Enabling allied concurrent engineering through distributed engineering information management

The management of engineering information to ensure that the right information is quickly provided to the right place at the right time in the right format is one of the most critical tasks in the engineering process. Within the practice of allied concurrent engineering, the importance and difficulty of engineering information management is increased due to the issues of inter-enterprise communication and process control, system heterogeneity, information and system security, differing engineering data formats and multi-database formats. This paper presents an engineering information management approach for the practice of allied concurrent engineering (ACE). An ACE-based engineering information management methodology is proposed under the concept of enterprise integration. This methodology includes an information management life cycle, a distributed management framework, and rules and methods for information management. Based on this methodology, an ACE-based engineering information system was developed using Unified Modeling Language (UML) modeling techniques. The result of this research will enable the practice of allied concurrent engineering and consequently help increase product development capability and quality, reduce development cycle time and cost, and hence increase product marketability.     

Development of a feature-based and object-oriented concurrent engineering system

Product information modeling is critical to the integration of mechanical CAD/CAM systems and to the implementation of a concurrent engineering system. This paper presents a recent development of a feature-based and object-oriented concurrent engineering system with its focus on a product information modeling technique implemented in the system. The technique was developed to capture product definition data including form features and their spatial relationships and to store them as an object-oriented information model during the design process. The paper also describes the implementation of the information modeling technique and its application to manufacturing process planning in an object-oriented environment.     

A knowledge intensive multi-agent framework for cooperative/collaborative design modeling and decision support of assemblies

Multi-agent modeling has emerged as a promising discipline for dealing with decision making process in distributed information system applications. One of such applications is the modeling of distributed design or manufacturing processes which can link up various designs or manufacturing processes to form a virtual consortium on a global basis. This paper proposes a novel knowledge intensive multi-agent cooperative/collaborative framework for concurrent intelligent design and assembly planning, which integrates product design, design for assembly, assembly planning, assembly system design, and assembly simulation subjected to econo-technical evaluations. An AI protocol based method is proposed to facilitate the integration of intelligent agents for assembly design, planning, evaluation and simulation process. A unified class of knowledge intensive Petri nets is defined using the O-O knowledge-based Petri net approach and used as an AI protocol for handling both the integration and the negotiation problems among multi-agents. The detailed cooperative/collaborative mechanism and algorithms are given based on the knowledge objects cooperation formalisms. As such, the assembly-oriented design system can easily be implemented under the multi-agent-based knowledge-intensive Petri net framework with concurrent integration of multiple cooperative knowledge sources and software. Thus, product design and assembly planning can be carried out simultaneously and intelligently in an entirely computer-aided concurrent design and assembly planning system.     

Modeling, scheduling and simulation of product development process by extended stochastic high-level evaluation Petri nets

This paper presents a methodology for modeling and simulating product development process-based on the extended stochastic high-level evaluation Petri nets (ESHLEP-N). A product development process is composed of many design activities and the ESHLEP-N model can describe some special features of design activity in detail, such as randomness of its duration, uncertainty of its interruption and complexity of design iteration. Therefore, the ESHLEP-N model is employed to simulate a product development process. The initial product development plan obtained by a mathematical method beforehand is taken as the input of the simulation. Then the simulation procedure is proposed, along with four types of rules, i.e. activity-sequencing rules, resource-assigning rules, state-changing rules and the simulation-terminating rule, for scheduling the design activities. An example of the development process of an automobile drive system in concurrent engineering environment is presented to illustrate the method of the ESHLEP-N-based modeling, simulation procedure and scheduling rules. The simulation results show that the simulation procedure and the scheduling rules are effective.     

A structured methodology for implementing engineering data management

One of the most significant positive effects on product and process development in recent years has been the application of data management techniques. Engineering data management or product data management is the most promising one. The implementation of engineering data management is heavily dependent on the engineering process and involves the technologies of management, engineering, and information. However, as there is no commonly acceptable approach and methodologies for implementing engineering data management, it’s implementation becomes a bottleneck.This paper presents a structured methodology for the implementation of engineering data management. The approach consists of a series of steps, from business and engineering process analysis, modeling and reengineering, through system design and modeling, to system realization.This research will facilitate engineering process improvement and the planning, design and implementation of engineering data management. Consequently, it will help increase product development capability and quality, reduce development cycle time and cost, and hence increase product marketability.     

An object-oriented knowledge based Petri net approach to intelligent integration of design and assembly planning

Artificial intelligence can play an important role in the reduction of manufacturing costs and the enhancement of production efficiency and product quality. In order to assist designers in the early stages of a product development this paper develops an intelligent methodology for integration of design and assembly planning processes, including product design, assembly evaluation and redesign, assembly process planning, design of assembly system and assembly simulation, subjected to both econo-technical and ergonomic evaluations. A new unified class of object-oriented knowledge based Petri nets called OOKPNs, incorporating knowledge based expert systems and fuzzy logic into ordinary place–transition Petri nets, is defined and used for the representation and modeling of the distributed design processes. A prototype intelligent integrated design and assembly planning system (IIDAP) is implemented through distributed blackboard structure with concurrent integration of multiple cooperative knowledge sources and software. It consists essentially of the networked agents and the meta-system, each of which is a knowledge Petri net system with the capabilities of problem solving, learning and conflict resolution, and can be obtained through the inheritance, polymorphism and dynamic binding of instances of OOKPNs. In IIDAP system, both C/C++ language and COOL (CLIPS object-oriented language) are used to incorporate a Petri net tool, a geometric modeling and design tool, a planner and simulator and an evaluation tool. By use of this system, product design and assembly planning can be carried out simultaneously and intelligently in an entirely computer-aided concurrent design and assembly planning system. The design of manufacturable, cost-effective, usable products can therefore be achieved rapidly and flexibly. The developed methodology and system have been successfully applied to assembly design and planning of a micro switch.     

Design frameworks for concurrent engineering

As technological tasks in manufacturing environment have become progressively complicated, today's designers are confronted not only with increasing complexity of product designs but also with constantly increasing number and complexity of specialized design tools. The entire design process has consequently become very complicated. A large number of highly specialized design tools have to be developed to meet the technological needs of complex design tasks, and integrated into a computer-aided design (CAD) framework to provide better services to users. The concept of the framework may be of special interest to those who try to implement the philosophy of concurrent engineering, because a large number of design tools are required during the design phase to examine the entire aspects of a product's life-cycle in a coherent way. This paper identifies the needs and requirements of such CAD frameworks for concurrent engineering environment and discussed the object-oriented paradigm which has several salient features applicable to the development of control mechanisms for CAD tools within the framework.     

Knowledge-based approach and system for assembly-oriented design,Part II: the system implementation

Assembly is one of the most important stages for product development. Assembly-oriented design (AOD) is a new approach to designing assemblies, which uses a number of design and analysis tools to help the designer plan out and analyze candidate assembly schemes prior to having detailed knowledge of the geometry of the parts. Using this approach, many assembly schemes can be inexpensively evaluated for their ability to deliver the important characteristics of the final product. This research proposes a knowledge-based approach and develops an expert design system to support top-down design for assembled products. The presentation of research report is divided into two parts: the knowledge-based approach (Part I) and the knowledge-based expert design system (Part II). This paper is the second part of the report (Part II). It will focus on the development of knowledge-based expert design system for assembly oriented design. The knowledge-based assembly oriented design system, i.e., the assembly oriented design expert system (AODES) is constructed to integrate assembly modeling and design, assembly planning, assemblability analysis and evaluation within a concurrent engineering environment. This intelligent system is implemented by integrating object-oriented representation, constraint-based modeling, rule-based reasoning, truth maintenance, and interfacing to database management system and CAD module, in which fuzzy logic based knowledge representation and inference technique are also applied to deal with uncertain data and knowledge in the design process. The developed system differs from the existing systems adopting part-first bottom-up modeling technique, in which a comprehensive intelligent framework is used for assembly modeling and design in a top-down manner from the conceptual level to the detailed level. It is able to help obtain better design ideas, provide users with suggestions so as to create and improve a design, and therefore give users the possibility to assess and reduce the total production cost at an early stage during the design process. Through the use of the system, the concurrent engineering knowledge can be effectively incorporated into the assembly design process in an integrated manner. A case assembly design shows that the intelligent modeling and design system is feasible.     

Concurrent intelligent rapid prototyping environment

Rapid prototyping technology enables rapid production of complex objects directly from a computer-aided design model without involving any tooling or conventional part programming. This has created a new set of problems associated with part design, process planning, support design and value engineering analysis of rapid prototyping parts. In this paper, a methodology for resolving these problems is described, which uses concurrent engineering, distributed blackboard, value engineering, knowledge-based and feature-based technologies. The functionality, design methodology and knowledge representation techniques of a concurrent intelligent rapid prototyping system for stereolithography form the main focus of this paper.     

冲压产品异地协同设计/制造系统

运用IDEF0过程建模方法构建冲压产品异地协同设计／制造系统过程模型,着重论述了协同工作中知识获取、基于广义框架／规则模式的知识表示、基于应用单元概念的知识引用和基于层次的CSCW工具集成等关键技术．在此基础上,提出了系统的层次体系结构,从而形成比较完善的冲压产品协同设计／制造环境．系统充分体现了IDEF0结构分析方法、CSCW方法学、知识工程和CAx的有机结合．通过实际应用,该系统能有效地提高相关企业的冲压产品协同设计／制造能力．     

基于Petri网的MEMS柔性设计建模方法

微机电系统设计具有微尺度效应和多物理场耦合的特点,而现有的面向产品宏观结构的CAD系统难以满足微米尺度设计需求,为此提出一种基于Petri网的MEMS柔性设计建模方法.在分析MEMS设计特点、框架和流程的基础上,对已有设计系统进行抽象化和精细化,获得高内聚低耦合的设计模块,并将Petri网与设计系统各模块相互关联,建立了基于Petri网的MEMS柔性设计建模框架;然后通过添加前置库所和带权有向弧调节库所最大/最小标识数,控制设计流的总数;再添加控制库所形成控制回路,使并发变迁有序执行,消解并行设计冲突;最后用Petri网的状态空间求解结果控制各模块运行,满足复杂设计流的多元关系.以ACIS为几何造型内核开发了自主原型系统,以电容式三维硅微梳齿驱动器设计为例进行应用验证,结果表明,文中方法将现有MEMS设计从自顶向下和自底向上及其混合拓展到基于Petri网的柔性设计建模,使产品设计不局限于固定的设计流程,对于提高MEMS设计效率和质量具有重要意义.     

机械产品并发设计原理与方法的探讨

一、前言 为使计算机在机械设计应用中充分发挥作用,创造出一种能模拟人类专家群对杂产品设计问题进行并行处理、相互合作这一自然属性的软件环境是+分重要的。并发设计Concurrent Design),作为     

基于虚拟样机的协同设计技术

基于虚拟样机的协同设计技术是将协同设计技术应用到虚拟样机的开发过程中 ,可以大大简化机械产品的设计开发过程 ,大幅度缩短产品开发周期和降低开发费用 ,提高产品的系统级性能 ,获得最优化和创新的设计产品。针对虚拟样机技术的特点及其与协同设计的关系 ,提出虚拟样机协同设计的方法 ,并对虚拟样机协同设计环境基本结构及实现方案进行了介绍     

Cost-effective design for injection molding

It is commonly agreed that a large proportion of the ultimate product cost is determined at product design stage. Therefore, a cost-effective design cannot be obtained unless all cost issues are resolved at early design stage. Therefore, instead of performing cost estimation after design, research presented in this paper aims to provide on-line cost evaluation and advisory to help product designers avoid cost-ineffective design. The objective can be obtained by (1) identifying factors that might affect product cost at each product design stage, (2) developing a design for cost effectiveness methodology that accommodates the concepts of concurrent engineering, and (3) developing a computer-based design for cost effectiveness system based on the proposed methodology. In this research, we focus on injection molding product design due to the advantages of injection molding process, such as high production rates, excellent quality and accuracy of the parts, and very long mold life. This paper first reviews and characterizes the conventional molding product development process with an emphasis on the identification of cost factors. Based on the results of process characterization, a cost model is developed, which depicts the relationships between cost factors and product development activities, as well as their relationships with product geometry. According to the product life cycle activities and the cost model, a design for cost effectiveness process is proposed. The process and the cost model are then employed for the development of a computer-based product design for cost effectiveness as one of the module of an integrated design for injection molding environment.     

基于虚拟样机的复杂产品协同设计与仿真关键技术研究

主要研究并行工程环境下复杂产品虚拟样机协同设计与仿真的体系结构及其关键技术。提出虚拟样机协同设计与仿真系统的体系结构与整体解决方案,研究面向虚拟样机的数字化多领域集成建模理论与方法,建立面向虚拟样机开发全生命周期的集成过程管理与冲突协调模型,提出面向复杂产品虚拟样机开发的多学科协同设计、协同仿真和智能决策支持的理论与方法,建立复杂产品虚拟样机协同支持环境,有效提高企业创新能力和核心竞争力。     

WeBid: A web-based framework to support early supplier involvement in new product development

It has been found from the contemporary research in the fields of concurrent engineering and supply chain management that significant benefits can be achieved if suppliers are involved in the early stages of product development process. However, recent investigation in manufacturing industries has also revealed that this approach is not widely practised in industries and its implementation has been a great challenge to researchers and practitioners. The research reported here proposes to develop an overall methodology for enabling better supplier involvement in new product development process and to demonstrate the framework through a prototype web-based platform on the Internet/intranets using the web technology. This paper presents some results from the initial investigation, development and implementation of the proof-of-the-concept prototype system called WeBid.     

A survey of feature modeling methods: Historical evolution and new development

Initially developed for geometric representation, feature modeling has been applied in product design and manufacturing with great success. With the growth of computer-aided engineering (CAE), computer-aided process planning (CAPP), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and other applications for product engineering, the definitions of features have been mostly application-driven. This survey briefly reviews feature modeling historical evolution first. Subsequently, various approaches to resolving the interoperability issues during product lifecycle management are reviewed. In view of the recent progress of emerging technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT), big data, social manufacturing, and additive manufacturing (AM), the focus of this survey is on the state of the art application of features in the emerging research fields. The interactions among these trending techniques constitute the socio-cyber-physical system (SCPS)-based manufacturing which demands for feature interoperability across heterogeneous domains. Future efforts required to extend feature capability in SCPS-based manufacturing system modeling are discussed at the end of this survey.     

Engineering design of green hybrid energy production and supply chains

There is a national and international move towards green energy production and supply chains. This requires a systematic engineering design approach that enables government and private energy producers and agents to design and operate the target green hybrid energy production chains in flexible and optimized manner. This research paper presents analytical view and process modeling and engineering design framework to design and evaluate green hybrid energy production / supply chains. Process models are constructed on the basis of process object oriented modeling methodology, or POOM. Performance indicators are evaluated in different hierarchical levels using risk-based life cycle and environmental assessment framework, which is essential to evaluate different energy production chain scenarios based on risk and environmental perspectives. Case study is illustrated to explain the proposed engineering design of energy production chains, which is evaluated using developed computer-aided process engineering environment.     

Knowledge-based approach and system for assembly oriented design,Part I: the approach

Assembly is one of the most important stages for product development. Assembly-oriented design (AOD) is a new approach to designing assemblies, which uses a number of design and analysis tools to help the designer plan out and analyze candidate assembly schemes prior to having detailed knowledge of the geometry of the parts. Using this approach, many assembly schemes can be inexpensively evaluated for their ability to deliver the important characteristics of the final product. This research proposes a knowledge-based approach and develops an expert design system to support top-down design for assembled products. The presentation of research report is divided into two parts: the knowledge-based approach (Part I) and the knowledge-based expert design system (Part II). This paper is the first part of the report (Part I), which mainly proposes a knowledge-based approach and framework for intelligent assembly oriented design. The proposed approach focuses on the integration of product design, assemblability analysis and evaluation, and design for assembly with economical analysis. It differs from the existing approaches adopting the part-first bottom-up modeling technique, in which a hybrid model related to design problem-solving including function–behavior–structure model, feature-based geometric model, and parametric constraint model is used as a comprehensive intelligent framework for assembly modeling and design in a top-down manner from the conceptual level to the detailed level. Through the use of intelligent approach and framework, concurrent engineering knowledge can be effectively incorporated into the assembly design process, and a knowledge-based expert design system can be implemented.