An academic design methodology for electrical mobility products - from necessity to functional prototype

Abstract

The undergraduate program in Product Design Engineering at EAFIT University-Colombia, includes an applied project course during eight semesters with different topics -- Students attend their last project course in seventh and eighth semester integrated into one year topic -- In this project, they have to design a new high-tech consumer product in electrical mobility for different types of transportation need and to construct a completely functional prototype -- The objectives of these courses are to focus on the triad of “Product-User-Context” as well as to foster design, engineering, manufacturing, management and entrepreneurship skills -- In order to offer a systematic way of working, and to obtain better results, a systematic design methodology has been adopted, adapted and applied during the whole product development process in order to facilitate representation, analysis, calculation, management and control of the information related to the product -- The methodology is broadly explained through activities, tools, information and results related to four main stages: 1) Need research & problem statement, 2) Conceptual design, 3) Detailed design and 4) Prototype construction & testing -- A successful case study is presented following all the stages of the presented methodology for the development of an Electric Power-Assisted Bicycle