Integrated Real-Virtuality System and Environments for Advanced Control System Developers and Machines Builders

The pace of technological change is increasing and sophisticated customer driven markets are forcing rapid machine evolution, increasing complexity and quality, and faster response. To survive and thrive in these markets, machine builders/suppliers require absolute customer and market orientation, focusing on .. rapid provision of solutions rather than products. Their production systems will need to accommodate unpredictable changes while maintaining financial and operational efficiency with short lead and delivery times. Real-Virtuality (R-V) systems are an innovative environment to address these requirements by facilitating enhanced support in machine system design utilising integrated real-virtual environments centred on concurrent machine system development and realization. This environment supports not only machine system design but also the development of the' control system at the same time. Utilising the Real-Virtual Mapping Environment (RVMI;:), 3-D simulation machine models can perform actual machine operations in real-time when coupled with the real machine controller. This provides a more understandable, reliable and transparent machine function and performance. The research study explores different types of controller verification methods and proposes a new method which employs the use of a control signal emulator. The research study has fomulated a novel technique for emulating quadrature encoder signals to provide virtual closed loop control of servomotors. The deployment of a control signal emulator technique makes the system unique and removes its dependency on specific hardware. Enabling the real-time data from the signal emulation environment eases the task of realising a real-time machine simulator. To evaluate the proposed architecture, three case studies were performed. The results have shown that it is possible to create verified and validated machine control programs with no modification needed when applied to the real machine. The migration from the virtual to the real world is totally seamless. The result from the ????study show that the virtual machine is able to operate and respond as a real machine in real-time. This opens up the unexplored potential of integrated 3-D virtual technology. The real-time 3-D simulation virtual machine will enable commissioning and training to be conducted '!-t an earlier stage in the design process (without having to wait for the real machine to be built). Furthermore, various test scenarios can also be developed and tested on the system which helps to provide a better lofriderstanding of the machine behaviours and responses. This research study has made an original contribution in the field of machine system development. It has contributed a novel approach of using emulated control signals to provide machine control programmers with a platform to test their application programs at machine level which involves both discrete digital signals and continuous signals. The real-time virtual environment extends the application domain for the use of simulation. The architecture proposed is generic; to be exact it is not constrained to a specific industrial control system or to a specific simulation vendor

Virtual manufacturing: prediction of work piece geometric quality by considering machine and set-up

Lien vers la version éditeur: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0951192X.2011.569952#.U4yZIHeqP3UIn the context of concurrent engineering, the design of the parts, the production planning and the manufacturing facility must be considered simultaneously. The design and development cycle can thus be reduced as manufacturing constraints are taken into account as early as possible. Thus, the design phase takes into account the manufacturing constraints as the customer requirements; more these constraints must not restrict the creativity of design. Also to facilitate the choice of the most suitable system for a specific process, Virtual Manufacturing is supplemented with developments of numerical computations (Altintas et al. 2005, Bianchi et al. 1996) in order to compare at low cost several solutions developed with several hypothesis without manufacturing of prototypes. In this context, the authors want to predict the work piece geometric more accurately by considering machine defects and work piece set-up, through the use of process simulation. A particular case study based on a 3 axis milling machine will be used here to illustrate the authors’ point of view. This study focuses on the following geometric defects: machine geometric errors, work piece positioning errors due to fixture system and part accuracy

Development of a virtual reality milling machine for knowledge learning and skill training

Current methods of training personnel on high cost machine tools involve the use of both classroom and hands on practical training. The practical training required the operation of costly equipment and the trainee has to be under close personnel supervision. The main aim of this project is to reduce the amount of practical training and its inherent cost, time, danger, personal injury risk and material requirements by utilising a virtual reality technology. In this study, an investigation into the use of Virtual reality for training operators and students to use the Milling Machine was carried out. The investigation has been divided into two sections: first the development of Milling Machine in the 3D virtual environment, where the real machine was re-constructed in the virtual space. This has been carried out by creating objects and assembling them together. The complete Milling machine was then properly modelled and rendered so it could be viewed from all viewpoints. The second section was to add motion to the virtual world. The machine was made of functions as for the real machine. This was achieved by attaching Superscape Control Language (SCL) to the objects. The developed Milling machine allows the users to choose the material, speed and feed rate. Upon activation, the virtual machine will be simulated to carry out the machining process and instantaneous data on the machined part can be generated. The results were satisfactory, the Milling Machine was modelled successfully and the machine was able to perform according to task set. Using the developed Virtual Model, the ability for training students and operators to use the Milling Machine has been achieved

SkyDOT (Sky Database for Objects in the Time Domain): A Virtual Observatory for Variability Studies at LANL

The mining of Virtual Observatories (VOs) is becoming a powerful new method for discovery in astronomy. Here we report on the development of SkyDOT (Sky Database for Objects in the Time domain), a new Virtual Observatory, which is dedicated to the study of sky variability. The site will confederate a number of massive variability surveys and enable exploration of the time domain in astronomy. We discuss the architecture of the database and the functionality of the user interface. An important aspect of SkyDOT is that it is continuously updated in near real time so that users can access new observations in a timely manner. The site will also utilize high level machine learning tools that will allow sophisticated mining of the archive. Another key feature is the real time data stream provided by RAPTOR (RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response), a new sky monitoring experiment under construction at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).Comment: to appear in SPIE proceedings vol. 4846, 11 pages, 5 figure

Usage of a mechatronics software for efficient machine development

Industrial machine manufactures face an increasing demand to deliver new high-quality products in a short time and at a reasonable price. Customers expect to receive machines that are productive, robust and flexible enough to adapt to their needs. Meeting these requirements while developing new technologies is a great business challenge. The development process is complex and with high degrees of uncertainty. Thus, the industry needs new development methods and tools that help them deal with complexity, be more efficient, and reduce costs. These tools are software that emulates physical systems into virtual models. By using them, engineers can verify machine concepts, integrate designs or validate control programs to make informed decisions before any hardware is built. In this context, this project shows a case study where a system is developed using a modelbased approach. The system is a prototype meant to automatically pick 3D printed parts and place them in a packaging box. The machine model is developed to validate and optimize the pick and place algorithms before testing them in the physical equipment. The final simulation can understand the position, speed and acceleration values introduced by the user and provide a correct 3D visualization of the machine movement. The model includes the physical properties and kinematics of all the moving machine components, the behaviour of the motor drives and the data exchange between the controller and the peripheries. The simulation is governed by the same control program that is executed in the real machine. The virtual model is validated by a 3D visualization of the machine motion as well as an analysis of the motion graphs of several movement sequences. The project also includes an analysis of the costs and the environmental impact of this work. This thesis also analyses the advantages and implications of using a virtual model to develop a machine. This is done through a literature review and observations made during the development of the case study

Virtual prototyping of medieval weapons for historical reconstruction of siege scenarios starting from topography and archaeological investigations

Chronicles of sieges to castles or fortresses, using “machinae”, can often be found in historical sources. Moreover, archaeological excavations of castles or fortresses has brought to light rocks or projectiles whose carving suggests a military usage. Nevertheless, chronicles and discoveries alone, are seldom enough to propose a faithful reconstruction of these machines. Therefore, the aim of this research is the development of methodologies for reconstructing virtual scenarios of sieges, starting from the scarce information available. In order to achieve it, a procedure for the virtual reconstruction of the siege machine has been set up, focusing on typology and dimensions of the machines, also investigating possible fire positions according to topography. The entire procedure has been developed using the siege of Cervara di Roma’s Rocca as a case study. Late medieval chronicles (end of 13th Century) report the siege brought by the papal army in order to restore the jurisdiction on the Cervara’s stronghold, following the insurrection of a group of vassals headed by a monk named Pelagio. The discovery, in the area of the Rocca, of a stone that could have been used as a projectile confirms what reported. The proposed methodology is composed of two parts. The first one is connected to the study of the “internal ballistics”, to understand the performances and to build virtual models of siege machines. The second part is the study of the “external ballistics”, then to the positioning and shooting ability of possible machines, analysing the topography of the area. In this paper, we present the feasibility of this methodology through the preliminary results achieved correlating internal and external ballistics

Neural Network Design using a Virtual Reality Platform

The evolution of Deep Learning (DL), a subset of machine learning, has made their use very effective in many artificial intelligence (AI) fields. In parallel Virtual Reality is going wide in many applications thanks to the proliferation of cameras in mobile devices and improved processing efficiency. Data visualization in deep learning is a fundamental element for which it can benefit from the advantages offered by the visualization of the VR for the development of the models. In addition, the researchers can widely use the editing of images and videos in the machine learning process to design a convolutional network suitable for image recognition. In this study, we want to demonstrate the usefulness of this approach in collecting data within virtual reality to train and optimize a convolutional neural network used to recognize human activities (HAR)

Virtualized DB Clustering and Server Consolidation: It’s Implementation with a Live Case Study

Virtualization is a technology that transforms today’s powerful computer hardware, which was designed to run a single operating system and a single application, to run multiple virtual machine having independent operating system. Many times, we observes that the server resources been underutilized. Virtualization allows us to efficiently utilize the available resources on physical machine. In virtualization environment, different virtualized machines can have different host operating system (i.e. different versions windows, Linux, Solaris etc). The most important concept to understand in virtualization is that, the virtual machines operating systems are independent from physical server operating system. This paper is an attempt to illustrate and appreciate the concept of virtualization and its implementation by using a live case study which we have implemented for one of our leading ETL tool development for a client. Case study elaborates the implementation details about Virtualized DB Clustering and Server Consolidatio

A Validation Framework for the Long Term Preservation of High Energy Physics Data

The study group on data preservation in high energy physics, DPHEP, is moving to a new collaboration structure, which will focus on the implementation of preservation projects, such as those described in the group's large scale report published in 2012. One such project is the development of a validation framework, which checks the compatibility of evolving computing environments and technologies with the experiments software for as long as possible, with the aim of substantially extending the lifetime of the analysis software, and hence of the usability of the data. The framework is designed to automatically test and validate the software and data of an experiment against changes and upgrades to the computing environment, as well as changes to the experiment software itself. Technically, this is realised using a framework capable of hosting a number of virtual machine images, built with different configurations of operating systems and the relevant software, including any necessary external dependencies.Comment: Proceedings of a poster presented at CHEP 2013, Amsterdam, October 14-18 201

Design of Virtual Anchor Based on 3Dmax

With the rapid development of virtual reality and live streaming technologies, virtual anchors have become increasingly popular in recent years. In this paper, we propose a design method of virtual anchors based on 3DMAX. Through the use of modeling, rigging, and animation techniques, virtual anchors with realistic appearances and human-like movements can be created. We also explore the application of machine learning technologies in improving the interaction between virtual anchors and users. In addition, we provide a case study on the design and implementation of a virtual anchor for a popular live streaming platform. Our results show that the use of 3DMAX in virtual anchor design can greatly enhance user engagement and improve the overall user experience.Virtual anchor design technology based on 3DMAX is a highly complex design work, which requires designers to have a variety of skills and creative capabilities, and needs to fully consider the needs of the audience and the development trend of the industry. Designers should also have certain cultural accumulation and creative ability, and be able to design an attractive and valuable virtual anchor image from the perspective of the audience.This paper analyzes the production and design of the current virtual anchors, in order to provide some reference significance for the production, operation and commercial realization of the virtual anchors in the future