105815Digital Designer Robot: Assisted Self-Service Design For Customers In Bespoke ManufacturingClosedCollaborative R&DISCFOnline orders amount to a significant part of sales in many industries. Products created in bulk, from toothpaste to insurance policies, or unique products such as a house, are all equally saleable online. The common factor is that the product being purchased is a pre-defined item or service that can be placed in some form of catalogue. This extends equally to customised products that are either configured (for example cars) or created on demand by the user (for example picture birthday cards). There are many advantages of online sales such as reach, efficiency, proximity to customer to name but a few. Some industries however, have not as yet been able to access these benefits. Products that do not yet exist cannot be put in a catalogue. In lieu of actual online sales, organisations promote capability and competence to generate enquiry through "contact us" forms or publishing phone numbers or e-mail addresses. Progression to a sale then follows a more traditional route face-to-face, over the telephone or email with the accompanying time delay and associated costs. Our proposition is that it is possible to train software models with the same process and knowledge as the person, but avoiding many of the limitations. In this way we enable organisations to deploy 'digital assistants' (virtual employees) in sales and pre-sales technical roles to help customers find and even design the perfect solution for their need, thus enabling access to the many benefits of electronic commerce. In this project we deliver a 'Digital Designer Robot' to enable customers to create a bespoke solution ready for prototype and subsequent manufacture. The robot 'converses' with the customer to clarify and understand objectives, assists with the creation of the design and offers expert advice and guidance using a combination of textual and graphical interaction The result is an on demand, expert service to create bespoke product designs for manufacture at a time and place suitable for the customer.