From 3D-Printed Cars to Terraforming Mars: Launch Forth Seeks to Change the World
Now Local Motors is in the process of redefining itself once again with Launch Forth, a software-as-a-service (SaaS)/social media site/incubator for crowdsourced designs. In addition to developing and bringing vehicles to market, Local Motors will empower a co-creation community to reengineer the world altogether.
To do so, Launch Forth will provide that community with a number of important tools, skills and resources, including free licenses of Siemens PLM Software’s Solid Edge software. ENGINEERING.com spoke with Elle Shelley, executive vice president of Launch Forth, to learn more.
Launching Launch Forth
Launched in October 2016, Launch Forth is a social network that connects users in order to solve specific problems, which range from building Mars habitats and developing inspection technologies to solving homelessness. It also acts as an SaaS for businesses to use the co-creation community to tackle their company-specific problems.
On the Launch Forth site, you can find projects from the likes of the U.S. Marines and Allianz. While Allianz is seeking new designs for adaptive sporting devices (think extreme wheelchairs) for its Super Human Sportsproject, the Marines are looking to create a modular vehicle system, as well as an unmanned cargo system.
These tenancies from the Marines and Allianz coexist alongside an HP tenancy called hpmars, in which community members are asked to work on “The Urbanization of Mars,” “The Mars Lifestyle” and “The Robots of Mars.” You’ll also see the Local Motors tenancy related to the car company’s self-driving, 3D-printed Olli vehicle.
Tools for Launch Forth Members
Within each tenancy, Launch Forth community members are able to access tools and participate in a number of ways. For instance, they are able to generate brainstorms for collecting ideas dedicated to a topic, or attend regularly hosted live question and answer sessions with experts at a given organization.
Important to the evolution of the Launch Forth community is the empowerment and education of its members. For this reason, Launch Forth has partnered with Siemens to provide all its users with free Solid Edge licenses, dubbed the “Launch Forth Community Edition”. The software is a robust version of Solid Edge Classic that can be used within the Launch Forth community or privately. The Launch Forth Community Edition will maintain unlimited usage, but will watermark any exported 2D files. Members will be given an opportunity to convert their drawings or upgrade to commercial versions of Solid Edge based on participation in the community.
Local Motors actually uses Siemens PLM and manufacturing software in its own operations, which Shelley said makes the entire design-to-production process that much easier when models are designed in Solid Edge.
Community members also have access to live round tables with software training as well as Q&As with Solid Edge experts. There are also discussions related to incorporating Solid Edge certification into the Launch Forth platform, making it possible to be trained and certified within the community.
“We believe that learning is an active sport, not a passive sport,” Shelley said. “We know that we need to give people information and then we need to give them an opportunity to apply their information. We’ve learned that when you do that, you get the best outcomes for the end user, which is why we’re gamifying that whole process— so that it’s basically gamifying homework. But we’re not calling it homework; we’re calling them challenges and putting small prize money behind it. We’re framing up the challenges in these very inspirational ways to use skills to solve big world problems.”
Transforming the World with Co-Creation
As its latest transformation occurs, it has become evident that not only has Launch Forth outlined a method for rapid innovation, but that it innovates itself just as rapidly as others can with Launch Forth’s own tools.
Since its launch, Launch Forth has expanded beyond corporate tenancies to altruistic problems faced by the world at large, such as the global housing crisis. With the “House the World” project, Launch Forth hopes that engineers will be able to develop a means for providing housing to everyone on the planet through tools such as 3D printing.
“We believe that, with the community, we can solve anything,” Shelley said.
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