Research Directions in Democratizing Innovation through Design Automation, One-Click Manufacturing Services and Intelligent Machines

The digitalization of manufacturing has created opportunities for consumers to customize products that fit their individualized needs which in turn would drive demand for manufacturing services. However, this pull-based manufacturing system production of extremely low quantity and limitless variety for products is expensive to implement. New emerging technology in design automation driven by data-driven computational design, manufacturing-as-a-service marketplaces and digitally enabled micro-factories holds promise towards democratization of innovation. In this paper, scientific, technology and infrastructure challenges are identified and if solved, the impact of these emerging technologies on product innovation and future factory organization is discussed.