ExplorNova leads research on the design and construction of large industrial machines. To do so, the project applies analyses to “big science” instruments, such as space telescopes, for which the technical and natural environments are necessary conditions for their functioning.

Big science instruments, and more generally large industrial projects, are designed and realised over decades. They result from international planning, management and coopetition, industrial research and production, and inventions born in the fundamental research laboratories.

Idid – Innovate: discover, invent & design

The study consists of various steps, including technical analysis, interviews with the designer team, system analysis of the instruments, historical analysis to identify technical lineages, and socio-technological analysis of the industrial design.

The finals products of Idid are a design methodology for industrial research and tools for representing the design path and its socio-technological constraints with diagrams.

Application

ExplorNova applies its findings to large industrial research projects, resembling in their design conditions to the paradigmatic science machines. This may include machines and systems in aerospace (satellites, airplane turbines, rocket engines), renewable and marine energy (aeolians, marine turbines)…