Reviewing Digital Manufacturing concept in the Industry 4.0 paradigm

Digitalization of manufacturing is once again on the industry application research agenda and Digital Manufacturing plays a fundamental role in this process. However, there is a lack of commonality in the literature about the purpose of Digital Manufacturing. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept and application domain of Digital Manufacturing considering the increasingly established Industry 4.0 paradigm. Based on a content analysis concepts are framed, and new technological characteristics identified. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the future challenges that companies face by positioning Digital Manufacturing conceptually and delimiting its application domain

Using virtual reality and 3D industrial numerical models for immersive interactive checklists

At the different stages of the PLM, companies develop numerous checklist-based procedures involving prototype inspection and testing. Besides, techniques from CAD, 3D imaging, animation and virtual reality now form a mature set of tools for industrial applications. The work presented in this article develops a unique framework for immersive checklist-based project reviews that applies to all steps of the PLM. It combines immersive navigation in the checklist, virtual experiments when needed and multimedia update of the checklist. It provides a generic tool, independent of the considered checklist, relies on the integration of various VR tools and concepts, in a modular way, and uses an original gesture recognition. Feasibility experiments are presented, validating the benefits of the approach

Phygitally Yours: Examination of Virtual Reality Experiences in Digital Sports and Recreational Games

The demand for, and investment in digital virtual reality (VR) games, both by companies and consumers, are increasing day by day. Accordingly, understanding the experiences created by VR within the scope of phygital marketing is important in terms of contributing to virtual experiential marketing, marketing communication, recreation and similar fields. The concept of phygital, expresses the integral wholeness of the digital and physical. And ‘Phygitally Yours’ refers to individuals who can live in their own phygital worlds in today's technologies. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences created by digital games involving sports and recreational content within the scope of phygital marketing. Eight individuals who did not have any prior VR experience played digital games with sports (Grand Turismo Sport) and recreational (VR Worlds) content using VR glasses. Subsequently, in-depth interviews were conducted. The data were analysed using the content analysis method, and thematic codes and concepts were revealed and interpreted. As a result of the research, it was determined that the participants' first VR experience of digital games involved the dimensions of sense, interaction, pleasure and flow, with the following codes emerging: perfect holistic effect, showroom feeling, understandable, competition, magic, gorgeous, dilemma, and place independent behaviour

Development of a model for the integration of the factor "human" in factory planning

Nowadays factory planning has to face a turbulent environment due to changes in customer demand and rules of competition. Thus, there is a growing need for responsiveness, rapidity and predictability of the outcome in the planning stage. This can be obtained only if the planner is fully integrated with the system and is able to “turn the route “ promptly. The aim of this work is supporting manufacturing industry to facilitate the full integration of the planning team with factory planning processes in order to minimise the variability of the expected output of the project, which is introduced by the involvement of the human factor. This variability can affect the desired outcome because it induces uncertainty. “Factory planning project is not a black box as well as human factor is not a machine”. The trigger of the study is an evident lack of a holistic approach in the planning stage due to a widespread “watertight compartments view” which avoids the integration of each factory planning area with the system and mainly with the brain, the planner. Accordingly, The innovation of this study is contained in the ability of providing a comprehensive approach to avoid local optimisations and detachment of planning decision points within compartments. Another key aspect is the analysis that derives from the awareness that it’s impossible to achieve synergy between planner and system just considering technical aspects and neglecting the human and psychological ones. The outcome of the research is a set of structured methodologies and a qualitative model with the aim of avoiding local optimisations and supporting the planner in the decision making process. Human issue cannot be ignored without huge benefits reduction in the production system

Movement Analytics: Current Status, Application to Manufacturing, and Future Prospects from an AI Perspective

Data-driven decision making is becoming an integral part of manufacturing companies. Data is collected and commonly used to improve efficiency and produce high quality items for the customers. IoT-based and other forms of object tracking are an emerging tool for collecting movement data of objects/entities (e.g. human workers, moving vehicles, trolleys etc.) over space and time. Movement data can provide valuable insights like process bottlenecks, resource utilization, effective working time etc. that can be used for decision making and improving efficiency. Turning movement data into valuable information for industrial management and decision making requires analysis methods. We refer to this process as movement analytics. The purpose of this document is to review the current state of work for movement analytics both in manufacturing and more broadly. We survey relevant work from both a theoretical perspective and an application perspective. From the theoretical perspective, we put an emphasis on useful methods from two research areas: machine learning, and logic-based knowledge representation. We also review their combinations in view of movement analytics, and we discuss promising areas for future development and application. Furthermore, we touch on constraint optimization. From an application perspective, we review applications of these methods to movement analytics in a general sense and across various industries. We also describe currently available commercial off-the-shelf products for tracking in manufacturing, and we overview main concepts of digital twins and their applications

An Augmented Reality-Based Hybrid Approach to Facility Layout Planning

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Virtual Reality Technology for Factory Layout Planning

Factory layout planning (FLP) has been a long-standing area that largely influences the overall productivity of the manufacturing practice. Today’s manufacturing industry faces great challenges owing to an increasing awareness of environmental concerns and the trend-shift from mass production to mass customization. Companies are striving to continuously and effectively improve their existing production systems, adapt to demand and remain competitive in the global market. Such an adaption process usually involves a redesign of the production layout. Factory layout change are becoming more frequent and have much higher requirements for quality and efficiency. Traditional ways of planning the layout change based on expert knowledge and onsite workshops cannot promise optimal solutions and bring unwanted stoppages to production, and computer aided design (CAD) and simulation have become widely used to support the process. The simulation approach focuses mostly on the quantitative measures (such as travel distance, time, frequency and throughput). It has shown to be efficient for general layout planning, but less satisfactory for detailed layout planning when qualitative factors such as safety, ergonomics and operator preference are becoming more and more important. Virtual reality (VR) technologies have become ever mature in recent years and are known for their ability to provide users with experience closely akin to the physical world through computer-generated representation. The richness and flexibility of the computer-generated environment can be of overall benefit to the future layout planning process. This thesis set out to investigate how different stakeholders, such as operator, maintenance engineer, production engineer, actively can support the decision-making in factory layout planning that utilizes virtual reality technologies, and it aims to improve current FLP practice through a systematic procedure that enables the active involvement of different stakeholders during the layout redesign and evaluation process. Therefore, a literature review about previous virtual reality applications was conducted to understand the benefit and limitation and based on which, three empirical studies were followed iteratively to explore and evaluate different VR integration approaches. A general guidelines on how to integrate and use virtual reality technology for factory layout planning was developed and discussed

APPLICATION OF AUGMENTED REALITY IN MANUAL ASSEMBLY DESIGN AND PLANNING

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH