Concurrent consideration of evacuation safety and productivity in manufacturing facility planning using multi-paradigm simulations

Manufacturing facilities are expected to maintain a high level of production and at the same time, employ strict safety standards to ensure the safe evacuation of the people in the event of emergencies (fire is considered in this paper). These two goals are often conflicting. This paper presents a methodology to evaluate evacuation safety versus productivity concurrently for various, widely known manufacturing layouts. While the safety performance indicators such as evacuation times are inferred from the crowd (agent based) simulation, the productivity performance indicators (e.g. throughput) are analyzed using the discrete event simulation. To this end, this research focuses on creating innovative techniques for developing accurate crowd simulations, where Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) agent framework is employed to build each person’s individual actions and the interactions between them. The data model and rule based action algorithms for each agent are reverse-engineered from the human-in-the-loop experiments in the immersive virtual reality environments. Finally, experiments are conducted using the constructed simulations to compare safety and productivity for different layouts. To demonstrate the proposed methodology, an automotive power-train (engine and transmission) manufacturing plant was used. Initial results look quite promising.     

Multi-module satellite component assignment and layout optimization

In previous optimization methods for multi-module satellite equipment (component) layout optimization problem, each component was limited to certain module or supporting surface and could only search its position there. Components could not migrate from one module or supporting surface to another. In this case, the layout design of components within satellite module was seriously hindered from further improvement. In this study a component assignment and layout integration optimization algorithm is presented to deal with this problem, which can assign components to each module of satellite dynamically during optimization procedure. The aim of this paper is to expand the solution space of component layout optimization so as to further improve the component layout design. The proposed component assignment and layout integration optimization algorithm is inspired from the idea of stepwise regression in multiple regression analysis, which allows independent variables to enter or leave regression equation freely. In the proposed algorithm components enter the satellite module one by one in descending order of the product of mass and height. For all supporting surfaces within satellite module, each component will try all of them through layout optimization together with these components have been in the satellite module, and finally select the one with the best fitness as its initial assignment. At the same time, these components have been in the satellite module will be evaluated by their moment of inertia to decide whether they leave the current supporting surfaces and move to another or not. The layout optimization algorithm uses the differential evolution (DE) and random mutation operation to optimize the coordinates and orientations of components, respectively. The performance of the proposed algorithm is finally evaluated on a simplified satellite case. Experimental results show the proposed algorithm outperforms other two algorithms that did not consider component assignment in computational accuracy.     

Multiple Translational Containment Part I: An Approximate Algorithm

We present an algorithm for finding a solution to the two-dimensional translational approximate multiple containment problem: find translations for k polygons which place them inside a polygonal container so that no point of any polygon is more than 2ε inside of the boundary of any other polygon. The polygons and container may be nonconvex. The value of ε is an input to the algorithm. In industrial applications the containment solution acts as a guide to a machine cutting out polygonal shapes from a sheet of material. If ε is chosen to be a fraction of the cutter's accuracy, then the solution to the approximate containment problem is sufficient for industrial purposes. Given a containment problem, we characterize its solution and create a collection of containment subproblems from this characterization. We solve each subproblem by first restricting certain two-dimensional configuration spaces until a steady state is reached, and then testing for a solution inside the configuration spaces. If necessary, we subdivide the configuration spaces to generate new subproblems. The running time of our algorithm is , where s is the largest number of vertices of any polygon generated by a restriction operation. In the worst case s can be exponential in the size of the input, but, in practice, it is usually not more than quadratic. Received June 24, 1994; revised August 22, 1995.     

版面分析中表格与图形的鉴别

在版面分析过程中,有时会将表格误判为图形或将图形误判为表格。为避免对误判的表格或图形进行识别而产生的错误结果,文章提出了一种根据表格框线信息和表格单元信息来区分表格与图形的方法。该方法结合表格的结构特征,提出了作为一个表格的重要组成要素的表格框线和表格单元所必须满足的若干约束条件,通过验证每个条件是否得到满足来区分表格与图形。实验表明,该方法能有效地区分绝大多数表格与图形,极大地降低了对表格与图形的误判率。     

A novel algorithm for layout optimization of injection process with random demands and sequence dependent setup times

Injection molding is an ideal manufacturing process for producing high volumes of products from both thermoplastic and thermo setting materials. Nevertheless, in some cases, this type of manufacturing process decelerates the production rate as a bottleneck. Thus, layout optimization plays a crucial role in this type of problem in terms of increasing the efficiency of the production line. In this regard, a novel computer simulation–stochastic data envelopment analysis (CS-SDEA) algorithm is proposed in this paper to deal with a single row job-shop layout problem in an injection molding process. First, the system is modeled with discrete-event-simulation as a powerful tool for analyzing complex stochastic systems. Then, due to lack of information about some operational parameters, theory of uncertainty is imported to the simulation model. Finally, an output-oriented stochastic DEA model is used for ranking the outputs of simulation model. The proposed CS-SDEA algorithm is capable of modeling and optimizing non-linear, stochastic, and uncertain injection process problems. The solution quality is illustrated by an actual case study in a refrigerator manufacturing company.     

表格图像处理自动评测的设计与实现

表格图像处理系统的自动化评测技术一直是文档图像处理领域的难点问题,目前尚缺乏成熟的评测方法体系。本文立足于“线条交点矩阵比对的思想建立完整的自动化评测方法,实现对表格定位和结构分析的自动化定量评测。     

基于分层技术的毕业生管理系统设计与实现

实现基于分层技术,利用三层架构优化系统结构设计,开发毕业生管理系统,为学生毕业后及时沟通建立了畅通的网络渠道,进一步提高学院对毕业校友信息整理的效率.     

2Gsps高速数据采集系统的设计与实现

本文介绍了一种基于交替采样技术的高速数据采集系统，该系统采用了两片采样率为1GSPS的A／D实现了2GSPS的采样率，并利用FPGA对A/D输出数据的进行转换和缓存。本文着重介绍了该数据采集系统设计和高速存储所涉及到的问题，并给出了仿真波形。     

用于成品率分析芯片的LVS方法

研究成品率分析芯片的特点和设计流程,提出适用的LVS方法。该方法结合传统的LVS及形式验证,能够解决成品率分析芯片中违反设计规则、版图和电路图不匹配等特殊结构的验证问题。将该方法与传统验证流程相融合,用于成品率分析芯片的设计和验证。实验结果证明,成品率分析芯片验证流程具有正确性和稳定性。     

一种基于扩展对象模型的界面自动生成方法

根据界面工程设计和自动化的需要,提出了基于FMP模型中的扩展对象模型的自动生成方法。这种方法是根据扩展对象模型的描述信息,在界面的特定区域中实现界面自动生成。实验结果表明,提出的方法具有相当的应用价值。