One of the greatest challenges in product design is when products fail to perform in the real world as designed. Autodesk Research is addressing this by pioneering an innovative product design process that integrates sensor-collected product performance data into the design. This approach incorporates performance data into cloud-based digital twin workflows and automates the product design iteration process. It addresses the paradox of designing products for users without integrating users’ operational data. The focus is on incorporating sensor data into product design iterations, setting the stage for a performance-aided design approach.

A performance-aided design solution deeply integrates the lifecycle of design, make, and operate through a digital thread. This connection underlies all feedback and improvements of designs and processes, resulting in increasingly responsive, adaptive living products. The growing duality of digital and physical representations of these living products, powered by computation, sensing, and actuation, will ultimately blur the difference between them.

“No matter how ideally we design and simulate products, they often perform differently in the real world. By integrating sensor-collected performance data into the design process, we can close the gap between prediction and reality, ensuring products perform as expected.”

Ed Tlegenov

Senior Manager, Research Science

Associated Autodesk Researchers

Leonardo Rodriguez

Experience Designer

Michelle Quan

Associate Research & Design Engineer

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