Internet enabled modelling of extended manufacturing enterprises using the process based techniques

The paper presents the preliminary results of an ongoing research project on Internet enabled process-based modelling of extended manufacturing enterprises. It is proposed to apply the Open System Architecture for CIM (CIMOSA) modelling framework alongside with object-oriented Petri Net models of enterprise processes and object-oriented techniques for extended enterprises modelling. The main features of the proposed approach are described and some components discussed. Elementary examples of object-oriented Petri Net implementation and real-time visualisation are presented

RACOFI: A Rule-Applying Collaborative Filtering System

In this paper we give an overview of the RACOFI (Rule-Applying Collaborative Filtering) multidimensional rating system and its related technologies. This will be exemplified with RACOFI Music, an implemented collaboration agent that assists on-line users in the rating and recommendation of audio (Learning) Objects. It lets users rate contemporary Canadian music in the five dimensions of impression, lyrics, music, originality, and production. The collaborative filtering algorithms STI Pearson, STIN2, and the Per Item Average algorithms are then employed together with RuleML-based rules to recommend music objects that best match user queries. RACOFI has been on-line since August 2003 at http://racofi.elg.ca.

Integrating Distributed Sources of Information for Construction Cost Estimating using Semantic Web and Semantic Web Service technologies

A construction project requires collaboration of several organizations such as owner, designer, contractor, and material supplier organizations. These organizations need to exchange information to enhance their teamwork. Understanding the information received from other organizations requires specialized human resources. Construction cost estimating is one of the processes that requires information from several sources including a building information model (BIM) created by designers, estimating assembly and work item information maintained by contractors, and construction material cost data provided by material suppliers. Currently, it is not easy to integrate the information necessary for cost estimating over the Internet. This paper discusses a new approach to construction cost estimating that uses Semantic Web technology. Semantic Web technology provides an infrastructure and a data modeling format that enables accessing, combining, and sharing information over the Internet in a machine processable format. The estimating approach presented in this paper relies on BIM, estimating knowledge, and construction material cost data expressed in a web ontology language. The approach presented in this paper makes the various sources of estimating data accessible as Simple Protocol and Resource Description Framework Query Language (SPARQL) endpoints or Semantic Web Services. We present an estimating application that integrates distributed information provided by project designers, contractors, and material suppliers for preparing cost estimates. The purpose of this paper is not to fully automate the estimating process but to streamline it by reducing human involvement in repetitive cost estimating activities

Ship product modelling

This paper is a fundamental review of ship product modeling techniques with a focus on determining the state of the art, to identify any shortcomings and propose future directions. The review addresses ship product data representations, product modeling techniques and integration issues, and life phase issues. The most significant development has been the construction of the ship Standard for the Exchange of Product Data (STEP) application protocols. However, difficulty has been observed with respect to the general uptake of the standards, in particular with the application to legacy systems, often resulting in embellishments to the standards and limiting the ability to further exchange the product data. The EXPRESS modeling language is increasingly being superseded by the extensible mark-up language (XML) as a method to map the STEP data, due to its wider support throughout the information technology industry and its more obvious structure and hierarchy. The associated XML files are, however, larger than those produced using the EXPRESS language and make further demands on the already considerable storage required for the ship product model. Seamless integration between legacy applications appears to be difficult to achieve using the current technologies, which often rely on manual interaction for the translation of files. The paper concludes with a discussion of future directions that aim to either solve or alleviate these issues

webXice: an Infrastructure for Information Commerce on the WWW

Systems for information commerce on the WWW have to support flexible business models if they should be able to cover a wide range of requirements imposed by the different types of information businesses. This leads to non-trivial functional and security requirements both on the provider and consumer side, for which we introduce an architecture and a system implementation, webXice. We focus on the question, how participants with minimal technological requisites, i.e. solely standard Web browsers available, can be technologically enabled to articipate in the information commerce at a system level, while not sacrificing the functionality and security required by an autonomous participant in an information commerce scenario. In particular, we propose an implementation strategy to efficiently support persistent message logging for light-weight clients, that enables clients to collect and manage non-reputiable messages as proofs. We believe that the capability to support minimal system platforms is a necessary precondition for the wide-spread use of any information commerce infrastructure

A framework of web-based conceptual design

A web-based conceptual design prototype system is presented. The system consists of four parts which interpret on-line sketches as 2D and 3D geometry, extract 3D hierarchical configurations, allow editing of component behaviours, and produce VRML-based behavioural simulations for design verification and web-based application. In the first part, on-line freehand sketched input is interpreted as 2D and 3D geometry, which geometrically represents conceptual design. The system then infers 3D configuration by analysing 3D modelling history. The configuration is described by a parent–child hierarchical relationship and relative positions between two geometric components. The positioning information is computed with respect to the VRML97 specification. In order to verify the conceptual design of a product, the behaviours can be specified interactively on different components. Finally, the system creates VRML97 formatted files for behavioural simulation and collaborative design application over the Internet. The paper gives examples of web-based applications. This work forms a part of a research project into the design and establishing of modular machines for automation manufacture. A consortium of leading automotive companies is collaborating on the research project