Virtual reality for assembly methods prototyping: a review

Assembly planning and evaluation is an important component of the product design process in which details about how parts of a new product will be put together are formalized. A well designed assembly process should take into account various factors such as optimum assembly time and sequence, tooling and fixture requirements, ergonomics, operator safety, and accessibility, among others. Existing computer-based tools to support virtual assembly either concentrate solely on representation of the geometry of parts and fixtures and evaluation of clearances and tolerances or use simulated human mannequins to approximate human interaction in the assembly process. Virtual reality technology has the potential to support integration of natural human motions into the computer aided assembly planning environment (Ritchie et al. in Proc I MECH E Part B J Eng 213(5):461–474, 1999). This would allow evaluations of an assembler’s ability to manipulate and assemble parts and result in reduced time and cost for product design. This paper provides a review of the research in virtual assembly and categorizes the different approaches. Finally, critical requirements and directions for future research are presented

Report of the Herring Assessment Working Group for the Area South of 62ºN (HAWG) [8 – 17 March 2005 ICES Headquarters]

Contributors: Dankert Skage

From Polis to Colonia:Death, Burial, and Society in Hellenistic and Roman Patras

This thesis studies the ways in which people dealt with their dead in ancient Patras, a small Greek polis turned Roman colonia that is situated in the Northwest Peloponnese. Mortuary practices are reconstructed from Late Classical to Early Christian times; the focus is on the Hellenistic and Roman period (ca. 300 BCE-300 CE). The goal of this reconstruction is to come closer to understanding how the changing political, economic, and social circumstances that characterized the period - imperialism and globalization in particular - affected the culture and identity of the local population