Ubiquitous computing emerged at the beginning of the 1980s. Its main assumption is that computing can be available anywhere, anytime and any context and in anything due to technological developments, new affordances, and societal demand. This idea has been introduced and exploited successfully in many application fields over the years. However, my impression is that ubiquitous computing has so far had only a rather limited impact on computer aided design. Though many researchers studied the affordances and the possible applications of ubiquitous technologies, it would be contra-factual to claim that ubiquitous computing has managed to revolutionize either the methodologies, or the tools and systems of computer-aided design. As the related literature exemplifies it, certain new functionalities and novel tools have been developed by researchers at the academia, but they have not been integrated into commercial systems and industrial best practices. What is your opinion? How has ubiquitous computing influenced the development of CAD systems, tools, and methods? What new functionalities can still be expected?
I believe the availability of public domain tools and open source CAD software has helped a lot.
Recently, I saw a couple of young colleagues enter a contest to build an application for IoT. They wanted to demonstrate a smart home appliance. In order to make an interesting demo, they wanted to build a home using wood. We engaged with a small company that can build the house, but they needed a few more details than just "can you build a toy house?" My young colleagues found an online free software application and designed the house and shared the views with the external company.
Working from home has become a possibility today and employees are indeed designing things just from anywhere (home, bus, and office to name a few!) I see some colleagues open up their laptops and work during the long bus ride! I hear that some CAD applications are beginning to come up on mobile phones now - e.g. simulation tools that one can access from a mobile phone.
Per se is "Ubiquitous computing" a collection of properties which say,e.g., that Ubiquitous Computing means that the computer disappears form view but is available 7/24.
In contrast, the application areas mentioned in the question are at a first glance independent of a Ubiquitous Computing implementation, which could be done, e.g., by Wearable/Mobile Computing.
I doubt that Smartphone screens would be appropriate to present CAD Designs.
In the best case some functions of the application areas in question could also be executed on Wearable Computers/Smartphones. Therefore, I do not see a revolution of, e.g., CAD methodologies by Ubiqutous Computing.
In construction, BIM(Building Information Modelling) has paved way for collaborative working environment . Different design and architectural teams could sit in different parts of the world and work on the same model. Though not fully implemented this technology is in its early learning curve and may become a revolution in CAD once implemented in a full fledged manner.
BIM make use of cloud computing and collaborative model development to complete a work. Though it uses ubiquitous computing, I doubt whether mobile devices such as smart phones and tabs could be used for modelling. However it could be used for viewing the models and evaluating the revisions. Modelling requires big screens and higher computing power for accuracy.
There is connection between ubiquitous computing and computer aided design through product lifecycle management (PLM). The application of networked embedded devices and sensors allow you to monitor and analyse data about the behaviour, use patterns, failures and environmental conditions of physical products. This data can help you in your design decisions, feature selection, variants management and other questions in the design of products (basically anything that relates to Design-for-X concepts). When it comes to CAD, engineers could get their design models updated and annotated, e.g. with wear-off data from the field to identify spots with high mechanical stress.
Some of these questions where addressed in the EU-funded project PROMISE (http://www.ims.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/2.5.1.3.2-Project-Brochure-PROMISE.pdf), where locomotives (Bombardier), trucks (Iveco) and construction machinery (Caterpillar) were used as examples.
Regarding commercial adoption: I suspected it is much more challenging to get a relevant number of long-living technical products with remote data access out in the field, as compared to consumer goods. Other than that, customers will not allow manufacturers to record data from these products for various reasons (security, warranty issues, trade secrets...), unless they can gain a benefit from opening up.
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