USING PRODUCT ARCHITECTURE-BASED DESIGN METHODS TO GET SMART IN THE BATTLEFIELD

At the University of Missouri-Rolla, a novel product architecture design method was utilized to create new designs and prototypes of an intelligent battlefield hazard marking system for the United States Army. This design project was initiated by the Army to improve the current marking system in use worldwide. Designs and prototypes were submitted by three independent interdisciplinary teams of senior-level engineering students. Each team followed a procedure of customer needs collection, functional modeling, concept proving, and alpha and beta prototyping to arrive at their final design. Even though each design team was given the same problem statement and customer needs and followed the same design procedure, each team arrived at a unique final design. By using a functional modeling based product architecture method in their design, the three final designs, though unique, exhibited similarity in terms of a modular design.