I'm still having problems with finding the correct translation of the czech word "návrh" in this meaning, for example: (Konstrukční) návrh mobilního robotu. (= mobile robot) Is design the corrent word? For me (as a native Czech), the word design sound like if it was only about the visual aspect, like when an artist makes the design of a modern chair, vase or something. Does the english word design really have also this more complex meaning where also (or I should say MAINLY) the construction is concerned? When you start with nothing and in the end you have the whole documentation and construction drawings of a fully functional mobile robot, did you "design it"? Can construction design or mechanical design be used instead to make it clear? Or some other word, like maybe project?
I'm not sure, I would agree with you that if you designed a robot you maybe painted it pink and glued eyes on it... Could you give us an exact context? Built a robot / a computer. I would think of this as taking care of the electronics on the inside. "Computer Engineering" And then of course with robots theres that extra "Computer Science" part, where you program it. So I would say To build and program a mobile robot. Or to plan the building and programming of a mobile robot. Try looking at how-to guides C++ or whatever on the internet for people who are doing this in college, and see what kind of terminology they use. In Robot Wars (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuB3PyjHQFE) they always said they "built" robots. The initial planning phase was usually called designing alright. None of them would have had anything to do with the programming I think.
I am :lol: But in the Czech Republic and I never was sure whether the translation was correct. It's typically a diploma thesis, something like: Construction design of a mobile robot for ........ And the student who chooses this topic is going to make a mobile robot from the mechanical aspect - the construction, electromotors, wheels etc. Not the control system, that would be a separate topic for another student. The outcome of the thesis is a 3D model of the robot made in a CAD/CAM system, assembly drawings and all the necessary mechanical calculations (required power of the drives, stress analyses of the steel frame etc.). He usually won't make a physical prototype. Of course the student is also going to think up the shape of the robot. The "design". But that's the least important aspect, it's usually not important how the robot looks like (for us becuase we are a technical university), but what can it do and whether it works at all. So it's not about making a new nice-looking robot for Terminator movie, but a functional robot for the pyrotechnists to destroy bombs (for example).
Someone might have a better answer, but I think to use both terms together "design and construct" would be efficient.
I often use the term “Design of Experiment” in my work and it has no visual aspect at all. It’s a technical term for an abstract statistical model of experiment and even the process of designing the experiment needn’t be creative at all, it's just selection of suitable model. I guess that’s exactly the first meaning as described here.
http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic87744.htm http://robocup.sjtu.edu.cn/@home/Paper/ ... System.pdf http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/in ... 857AA2YFyK most people seem to be using "design" for this purpose. I think they best thing to do would be to go to an English-speaking forum for people building robots (I'm sure there are hundreds) and ask them what is the exact terminology, I don't know if we can help you because we're not experts. I think the dictionary definition wer gave included the definition "to plan and fashion the form and structure of an object" and many others which weren't necessarily aesthetic. I would go ahead and use the word. Man I would love to build/make/design/construct/program a robot!
Thanks again. By the way - robots are just an example I used (not by accident though, I really work on the Department of Robotics), the word návrh (design) can be used for many many many different products. So it's not a question for robot specialists :wink:
