Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
by solving engineering contradictions, in order to reduce the natural ten-
dency of users to make sacrifices in one feature of a design as a trade-off
for achieving an improvement in some other aspect of the design. The
knowledge-base includes data relating to more than 1,200 physical, geo-
metric, chemical and other effects used in the past to solve other prob-
lems in engineering, and a selection of these effects is presented to the
user of the Invention Machine for consideration as potential solutions to
the current problem. The system also includes a technology evolution
and prediction capability that aids the user in understanding the dynam-
ics of the product's evolution and the most logical next generation(s) of
the product or its function. This stimulates the user to forward plan
and extrapolate the dynamics of the life cycle of the technology and to
originate its next generation.
The Invention Machine and its spin-off systems have several inter-
esting success stories to tell, one of which was the design of a new type
of pizza box that required the reconciliation of apparently incompatible
goals. When a Russian refugee engineer called Michael Valdman emi-
grated to the U.S.A. in 1990, he worked for a while delivering pizzas
and discovered that the traditional pizza-box design suffered from two
contradictions. Firstly, pizzas being delivered in boxes to locations out-
side the restaurant needed extra insulation, so that they would stay hot
longer than they normally would in a conventional pizza box, but it was
important to achieve this increase in insulation without increasing the
bulk and, therefore, the cost of the box. The software suggested using
a void inside the box instead of a more solid insulating substance, and
recommended making the box in a spherical shape. Valdman did this by
making the bottom of the box concave, thereby creating a dome of air
beneath the pizza. The other contradiction was that, in order to keep a
pizza hot, the pizza box must be kept closed, but in order to keep the
pizza from getting soggy the water vapour given off by the pizza must be
allowed to escape. The program suggested changing the shape of either
the pizza or the box, in order to reduce contact between the pizza and the
water vapour, as a result of which Valdman designed a box with small,
moulded pyramids rising from the inside of the base so that the water
vapour condenses between the pyramids and away from the pizza crust.
By implementing both of the software's suggestions in his design, Vald-
man's container keeps the pizza hot and crispy for almost three times as
long, around 45 minutes, while costing the same as a conventional pizza
box. In 1995 Valdman was granted two patents for his design.
