Development of an HSI Module and Material-Design Software to Support Concurrent Design Concept Exploration Navy SBIR FY2014.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2014.2 Topic No.: N142-083 Topic Title: Development of an HSI Module and Material-Design Software to Support Concurrent Design Concept Exploration Proposal No.: N142-083-0049 Firm: HF Designworks, inc. PO Box 19911 Boulder, Colorado 80308 Contact: Scott Scheff Phone: (303) 945-4920 Web Site: www.hfdesignworks.com Abstract: HF Designworks (HFDW) describes an approach for developing a Human System Integration (HSI) module to the existing Framework for Assessing Cost and Technology (FACT) tool. The HSI module, working within a SysML format, will hold implications for hardware design in terms of the eight HSI domains: Human Factors Engineering (HFE), Personnel, Habitability, Manpower, Training, Safety, Occupational Health, and Survivability. Benefits of such a module include improved safety and reduced manufacturing and maintenance costs; thereby contributing to reduced life-cycle costs. The Phase 1 effort will include identifying requirements for such a module and performing "best of breed" analyses of existing modeling algorithms to select relevant features for inclusion in our HSI module. Phase 1 will result in a plan and paper-based prototype of such a module, enabling heuristic assessments of design choices leveraging HSI related life-cycle concerns. Phase 2 will further develop, implement, and test the module as it becomes a plugin to FACT. The goal of this project is to develop a principle- and model-based software module that allows users to evaluate and compare potential designs in terms of their expected effects on operator performance, safety, and lifecycle costs (ensuring HSI domains are properly represented) before these systems are built. Benefits: A variety of specific benefits are expected using our proposed approach. The initial primary benefit will be the creation of a useful and usable module to support end users (systems engineers and trade space analysts) in evaluating potential designs [e.g., analysis of alternatives (AoA)]. Initially we will build our module to evaluate High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) platform variations in terms of the HSI domains, with the eventual goal of having a platform agnostic tool. The long-term benefit will be supporting the customer in easily identifying, early in the design process, those potential designs that can best support operator performance, safety, and lifecycle costs; again in terms of HSI. A module such as the one we are proposing, with minor alterations, could then be used to support other organizations within the greater DoD as well as corporations and foreign governments looking to revise designs with the advent of human engineering foresight in the form of a module ranging from the design of building workspace to public transportation. Return