by making design, prototyping, and manufacture faster and more… Read More
  • Revisiting prototyping in 2020: A snapshot of practice in UK Design Companies - Prototyping is an indispensable activity in the product development process but what does prototyping practice in industry look like? In this video we take a 'snapshot' of prototyping practice from 5 companies to see how practice has evolved and understand what the characteristics of industrial practices are.This work was presented… Read More
  • Comparison of digitisation methods: photogrammetry and structured light scanning - What are the differences in performance and usability of digitisation techniques?  In this video we compare two such methods; photogrammetry and structured light scanning.For more details please see the full paper on the link here https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-design-society/article/comparison-of-structured-light-scanning-and-photogrammetry-for-the-digitisation-of-physical-prototypes/66038D84EF1A45F22F601B899EFC0D25.This work was presented at the International Conference of Engineering Design (ICED) 2021.  Read More
  • How are prototypes fungible? - Prototyping constitutes a wide range of methods spanning both physical and digital domains, each with their respective benefits and drawbacks. Different methods are used in the product development process (PDP) to generate knowledge about both the problem and design solution. A key ingredient to successful product development is ensuring that the right… Read More
  • DMF Lab at CIRP 2019 – 69th General Assembly, Birmingham - The DMF Lab are at the CIRP GA 2019 in Birmingham this week, exhibiting what we do and who we are. Dr Aydin Nassehi will be in attendance everyday of the conference, with Dr Chris Snider and Harry Felton attending the exhibit on Monday and Tuesday. Professor Ben Hicks will… Read More
  • ICED 2019, Delft - Five of the team (Chris, David, Harry, Lee and Mark) attended ICED2019 at TU Delft, Delft, Netherlands. 3 papers were presented, along with a marketplace demonstration, that were all well received. The theme of the conference was "Responsible design for our future", with several keynotes highlighting how researchers and wider… Read More
  • ProtoTwinning at Connected Everything 2019 - We've just gotten back from the excellent Connected Everything 2019 conference hosted by the University of Nottingham. Focusing on industrial systems in the digital age, digital twinning, and the future of technology in engineering, the Connected Everything network are the perfect group to share our work and interests. The conference… Read More
  • ProtoTwinning project holds its inaugral steering committee meeting - On Friday March 22nd the ProtoTwinning project (Full title - Improving the product development process through integrated revision control and twinning of digital-physical models during prototyping) held its inaugural industry day and steering committee meeting. The day started with a brief history of the digital twin followed by five technical… Read More
  • Digital Twinning and Additive Manufacturing - I've started work on my first sprint looking at coupling additive and subtractive manufacturing (termed hybrid manufacturing) for use within digital twinning. Using the research group's new lab space - the digital manufacturing lab at the University of Bristol - I'm going to be investigating the machining of FDM produced… Read More