Low-Cost Demonstrators Enhancing Product Development with the Use of Physical Representations

Ever since the early nineties and the advent of affordable and comprehensive 3D-CAD systems, companies have striven to take advantage of cost-effective Virtual Prototyping, gradually moving away from activities involving physical representations of the evolving product. There are, however, aspects of the product development process that are less suitable for virtual exploration. Thus, there are limits to what extent it is effective to rely on digital modeling of physical products. Instead, this thesis argues that a deliberate combination of physical and virtual modeling offers numerous efficiencies that deserve further investigation. By studying and combining four domains; product development theory, traditional prototyping, computer aided engineering and learning theory, the concept of low-cost demonstrators are identified as a potential means for further enhancement of the product development process. Especially when developing products involving new and unfamiliar technologies, this approach has proven particularly relevant and beneficial. Furthermore, a low-cost demonstrator can potentially serve as a catalyst for innovation and creativity among the members of the design team operating in a CAE intense environment. In order to verify the validity of the concept of low-cost demonstrators, several undergraduate courses at Linköping University have been studied and evaluated.