International Journal of Advances in Engineering & Technology, Nov. 2012.

IJAET ISSN: 2231-1963

HYBRID LEAN-AGILE DESIGN OF MOBILE ROBOTS

Salah A.M. Elmoselhy Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge CB3 0DG, UK

ABSTRACT
Determining how and when value is added in the mobile robot design process is problematic. Lean design and agile design paradigms have been proposed to design robots; yet, none of them could strike a balance between cost-effectiveness and short duration of the design process without compromising quality of performance. The present research therefore identifies empirically the most influential mobile robot design activities and strategies on mobile robot performance. The study has identified statistically the most positively correlated mobile robot design activities and strategies with mobile robot performance. The study has shown that 65% of typical mobile robot design activities and strategies are affiliated with the lean design paradigm, while the remaining 35% are affiliated with the agile design paradigm. In addition, it has been found that 22% of the lean mobile robot design activities and strategies and 25% of the agile mobile robot design activities and strategies significantly with 99% reliability are among the most positively correlated design activities and strategies with improving mobile robot performance; these particular mobile robot design activities and strategies have proved to significantly improve mobile robot performance by more than 10%. The study shows that hybrid lean-agile design is thus an applicable and viable mobile robots design paradigm.

KEYWORDS: Mobile Robots, Design Process, Lean Design, Agile Design

I.

INTRODUCTION

Lean and agile approaches have been adopted by the designers of robots for years. Lean design is value optimization through minimizing waste in the design process [1]. It usually leads to cost reduction. According to Womack, J., et al., [2, 3] significant interest has been shown in recent years in the idea of lean operations. More recently, a growing awareness has been established that lean principles can be readily transferred to the design sector [1]. The lean design process would only be successful if the success criterion was only cost. On the other hand, agile design is a design system with flexible technology, qualified and trained human resources, and shared information that responds quickly to continuous and unpredicted changes in customers needs and desires and in market demand [4]. Having this ability can make the mobile robot design process successful if the success criterion is short lead time [5, 6]. The current challenge in the design process of robots is to improve value added to customer while shortening the robot design process duration [7] [8]. Therefore, robot designers face a dilemma that they need to strike a balance between robot design duration and robot performance in the most costeffective way. Chalupnik [9, 10] recently reported that minimizing variations in performance caused by variations in uncontrollable external noise parameters or by variations in design parameters, was investigated extensively. Aravinth, et al., [11] has proposed more recently minimizing variations in performance caused by variations in internal factors in the design process of complex products, such as failure modes. Yet, internal factors in the robot design process, such as design activities and strategies, and their relation to robot performance have not been yet investigated empirically. Browning [12] reported that determining how and when value is added in the design process is

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problematic. Thus, the present research aims to help novel designers of mobile robots in resolving this dilemma by identifying empirically the most influential mobile robot design activities and strategies on robot performance and by identifying the most efficient mobile robot design paradigm. This research investigates how and when value is added in the design process of mobile robots. The paper starts with identifying the technical attributes and design specifications of mobile robots. A quasi experiment on the design of mobile robots is presented after that as a case study. Following from this experiment, the design activities and strategies typically implemented in the mobile robot design process and their lean/agile classification are investigated next. The study then identifies the most influential lean mobile robot design activities and strategies and agile mobile robot design activities and strategies on mobile robot performance. Finally, the paper investigates the most efficient design paradigm in the design process of mobile robots.

II.

MOBILE ROBOT PERFORMANCE AND TECHNICAL ATTRIBUTES

Mobile robots are industrially sought for their advantages that range from reducing operating costs, improving product quality and consistency, as well as the quality of work for employees, to increasing production output rates, increasing product manufacturing flexibility, reducing raw materials waste and increasing yield [13]. The recent trend in robots design is mobile robots [14]; thus, the design of mobile robot has been chosen to be the basis of the design experiment in the present research. The quality of mobile robots is measured against the following mobile robot performance attributes that were used as the rubric of evaluation in this design experiment and that were extracted from the industrially adopted set of technical attributes of a quality mobile robot [13, 15, 16]: (1) minimum floor space requirements for agile motion; (2) adaptable to the surroundings and capable of making decisions accordingly, such as in case of path irregularity, missing a junction, and encountering obstacles [17]; (3) Capable of recognizing the position of an object; (4) Capable of controlling the force used to grip an object; (5) Provides the flexibility for picking and depositing loads to a variety of station types and elevations; (6) Capable of following a no straightforward path; (7) Fast response; (8) Stability [18]; (9) Accuracy; (10) Payload capacity; (11) Reliability; (12) Maintainability; (13) Safety. The degree of striking a balance between these competing technical attributes shapes the mobile robot performance, which in turn should be realized cost-effectively within the shortest duration of robot design process possible [19, 20]. These attributes have been observed in the mobile robot design quasi experiment.

III.

MOBILE ROBOT DESIGN QUASI EXPERIMENT

A quasi experiment on mobile robot design was conducted based on a contest among groups of novel designers who were undergraduates at the Engineering Department of Cambridge University to design, build, and test a mobile robot such that the robot carries out a set of tasks successfully within a certain timeframe. In this experiment, the novel designers were observed while designing, building, and testing their mobile robots, and were asked to respond to a questionnaire on the design activities and strategies they adopted. The design independent variables in this experiment were the design activities and strategies, and the design dependent variable was the robot performance. The data that have been collected for analysis have been collected from observations and from the responses to the questionnaire. The following subsections elaborate on the mobile robot design experiment setup and specification, mobile robot performance evaluation criteria, method of analysis of the experiment results, and experimental observations and responses to the questionnaire that all have been adopted in this mobile robot design experiment.

3.1. Mobile Robot Design Experiment Setup and Specification

In the experimental setup of this quasi experiment, each design team was divided into three subteams: one for mechanical aspects, one for electronics aspects, and one for software aspects. The design experiment was to design and build a mobile robot that is able to collect six pallets from a conveyor belt, B, and to transport them to one of two delivery points, D1 or D2, depending on the type of pallet within five minutes, as illustrated in Figure 1 [21]. The task would continue until half dozen pallets were transferred or the time limit was reached. In this experiment, the following conditions were applied: (a) the conveyer that is indicated in light green in Figure 1 could be

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started/stopped & reversed using Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) optical switches; (b) an adjustable Light Emitting Diode (LED)-based beam suitable for driving an optical sensor, mounted just above the conveyer belt was available [21].

Figure 1. Mobile robot design experiment contest area topography [21]

As to the mechanical sub-system in this experiment, there was a set of resources available for the competing design groups. These resources available for the mechanical sub-system included: (1) transmission components such as wheels, (2) castors, (3) D.C. motors, (4) gearboxes, (5) pneumatic actuators, (6) swivel connector, (7) pneumatic valve assembly, (8) pneumatic hoses and connectors, (9) fasteners, (10) springs, (11) spur and bevel gears, (12) gear racks, (13) bearings, (14) adhesives, (15) lubricants, (16) structural materials with the availability of a workshop for processing these structural materials [21]. The competing design groups in the domain of electronics sub-system were also provided with a set of resources. These resources for the electronics sub-system included: (a) I2C bus (b) transducers, (c) LEDs, (d) ICs, (e) diodes, (f) MOSFETs, (g) capacitors, (h) resistors, (i) infra red emitter/detector assemblies, (j) infra red detector amplifier assembly, (k) potentiometers, (l) D plugs, (m) a data sheet provides data on I/O ports of the D.C. motors, (n) PCBs, (o) soldering and circuit construction equipment, (p) 5v power supply lead for prototyping, (q) motor/gearbox to PCB header lead, (r) microcontroller to PCB 12v lead, (s) thermistor assembly & thermocouple materials [21]. As to the software sub-system, there was a set of resources available for the competing design groups. These resources for the software sub-system included: (I) C++ compiler, (II) 32-bit microcontroller, (III) software library, (IV) power supply unit plus output lead [21]. In the simulation setup, the competing design groups in the domain of mechanical sub-system were provided with computers, CAD system, and CAM system. The competing design groups in the domain of software sub-system were provided with computers, sensor simulation PCB, and I2C cable [21]. Having seen this, let us now investigate the performance evaluation criteria adopted in this design experiment.

3.2. Mobile Robot Design Experiment Performance Evaluation Criteria

The robot performance evaluation criteria are collectively the mobile robot performance score based on conducting a set of tasks, accomplishing of which needs meeting the mobile robot performance attributes mentioned in section II, within a specific timeframe. The task to be performed by the robot was to collect six pallets from a conveyor belt, B, and to transport them to one of two delivery

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points, D1 or D2 as illustrated in Figure 1, depending on the type of pallet within five minutes. The task would continue until half dozen pallets were transferred or the time limit was reached. Now, let us have a look at the method of analysis of the experiment results.

3.3 Method of Analysis of the Mobile Robot Design Experiment Results

The analysis of the mobile robot design experiment results in this research uses both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. In the inferential statistics part, the non-parametric-statistic tool in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) is used in order to avoid making assumptions about the populations parameters and consequently to improve the validity of the statistical analysis results. In order to identify which design team implemented which design activity and strategy to what extent in the experiment, a questionnaire lists the design activities and strategies and the degree of their implementation was constructed. In order to investigate the possible binding between some design activities and strategies, a dependency analysis has been conducted. The assessment of how effective was the implementation of the design activities and strategies is implied in the correlation between the extent of their implementation and the performance score scored by the design team. The adopted statistical approach has the following five attributes: (1) the population is novel designers of mobile robots; (2) the sampling frame is based on a bounded and unbiased collection of designers in which every single individual is identified and can be selected; (3) the data type is categorical random variable; (4) the sampling design is based on the probability simple random sampling because of its cost-effectiveness and reasonable accuracy; (5) the target sample size to be not less than 30 novel designers which is the minimum statistically representative sample size [22, 23]. This method of assessment has been applied to the experimental observations and responses to the questionnaire.

3.4 Experimental Observations and Responses to the Questionnaire

The research observations obtained from observing the mobile robot design activities in the experiment were further verified by including them in the questionnaire handed to the novel designers. The questionnaire was administered to the respondents in 2008. The responses to the questionnaire were categorized as follows: Strongly disagree is ranked 1, Disagree is ranked 2, Agree is ranked 3, and Strongly agree is ranked 4. An average value in each column is used to fill in the gap of empty responses as a way of manipulating responses to questionnaires [24]. There were 29 design teams participating in this design experiment and a sample size of 174 could be realized which exceeds the requirement of the minimum representative sample size of 30 novel designers. This satisfies the first of the two criteria for the sample attribute of being representative, which are sample size and sampling design. The second criterion for the sample attribute of being representative, i.e. sampling design, was also satisfied since the sampling design in this research was based on probability simple random sampling which is suitable for limited generalization purposes and cost-effectively results in reasonably fair results. The pragmatic reader might now well ask: How have been the results analyzed? The next section will answer this question.

IV.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS

The observations in this mobile robot design experiment have shown that there were design strategies and activities that were commonly adopted by the entire mobile robots novel designers involved in the experiment and there were some mobile robot design strategies and activities that were adopted only by some of them. The scores achieved by the design teams have shown that there were six design teams the performance of their robots was superior. A statistical analysis has been conducted for each design team in order to examine whether there is correlation between their mobile robot performance and the design activities and strategies they adopted. In the descriptive statistics a frequency analysis of the data was conducted including the mean and standard deviation. In the inferential analysis, a non-parametric statistical analysis was conducted using Spearman correlation coefficient which provides more rigorous results than the parametric statistical analysis [23]. This section will present firstly the results of analysis of Bi-variate correlation with robot performance. Secondly, frequency analysis of the data is presented. Thirdly, the results of the non-parametric statistical analysis and the results of the dependency analysis are demonstrated. After that the reliability analysis results are presented. Finally, the implication of percentage of variation in robot performance due to a design variable (r2) is demonstrated.

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International Journal of Advances in Engineering & Technology, Nov. 2012. IJAET ISSN: 2231-1963 4.1 Bi-variate Correlation Between Lean and Agile Design Activities and Strategies and Mobile Robot Performance
The ranges of statistical correlation adopted in the present research are: (1) no correlation when the correlation coefficient ranges from 0 to less than 0.1; (2) low correlation when the correlation coefficient ranges from 0.1 to less than 0.3; (3) moderate correlation when the correlation coefficient ranges from 0.3 to less than 0.6; (4) high correlation when the correlation coefficient ranges from 0.6 to 1 [25]. This section presents the results related to the lean mobile robot design activities and strategies and the agile mobile robot design activities and strategies. It has been found that 65% of the total mobile robot design activities and strategies are affiliated with the lean design paradigm. It has been as well found with 99% reliability that 22% of these lean robot design activities and strategies significantly are among the most positively correlated design activities and strategies with improving mobile robot performance; these particular mobile robot design activities and strategies have proved to significantly improve mobile robot performance by more than 10%. These moderate positively correlated lean design activities and strategies with mobile robot performance are presented in Appendix A. It has been also found that 35% of the total mobile robot design activities and strategies are affiliated with the agile design paradigm. It has been found as well with 99% reliability that 25% of these agile robot design activities and strategies significantly are among the most positively correlated design activities and strategies with improving mobile robot performance; these particular mobile robot design activities and strategies have proved to significantly improve mobile robot performance by more than 10%. These moderate positively correlated agile design activities and strategies with mobile robot performance are presented in Appendix B. The appendices show the most influential lean/agile design activities and strategies on mobile robot performance, sorted in a descending order, respectively. In the appendices, the first column entitled Observation/Hypothesis presents a brief description of the design activity/strategy. The next column in the appendices entitled Design Phase implies to which design phase, i.e. scope-based, conceptual, preliminary, and detailed design phases, the investigated design activity/strategy is related. The third column in the appendices entitled Design Strategy /Activity shows whether the design variable under investigation is a design strategy or design activity. The fourth column in the appendices entitled Observation/Hypothesis elucidates whether the design variable under investigation has been identified due to experimental observation or by a hypothesis deduced from literature review. The fourth column in the appendices entitled Reference in Literature to Hypothesis refers to the relevant references in literature for those design variables that have been identified through literature review. The last column in the appendices entitled Percentage of Variation in Mobile Robot Performance (r2) depicts the corresponding value of r2 for each design variable under investigation. Having seen this, let us now investigate the frequency analysis of the data.

4.2 Frequency Analysis of the Data

Frequency analysis provides an insight into the descriptive statistics of the collected data and of the categories of the collected data. This section presents the frequency analysis of the most positively correlated design activity with mobile robot performance. The most positively correlated design activity with mobile robot performance has been to have the largest number of design iterations, if any, to occur within the software sub-system, i.e. agile design activity #1 in Appendix B. This section shows the frequencies and descriptive statistics of this design activity with mobile robot performance. Table 1 shows that the total valid percentage of data has been 99.4%, which is proof on valid results. The largest percentage of responses as to this design activity, i.e. 42%, has been of Agree category, as depicted in Figure 2.

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Table 1. Frequencies and descriptive statistics of the design activity of having the largest number of iterations in software subsystem Cumulative Frequency Valid Strongly Disagree Disagree Do Not Know Agree Strongly Agree Total Missing Total System 12 30 24 72 36 174 1 175 Percent 6.9 17.1 13.7 41.1 20.6 99.4 .6 100.0 Valid Percent 6.9 17.2 13.8 41.4 20.7 100.0 Percent 6.9 24.1 37.9 79.3 100.0

Figure 2. Percentage of responses in each category of response to having the largest number of iterations in software subsystem

This section paves the way to investigate whether or not there has been interdependency among the data.

4.3 Non-parametric Analysis and dependency analysis results using Bi-variate correlation and partial correlation analyses
In order to investigate how rigorous the bi-variate correlation analysis results are, a dependency analysis has been conducted. The dependency analysis explores whether or not an independent variable, which was proven to be correlated with a dependent variable, is in turn a dependent variable on other variables. The dependency analysis in the present study is twofold. Firstly, a mutual dependency analysis based on bi-variate correlation coefficient is conducted. Secondly, a partial correlation analysis is conducted consequently in order to control for the effect of each of the two mutually dependent variables on each other in relation to other variables.

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It has been found that there has been only pair of mobile robot design activities and strategies that has mutual dependency. This pair is the lean mobile robot design strategy which is to adopt modular design, and the lean mobile robot design strategy which is to strike a balance between functionality and design iterations. The bi-variate correlation coefficient between these two design strategies is 0.711, as shown in Table 3, which plainly implies strong potential for mutual dependency, since it is larger than 0.6 [25]. Hence, a partial correlation analysis between the lean mobile robot design strategy of adopting modular design and mobile robot performance, controlling for the lean mobile robot design strategy of striking a balance between functionality and design iterations, has been conducted as shown in Table 4. The results of the partial correlation analysis have shown that the effect of the later of these two design strategies on the relationship between the former and mobile robot performance is 0.049 as indicated in Table 4, i.e. negligible since the amount of influence is less than 5% [25]. Hence, the correlation coefficient between the former and robot performance remains unchanged in the low correlation category. Also, a partial correlation analysis between the later of these two design strategies and mobile robot performance, controlling for the former has been conducted as shown in Table 5.
Table 3. Result of the dependency analysis bivariate correlation Adopting modular design Spearman's rho Striking a balance between Functionality & Design iterations Correlation Coefficient Sig. (2-tailed) N **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Table 4. Partial correlation between the lean mobile robot design strategy of adopting modular design and normalized performance score, controlling for the lean mobile robot design strategy of striking a balance between functionality and design iterations Control Variables Striking a balance between Functionality & Design iterations Adopting modular design Adopting modular design Correlation 1.000 Significance (2tailed) df Correlation Significance (2tailed) df .049 SCORENORMAL -0.711** 0.000 174

. 0 .049 .427 171

.427 171 1.000 . 0

SCORE-NORMAL

Table 5. Partial correlation between the lean mobile robot design strategy of striking a balance between functionality and design iterations and normalized performance score, controlling for the lean mobile robot design strategy of adopting modular design Striking a balance between Functionality & Design iterations .009 .890 171

Control Variables Adopting modular design

SCORENORMAL SCORE-NORMAL Correlation Significance (2tailed) df 1.000 . 0

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Striking a balance between Functionality & Design iterations Correlation .009 Significance (2tailed) df 1.000

.890 171

. 0

The results of the partial correlation analysis have shown that the effect of the former of these two design strategies on the relationship between the later and mobile robot performance is 0.009 as indicated in Table 5, i.e. negligible since the amount of influence is less than 5% [25]. Thus, the correlation coefficient between the later of these two design strategies and mobile robot performance remains unchanged in the no correlation category. This might raise the following question: How reliable are these results? This question will be addressed in the following section.

4.4 Reliability Analysis Results

In reliability statistics, if the data collected reached the level of 0.7 or more on the Cronbachs Alpha scale, the collected data has then good internal consistency [24]. Since the Cronbachs Alpha internal reliability factor of the collected data is 0.705, as shown in Table 6, there is good internal consistency of the data, based on the average inter-item correlation. Table 6. Reliability statistics
Cronbach's Alpha .678 Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardized Items .705 N of Items 67

There are some assumptions based on which the reliability analysis has been conducted: (1) observations are independent; (2) errors are uncorrelated between the mobile robot design activities and strategies. The following section explores the implication of these results.

4.5 Implication of Percentage of Variation in Mobile Robot Performance due to a Design Variable (r2)
In a research project that includes several variables, it is often sought to know how one variable is related to another. Correlational research attempts to determine whether and to what degree, a relationship exists between two or more quantifiable variables, such as two design activities. Correlation implies prediction of the value of one variable if we know the value of the other correlated variable, but does not necessarily imply full causation. The reason why correlation does not necessarily imply full causality is that a third variable may be involved of which we are not aware. However, correlational research can imply partial correlation in terms of prediction of percentage of variation in, for instance, variable B due to variable A [25]. The correlation coefficient (r) value ranges from -1 to 1. Having correlation coefficient of a value -1 indicates perfect negative relation between the variables under examination. If the correlation coefficient has a value of 0, there is no relation between the variables under examination. A correlation coefficient of a value 1 is interpreted as a perfect positive relation between the variables under examination. The square of the correlation coefficient (r2) represents the percentage of variation in one of the two variables under investigation due to the other correlated variable, which implies a causal link between these two variables. Causality in this research is determined according to the percentage of variation in technical performance due to the variable (r2) of moderate-to-high correlation coefficient (r). The most correlated design activities and strategies to mobile robot performance are determined according to their percentage of variation in technical performance due to the variable correlation coefficients with mobile robot performance, and according to their resulting p-value. The aggregation of percentage of variation in mobile robot performance due to the design variables has reached collectively more than 100% since there is overlap in the affected areas in mobile robot performance by the design variables. This research has shown that the design activities and strategies

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indicated in Appendix A and Appendix B, i.e. design variables, are independent except for 3% of them where mutual dependency has been identified as proved in the dependency analysis results indicated in section 4.3. This helps now in deducing the most efficient mobile robot design paradigm.

V.

HYBRID LEAN-AGILE MOBILE ROBOT DESIGN PROCESS

Based on the presented results, adopting both lean robot design activities and strategies and agile robot design activities and strategies together in the mobile robot design process has been proved to be practically valid. In addition, the design experiment has proved that both lean mobile robot design activities and strategies and agile mobile robot design activities and strategies are correlated with and have significant influence on improving mobile robot performance. Besides, it has been found that there are mobile robot design activities which have attributes of both the lean and agile design paradigms. For instance, the design activity of evaluating design concepts exhibits attributes of both lean and agile design paradigms. This further supports the practical validity of adopting both lean mobile robot design activities and strategies and agile mobile robot design activities and strategies together in the mobile robot design process. Therefore, the present research proposes a hybrid leanagile mobile robot design paradigm in which both lean mobile robot design and agile mobile robot design activities and strategies are adopted in the mobile robot design process benefiting from the attributes of both the lean design and agile design paradigms. The proposed mobile robots hybrid lean-agile design pillars include: (1) adopting the most effective lean design strategies, such as considering reliability of the mobile robot in the design process in terms of the ability of the mobile robot to perform its required functions under stated conditions for a specified robot service time, (2) adopting the most effective agile design strategies, such as having designs that are less vulnerable to failure modes and are less exposed to and less sensitive to the uncontrollable external factors by shifting complexity to the software subsystem rather than to the mechanical subsystem, (3) adopting the most effective lean design activities, such as adopting testable design inter-deliverables within and among system modules based on project milestones in order to detect mistakes as early as possible and to minimize mistakes impact on the successful completion of the design project, (4) adopting the most effective agile design activities, such as having iterations in the software subsystem rather than in the mechanical subsystem in order to end up with shorter development time, (5) adopting a three-phase hybrid lean-agile risk management action plan that helps in integrating mobile robot design activities and strategies in order to minimize risk in the mobile robot design process the first phase of which is before the beginning of the mobile robot design process in which SWOT (i.e. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis is conducted; the second phase of this plan is during the mobile robot design process in which the design team proves value of design concept to stakeholders at the end of each design phase ensuring that the mobile robot satisfies stakeholders, fits for its intended purpose, is of a quality to last its design lifetime, and can be made at an acceptable cost; the third and last phase of this plan is after the end of the mobile robot design process in which Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is conducted and ultimately the models of mobile robots which fall short of the set target are killed off as soon as this appears; This approach to managing risk in product design process is expected to help in realizing the sought harmonious integration between the product development activities and strategies, (6) adopting mobile robot design functional strategy in terms of the following items: standard components, modular design, communized architecture of mobile robots chassis and frame parts, and concurrent engineering in the design process. The pragmatic reader is now invited to explore how valid this research is.

VI.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The questionnaire which has been designed to collect data for the present study has been designed with emphasis placed on maximizing clarity of the wording of the questionnaire and minimizing the influence of the questionnaires problems such as bias. In order to maximize clarity of questions, clarification footnotes have been used. In addition and in order to minimize bias, a two-fold strategy has been adopted; firstly, in order to avoid researchers bias, closed-ended questions have been used; secondly, in order to spot respondents bias, repeatedly inverted questions have been used. The statistical sampling in this research is representative and the experimental results are statistically

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significant with 99% reliability without making any assumptions about the population of novel designers of mobile robots. In this study, the reliability statistics test results, based on Spearman correlation coefficient and nonparametric statistical analysis, have proved the reliability of the data used in this research and thus have verified the results of this research. In order to investigate the validity of the results of this study, an inferential statistical analysis was conducted on the resulting correlation coefficients. The p-value has been adopted as a measure that a result is true to the population. A cut-off p-value of 0.1 is adopted in this research. In addition, the statistical sampling in this research is representative in terms of sampling design that is suitable for limited generalization with cost-effectively fair statistical results and sample size that satisfies the minimum statistically representative sample size. Causality in this study is determined according to the percentage of variation in robot performance due to a variable (r2) of moderate-to-high correlation coefficient (r). The research results are also valid in terms of the four validity types; firstly, in terms of statistical conclusion validity, since the resulted relationships are meaningful and reasonable; secondly, in terms of internal validity, since the results are causal rather than being just descriptive; thirdly, in terms of construct validity, since the results represent what is theoretically intended; fourthly, in terms of external validity, since the results can be limitedly generalized to the population of novel designers of mobile robots. Hence, this research has proved the validity of the correlation between lean and agile mobile robot design activities and strategies and mobile robot performance. In addition, it has validated the practicality of having both lean mobile robot design activities and strategies and agile mobile robot design activities and strategies implemented in the mobile robot design process. The study has shown that 65% of typical mobile robot design activities and strategies are affiliated with the lean design paradigm, while the remaining 35% are affiliated with the agile design paradigm. In addition, it has been found with 99% reliability that 22% of the lean mobile robot design activities and strategies and 25% of the agile mobile robot design activities and strategies significantly are among the most positively correlated design activities and strategies with improving mobile robot performance; these particular mobile robot design activities and strategies have proved to significantly improve mobile robot performance by more than 10% and thus should receive the highest priority of being assigned design process resources. Thus, the study has shown that with 99% reliability more than 10% of the variation in mobile robot performance can be explained by adopting a hybrid leanagile mobile robot design paradigm that adopts both lean mobile robot design activities and strategies and agile mobile robot design activities and strategies together in the mobile robot design process. Hence, adopting a hybrid lean-agile mobile robot design paradigm is technically valid.

VII.

CONCLUSION

This paper has determined how and when value is added in the mobile robot design process by identifying empirically the most influential mobile robot design activities and strategies on mobile robot performance. The paper has identified first the key technical attributes of mobile robots. Secondly, the research methodology and statistical analysis have helped in identifying the causal relationships between the lean and agile mobile robot design activities and strategies and mobile robot performance, as presented in Appendices A and B. Finally, the research methodology and statistical analysis have helped as well in proving that adopting both lean mobile robot design activities and strategies and agile mobile robot design activities and strategies in the mobile robot design process is practically valid. The proposed mobile robots hybrid lean-agile design pillars include: (1) adopting the most effective lean design strategies, (2) adopting the most effective agile design strategies, (3) adopting the most effective lean design activities, (4) adopting the most effective agile design activities, (5) adopting a three-phase hybrid lean-agile risk management action plan in order to minimize risk in the mobile robot design process the first phase of which is before the beginning of the mobile robot design process in which SWOT (i.e. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis is conducted; the second phase of this plan is during the mobile robot design process in which the design team proves value of design concept to stakeholders at the end of each design phase ensuring that the mobile robot satisfies stakeholders, fits for its intended purpose, is of a quality to last its design lifetime, and can be made at an acceptable cost; the third and last phase of this plan is after the end of

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the mobile robot design process in which Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is conducted and ultimately the models of mobile robots which fall short of the set target are killed off as soon as this appears; This approach to managing risk in product design process is expected to help in realizing the sought harmonious integration between the product development activities and strategies, (6) adopting mobile robot design functional strategy in terms of the following items: standard components, modular design, communized architecture of mobile robots chassis and frame parts, and concurrent engineering in the design process. The study has shown that 65% of typical mobile robot design activities and strategies are affiliated with the lean design paradigm, while the remaining 35% are affiliated with the agile design paradigm. In addition, it has been found with 99% reliability that 22% of the lean mobile robot design activities and strategies and 25% of the agile mobile robot design activities and strategies significantly are among the most positively correlated design activities and strategies with improving mobile robot performance; these particular mobile robot design activities and strategies have proved to significantly improve mobile robot performance by more than 10% and thus should receive the highest priority of being assigned design process resources. Thus, the study has shown that with 99% reliability more than 10% of the variation in mobile robot performance can be explained by adopting a hybrid leanagile mobile robot design paradigm that adopts both lean mobile robot design activities and strategies and agile mobile robot design activities and strategies together in the mobile robot design process. Hence, adopting a hybrid lean-agile mobile robot design paradigm is technically valid.

VIII.

FUTURE WORK

The present research exhibits further investigation of the validity of these results using a larger sample size that is large enough to represent the whole population of novel designers of mobile robots. In addition, it exhibits further investigation of the pillars and validity of the proposed hybrid lean-agile mobile robot design paradigm in an industrial setting. Moreover, the conclusions indicated herein can be used to guide another new experiment to see if the results would be improved.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The people of the Cambridge Engineering Design Centre, Cambridge University, are acknowledged for their help in accomplishing this work. Also, the support of this research provided by the EPSRC under IMRC grant number EP/E001777/1 and by Cambridge Overseas Trust is acknowledged.

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APPENDIX A
Moderate Positively Correlated Lean Activities and Strategies with Mobile Robot Performance
Observation/Hypothesis Design Phase Design Strategy /Activity Observation /Hypothesis Reference in Literature to Hypothesis [26, 27] Percentage of Variation in Mobile Robot Performance (r2) 0.2**

1. Considering reliability of the mobile robot in the design process, in terms of the ability of the mobile robot to perform its required functions under stated conditions for a specified robot service time; 2. Aiming at striking a balance between fast response on one hand and stability, accuracy, and payload fulfilment of the mobile robot final concept on the other hand; 3. Adopting the simplest design, that meets the design problem requirements specification using the minimum set and most effective combination of system components, rather than the cheapest design and rather than the lightest weight design; 4. Adopting testable design interdeliverables within and among system modules based on project milestones, in order to detect mistakes as early as possible and to minimize mistakes impact on the successful completion of the design project; 5. Adopting early verification and validation of the design concept, e.g. early testing in the design process, in order to avoid becoming trapped in incompetent design concepts; 6. Given the intertwined and overlapping nature of the subsystems of the mobile robot, e.g. the mechanical-electronics interconnection for robot speed, adopting modular deliverables and testing, i.e. testing deliverables of each module, rather than sub-systems deliverables and testing;

Conceptual & Preliminary design phases

Strategy

Hypothesis

Conceptual & Preliminary design phases

Strategy

Hypothesis

[28, 15]

0.11**

Conceptual & Preliminary design phases

Strategy

Observation

N/A

0.1**

Preliminary & Detailed design phases

Activity

Hypothesis

[29, 30]

0.2**

Conceptual & Preliminary design phases

Activity

Observation

N/A

0.11**

Preliminary & Detailed design phases

Activity

Hypothesis

[31]

0.11**

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7. Having a multi-disciplinary team of novel designers, each of whom is more aware of more than one of relevant disciplines such as material science, design development approaches, leadership skills, ..etc., and is more aware of the overlap and intersections between them, in order to improve the opportunity of ending up with a better design, and to minimize the risk of mistake occurrence; 8. Setting an operational design strategy of modular testing, i.e. testing the deliverables between the system submodules as a way of verifying conformance of these system submodules to the conceptual functional requirements, in order to detect mistakes as early as possible and to minimize mistakes impact on the successful completion of the design project; 9. Documenting the outcome of design discussions and consequently analyzing that outcome; 10. Meeting up collectively in the conceptual design phase than in detailed design phase; 11. Starting the design process as early as possible in the project timeframe and assigning sufficient time for presenting the outcome of the design process milestones; Phase of Design Scope Activity Hypothesis [32] 0.1**

Conceptual & Preliminary design phases

Strategy

Hypothesis

[29]

0.1**

Conceptual & Preliminary design phases Conceptual & Detailed design phases Phase of Design Scope & Conceptual design phase

Activity

Hypothesis

[33]

0.1** 0.1**

Activity

Hypothesis

[34]

Activity

Observation

N/A

0.1**

12. Checking accuracy of manufacturing Detailed design Activity and assembly of the final prototype, in phase order to avoid unexpected failure due to manufacturing defects and/or assembly mistakes; 13. Adopting quick testing of inter- Preliminary & Activity deliverables between the modules of the Detailed design software draft code, and extensive testing phases of the overall software draft code on a prototype PCB or on an equivalent facility at the end of the project, in order to strike a balance between minimizing cost of test and detecting mistakes as early as possible. **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Hypothesis

[31]

0.1**

Hypothesis

[29]

0.1**

Appendix B Moderate Positively Correlated Agile Activities and Strategies with Mobile Robot Performance
Observation/Hypothesis Design Phase Design Strategy /Activity Observation /Hypothesis Reference in Literature to Hypothesis N/A Percentage of Variation in Mobile Robot Performance (r2) 0.25**

1. Shifting complexity towards the software subsystem, rather than towards the mechanical subsystem, in order to have the largest number of design iterations, if any, to occur within the software sub-system, followed

Preliminary & Detailed design phases

Activity

Observation

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accordingly by the electronics subsystem number of iterations; 2. Having iterations in the software Preliminary & Activity subsystem, rather than in the mechanical Detailed subsystem, in order to end up with shorter design phases development time; 3. Having designs that are less vulnerable Conceptual & Strategy to failure modes (e.g. out-of-plane Preliminary buckling, roll mode and pitch mode design phases instability, and friction wear) (and consequently have better reliability) and are less exposed to and less sensitive to the uncontrollable external factors (and consequently had better robustness), by shifting complexity to the software subsystem rather than to the mechanical subsystem; 4. Having less constraints on the design Conceptual & Strategy by shifting complexity to the software Preliminary subsystem and consequently to the virtual design phases space, e.g. data processing time, rather than to the mechanical subsystem and consequently to the physical space, e.g. suspension space; 5. Adopting top-down system structure Phase of Activity decomposition in order to analyze the Design Scope functional structure of the mobile robot and consequently to map this functional structure of the mobile robot to the requirements specification and consequently to come up with the mobile robot functional requirements; 6. Having resources provisions for Phase of Strategy unforeseen troubles, in order to minimize Design Scope vulnerability of our design development process to the influence of external factors; 7. Adopting a decentralised decision Conceptual & Strategy making strategy, by empowering sub- Preliminary & teams to be authorised to make tactical Detailed decisions without need to refer them to design phases the team leader, rather than strategic decisions that can degrade performance in this case; 8. Making a prediction of the progressive Conceptual & Activity failure of the design through drawing Preliminary sketches or through conducting a finite design phases element analysis, in order to avoid unexpected failure. **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Observation

N/A

0.25**

Observation

N/A

0.2**

Observation

N/A

0.2**

Hypothesis

[35]

0.1**

Hypothesis

[36]

0.1**

Hypothesis

[37, 38]

0.1**

Observation

N/A

0.1**

AUTHORS BIOGRAPHY
Salah A.M. Elmoselhy holds MS in mechanical design and production engineering that he received from Cairo University. He holds as well MBA in international manufacturing business that he received from Maastricht School of Management (MSM). He has ten years of industrial experience in CAD/CAM and robotised manufacturing systems. He has been recently a researcher at the Engineering Department and Fitzwilliam College of Cambridge University from which he received a Diploma of postgraduate studies in engineering design. He is currently a PhD Candidate in mechanical engineering working with the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and the Center for Sustainable Mobility at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).

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