CLS-CAD: Synthesizing CAD Assemblies in Fusion 360

The CAD design process includes a number of repetitive steps when creating assemblies. This issue is compounded when engineering whole product lines or design families, as steps like inserting parts common to all variations, such as fasteners and product-integral base parts, get repeated numerous times. This makes creating designs time-, and as a result, cost-intensive. While many CAD software packages have APIs, the effort of creating use-case specific plugins to automate creation of assemblies usually outweighs the benefit. We developed a plugin for the CAD software package "Fusion 360" which tackles this issue. The plugin adds several graphical interfaces to Fusion 360 that allow parts to be annotated with types, subtype hierarchies to be managed, and requests to synthesize assembly programs for assemblies to be posed. The plugin is use-case agnostic and is able to generate arbitrary open kinematic chain structures. We envision engineers working with CAD software being able to make designed parts reusable and automate the generation of different design alternatives as well as whole product lines

What is the “Source” of Open Source Hardware?

What “open source” means once applied to tangible products has been so far mostly addressed through the light of licensing. While this approach is suitable for software, it appears to be over-simplistic for complex hardware products. Whether such a product can be labelled as open source is not only a question of licence but a question of documentation, i.e. what is the information that sufficiently describes it? Or in other words, what is the “source” of open source hardware? To date there is no simple answer to this question, leaving large room for interpretation in the usage of the term. Based on analysis of public documentation of 132 products, this paper provides an overview of how practitioners tend to interpret the concept of open source hardware. It specifically focuses on the recent evolution of the open source movement outside the domain of electronics and DIY to that of non-electronic and complex open source hardware products. The empirical results strongly indicate the existence of two main usages of open source principles in the context of tangible products: publication of product-related documentation as a means to support community-based product development and to disseminate privately developed innovations. It also underlines the high variety of interpretations and even misuses of the concept of open source hardware. This reveals in turn that this concept may not even be clear to practitioners and calls for more narrowed down definitions of what has to be shared for a product to be called open source. This article contributes towards this effort through the definition of an open source hardware lifecycle summarizing the observed approaches to open source hardware.DFG, 325093850, Open Access Publizieren 2017 - 2018 / Technische Universität Berli

A social media framework to support engineering design communication

AbstractEngineering Design Communication (EDC) is fundamental to almost all Engineering Design activities as it provides the ability for knowledge and information to be shared between engineers. It is part of ‘what we do’. This communication contains a great deal of rationale relating to the evolution of Product Development and is essential for understanding ‘why the product is the way it is’. The need to support EDC is becoming more important due to the fact that Product Development is becoming more distributed, multi-disciplinary and involving greater re-use of past designs. With the advent of Social Media (SM), it is argued that there is the technical capability to provide more effective support for EDC within a computer-mediated environment. In order to explore this potential, this paper defines the requirements for the effective support of EDC through an extensive review of the literature. It then discusses the suitability of a SM approach and then presents the theoretical foundations of a SM framework to support EDC

Teräsbetonisen kulmatukimuurin rakennesuunnittelun automatisointi

The work of designing structures can is completely computerised. Much manual work involving multiple pieces of software is still required. This thesis explores methods for automation of the planning process. The construction planning process consists of multiple stages, which include the gathering of reference data, structural design and the creation of production information. The stages are comprised out of many tasks. Data transfers between different pieces of software, data processing, calculations, building information modelling and the writing of reports are all tasks that require different kinds of actions. To automate the planning process, a good understanding of all the tasks involved in the process is necessary. The planning process must thus be evaluated. Other preparative work must also be done. The variations in the structure between different projects must also be explored. An automated construction planning system is required to be applicable to several situations. The thesis presents methods for the automation of the process. Some of the methods aid in data management but contain no approaches for the automation of individual tasks. Methods for the automation of separate tasks of are also explored. The thesis includes a case study, which involves the creation of an automated construction planning system. The used example structure is a reinforced concrete cantilever retaining wall. The case study focuses on combining building information modelling and structural design

Deploying OWL ontologies for semantic mediation of mixed-reality interactions for human–robot collaborative assembly

For effective human–robot collaborative assembly, it is paramount to view both robots and humans as autonomous entities in that they can communicate, undertake different roles, and not be bound to pre-planned routines and task sequences. However, with very few exceptions, most of recent research assumes static pre-defined roles during collaboration with centralised architectures devoid of runtime communication that can influence task responsibility and execution. Furthermore, from an information system standpoint, they lack the self-organisation needed to cope with today’s manufacturing landscape that is characterised by product variants. Therefore, this study presents collaborative agents for manufacturing ontology (CAMO), which is an information model based on description logic that maintains a self-organising team network between collaborating human–robot multi-agent system (MAS). CAMO is implemented using the Web Ontology Language (OWL). It models popular notions of net systems and represents the agent, manufacturing, and interaction contexts that accommodate generalisability to different assemblies and agent capabilities. As a novel element, a dynamic consensus-driven collaboration based on parametric validation of semantic representations of agent capabilities via runtime dynamic communication is presented. CAMO is instantiated as agent beliefs in a framework that benefits from real-time dynamic communication with the assembly design environment and incorporates a mixed-reality environment for use by the operator. The employment of web technologies to project scalable notions of intentions via mixed reality is discussed for its novelty from a technology standpoint and as an intention projection mechanism. A case study with a real diesel engine assembly provides appreciable results and demonstrates the feasibility of CAMO and the framework.Peer reviewe

A process model in platform independent and neutral formal representation for design engineering automation

An engineering design process as part of product development (PD) needs to satisfy ever-changing customer demands by striking a balance between time, cost and quality. In order to achieve a faster lead-time, improved quality and reduced PD costs for increased profits, automation methods have been developed with the help of virtual engineering. There are various methods of achieving Design Engineering Automation (DEA) with Computer-Aided (CAx) tools such as CAD/CAE/CAM, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE). For example, Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools enable Geometry Automation (GA), PLM systems allow for sharing and exchange of product knowledge throughout the PD lifecycle. Traditional automation methods are specific to individual products and are hard-coded and bound by the proprietary tool format. Also, existing CAx tools and PLM systems offer bespoke islands of automation as compared to KBE. KBE as a design method incorporates complete design intent by including re-usable geometric, non-geometric product knowledge as well as engineering process knowledge for DEA including various processes such as mechanical design, analysis and manufacturing. It has been recognised, through an extensive literature review, that a research gap exists in the form of a generic and structured method of knowledge modelling, both informal and formal modelling, of mechanical design process with manufacturing knowledge (DFM/DFA) as part of model based systems engineering (MBSE) for DEA with a KBE approach. There is a lack of a structured technique for knowledge modelling, which can provide a standardised method to use platform independent and neutral formal standards for DEA with generative modelling for mechanical product design process and DFM with preserved semantics. The neutral formal representation through computer or machine understandable format provides open standard usage. This thesis provides a contribution to knowledge by addressing this gap in two-steps: • In the first step, a coherent process model, GPM-DEA is developed as part of MBSE which can be used for modelling of mechanical design with manufacturing knowledge utilising hybrid approach, based on strengths of existing modelling standards such as IDEF0, UML, SysML and addition of constructs as per author’s Metamodel. The structured process model is highly granular with complex interdependencies such as activities, object, function, rule association and includes the effect of the process model on the product at both component and geometric attributes. • In the second step, a method is provided to map the schema of the process model to equivalent platform independent and neutral formal standards using OWL/SWRL ontology for system development using Protégé tool, enabling machine interpretability with semantic clarity for DEA with generative modelling by building queries and reasoning on set of generic SWRL functions developed by the author. Model development has been performed with the aid of literature analysis and pilot use-cases. Experimental verification with test use-cases has confirmed the reasoning and querying capability on formal axioms in generating accurate results. Some of the other key strengths are that knowledgebase is generic, scalable and extensible, hence provides re-usability and wider design space exploration. The generative modelling capability allows the model to generate activities and objects based on functional requirements of the mechanical design process with DFM/DFA and rules based on logic. With the help of application programming interface, a platform specific DEA system such as a KBE tool or a CAD tool enabling GA and a web page incorporating engineering knowledge for decision support can consume relevant part of the knowledgebase

CAD integrated design automation utilization in the product engineering of an industrial company

Automaatteja on käytetty menestyksekkäästi jo pitkään teollisuusyritysten tuotantotehtävissä mutta tuotesuunnittelun osalta automaattien hyödyntäminen on edelleen harvinaista siitä huolimatta, että teknologia siihen on olemassa. Tätä teknologiaa edustavat CAD-integroidut suunnitteluautomaatit, jotka perustuvat KBE-menetelmien käyttöön. KBE-menetelmät pyrkivät yhdistämään tekoälyn, ohjelmoinnin ja tietokoneavusteisen suunnittelun tarjoamat mahdollisuudet, joiden avulla luoduilla suunnitteluautomaateilla pystytään tehostamaan insinöörien suunnittelutyötä ja tuottamaan entistä laadukkaampia tuotteita. CAD-integroitujen suunnitteluautomaattien hyödyt perustuvat mahdollisuuteen kerätä suunnittelusäännöt tuotemalliin, jonka avulla rutiinityötehtäviä pystytään huomattavasti nopeuttamaan sekä lisäämään iteratiivista tarkastelua tuotteen laadun optimoimiseksi. Täten automaattien hyödyntämisellä suunnittelutehtävissä voidaan saavuttaa merkittävää kilpailuetua seuraamalla alan edelläkävijöitä. Työssä tutkitaan olemassa olevia kaupallisia suunnitteluautomaatio-ohjelmistoja ja tehdään selvitys työn toimeksiantajayrityksen Metso Flow Control Oy:n tarpeista CAD-integroidulle suunnitteluautomaatille. Tutkimus toteutetaan ohjelmistontarjoajayritysten sekä Metso Flow Control Oy:n työntekijöiden haastatteluihin perustuen. Työssä valitaan löydettyjen ohjelmistovaihtoehtojen ja toimeksiantajayrityksen tarpeiden mukaan sopivin ohjelmistokokonaisuus. Valitulla ohjelmistokokonaisuudella toteutetaan käyttöönottokokeilu automaatilla saavutettavien hyötyjen todistamiseksi. Käyttöönottokokeilussa rakennetaan suunnitteluautomaatti toimeksiantajayrityksen yhden rajatun tuotesarjan suunnitteluun. Käyttöönottokokeilussa toteutettavalla automaatilla ei pyritä kattamaan kaikkea kyseisen tuotesarjan suunnitteluun liittyviä tehtäviä vaan suunnitteluautomaatin toimintaa demonstroidaan yksittäisillä tehtävillä ja ominaisuuksilla. Siten pyritään osoittamaan, kuinka automaattia voitaisiin jatkossa hyödyntää, jos automaatin kehitystyöhön asetettaisiin sen vaatimat resurssit. Työn lopussa analysoidaan suunnitteluautomaatilla saavutettuja hyötyjä sekä annetaan kirjoittajan ehdotuksia jatkotoimenpiteille ohjelmiston kehittämistä ja käyttöönottoa varten.Automatons have been successfully used in the production of industrial companies for years but in the product engineering the utilization of automatons is still rare, even though the technology is established. CAD integrated design automation represents this technology, which is based on knowledge-based engineering. Knowledge-based engineering tries to combine the possibilities of artificial intelligence, computer programming and computer aided design, which makes companies possible to create design automatons. Design automatons can be used for streamlining engineering work and for improving the quality of products. The benefits of CAD integrated design automation are based on the possibility to collect design rules into a product model, which can be utilized for reducing the time used in repetitive work and for increasing the iterative examination in order to optimize product quality. Thus, by following the pioneers in the utilization of CAD integrated design automation, companies may gain a remarkable competitive advantage. Research for commercial design automation software and for the requirements of the employer company Metso Flow Control Inc. is executed in this paper. The research is implemented by interviewing Metso Flow Control employees and companies that offer software for design automation. The most suitable system is selected based on the requirements of the employer company from the software options found in research. The chosen software is used for creating a proof-of-concept application in order to prove the possible benefits of design automation. During the proof-of-concept a design automaton is created for the engineering work of one restricted product series. The created automaton does not try to cover all the engineering work in the selected product series but the functionalities are demonstrated with individual tasks and features. The aim of the proof-of-concept is to demonstrate how design automation could be utilized in the future if needed resources are set to the development work of the automaton. At the end of this paper the gained benefits are analyzed and the writer gives some proposals for the next steps of developing and exercising the software and design automation

Semantic and spatio-temporal understanding for computer vision driven worker safety inspection and risk analysis

Despite decades of efforts, we are still far from eliminating construction safety risks. Recently, computer vision techniques have been applied for construction safety management on real-world residential and commercial projects; they have shown the potential to fundamentally change safety management practices and safety performance measurement. The most significant breakthroughs of this field have been achieved in the areas of safety practice observations, incident and safety performance forecasting, and vision-based construction risk assessment. However, fundamental theoretical and technical challenges have yet to be addressed in order to achieve the full potential of construction site images and videos for construction safety. This dissertation explores methods for automated semantic and spatio-temporal visual understanding of workers and equipment and how to use them to improve automatic safety inspections and risk analysis: (1) a new method is developed to improve the breadth and depth of vision-based safety compliance checking by explicitly classifying worker-tool interactions. A detection model is trained on a newly constructed image dataset for construction sites, achieving 52.9% mean average precision for 10 object categories and 89.4% average precision for detecting workers. Using this detector and new dataset, the proposed human-object interaction recognition model achieved 79.78% precision and 77.64% recall for hard hat checking; 79.11% precision and 75.29% recall for safety vest checking. The new model also verifies hand protection for workers when tools are being used with 66.2% precision and 64.86% recall. The proposed model is superior to methods relying on hand-made rules to recognize interactions or that reason directly on the outputs of object detectors. (2) to support systems that proactively prevent these accidents, this thesis presents a path prediction model for workers and equipment. The model leverages the extracted video frames to predict upcoming worker and equipment motion trajectories on construction sites. Specifically, the model takes 2D tracks of workers and equipment from visual data -based on computer vision methods for detection and tracking- and uses a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) encoder-decoder followed by a Mixture Density Network (MDN) to predict their locations. A multi-head prediction module is introduced to predict locations at different future times. The method is validated on an existing dataset TrajNet and a new dataset of 105 high-definition videos recorded over 30 days from a real-world construction site. On the TrajNet dataset, the proposed model significantly outperforms Social LSTM. On the new dataset, the presented model outperforms conventional time-series models and achieves average localization errors of 7.30, 12.71, and 24.22 pixels for 10, 20, and 40 future steps, respectively. (3) A new construction worker safety analysis method is introduced that evaluates worker-level risk from site photos and videos. This method evaluates worker state, which is based on workers' body pose, their protective equipment use, their interactions with tools and materials, the construction activity being performed, and hazards in the workplace. To estimate worker state, a visual-based Object-Activity-Keypoint (OAK) recognition model is proposed that takes 36.6% less time and 40.1% less memory while keeping comparably performances compared to a system running individual models for each sub-task. Worker activity recognition is further improved with a spatio-temporal graph model using recognized per-frame worker activity, detected bounding boxes of tools and materials, and estimated worker poses. Finally, severity levels are predicted by a trained classifier on a dataset of images of construction workers accompanied with ground truth severity level annotations. In the test dataset, the severity level prediction model achieves 85.7% cross-validation accuracy in a bricklaying task and 86.6% cross-validation accuracy for a plastering task

A Novel Virtual Product Modelling Framework for Design Automation in a Knowledge-Based Engineering Environment

Computer Aided Design (CAD) has been widely used for product modelling in the industry, where multiple issues arise, such as lack of product data representation and capturing and reusing the existing design knowledge in the modelling process. Existing CAD systems only provide geometric data within the CAD models and require users to have knowledge of the product to judge the correctness of the modelling process. Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) has been introduced to assist product design with the capabilities of knowledge capturing and reusing. However, there is always a “black box” problem in understanding the existing KBE applications, and the substantiation steps for the implementation of KBE frameworks are still limited. To address this, the author proposed and implemented a Virtual Product Modelling (VPM) framework that helps capture and reuse existing product information to enhance the modelling process for design automation. This framework was built as a knowledge-based product modelling environment using a gaming engine. It was further evaluated through three use cases, where the proposed framework was applied to simple parts with primitive geometric features, a hex bolt, and a wheel assembly. The results of the use case evaluation indicate that this framework satisfies all the identified measurement parameters and achieves the aim of the research. This research enhances the product modelling process with the capabilities of generative representation, knowledge capturing and reusing. It provides design engineers with the knowledge reasoning capability when they are making changes to the product model and, therefore, saves time and prevents engineers from making mistakes. This research also presents a KBE implementation framework with detailed substantiation steps, where the knowledge is structured and reusable within the product model. Further, the findings of this research have shown the potential of the developed VPM framework in aspects such as standard development in product modelling, extending to non-engineers and integration with VR/AR visualisation techniques