Spacelab software development and integration concepts study report, volume 1

The proposed software guidelines to be followed by the European Space Research Organization in the development of software for the Spacelab being developed for use as a payload for the space shuttle are documented. Concepts, techniques, and tools needed to assure the success of a programming project are defined as they relate to operation of the data management subsystem, support of experiments and space applications, use with ground support equipment, and for integration testing

An Intelligent Approach to High Quantity Automated Machining

Purpose: To investigate the possibility of application of knowledge-based expert systems to facilitate the task of techno-economical feasibility analysis of utilization of special purpose machines for high quantity production tasks. Also, to study the possibility of assisting special purpose machine designers in applying knowledge-based expert systems in the design task in order to reduce required machine design time, improve machine design efficiency, and eliminate possible human errors. Design/methodology/approach: Development of a knowledge-based expert system has been proposed to help decide where to utilize special purpose machines to accomplish the production task. The knowledge-based expert system consists of a rule-base which contains qualitative human knowledge and expertise in the form of if-then rules; and a database which contains qualitative information of machining operations, and characteristics of standardized special purpose machine components. Findings: A case study has been presented where an analysis has been made on the basis of techno-economical considerations for a typical part with three machining operations to be produced in large quantities. It has been concluded that for the given production task, special purpose machines would result in a significant 59% reduction of costs compared to CNC machines, and 95.5% compared to traditional machines. The proposed methodology also reduces the time and effort needed for decision making on utilization of special purpose machines and determination of machine layout. In addition, it minimizes the level of expertise required to perform these functions and eliminates possible human errors. Research limitations/implications: The current system focuses on drilling and drilling-related operations which cover about 60% of all machining operations. More work is needed to cover other machining operations including milling. Also the KBES developed currently works on a standalone basis. Work is in progress to integrate it with a 3D CAD modelling system. Upon completion the information could be directly extracted from the CAD system, eliminating the need for manual data input by the user. Originality/value: In spite of a large number of publications on machine tool design in the literature, publications on special purpose machines are very limited. The method of techno-economical analysis presented here for utilization of special purpose machines in comparison with other production alternatives is of great value to manufacturing engineers and specialists. Also the methodology presented for machine design and implementation is highly valued by machine tool designers and manufacturers

LEGaTO: first steps towards energy-efficient toolset for heterogeneous computing

LEGaTO is a three-year EU H2020 project which started in December 2017. The LEGaTO project will leverage task-based programming models to provide a software ecosystem for Made-in-Europe heterogeneous hardware composed of CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs and dataflow engines. The aim is to attain one order of magnitude energy savings from the edge to the converged cloud/HPC.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Technology transfer from NASA to targeted industries, volume 2

This volume contains the following materials to support Volume 1: (1) Survey of Metal Fabrication Industry in Alabama; (2) Survey of Electronics Manufacturing/Assembly Industry in Alabama; (3) Apparel Modular Manufacturing Simulators; (4) Synopsis of a Stereolithography Project; (5) Transferring Modular Manufacturing Technology to an Apparel Firm; (6) Letters of Support; (7) Fact Sheets; (8) Publications; and (9) One Stop Access to NASA Technology Brochure

Intelligent Analysis of Utilization of Special Purpose Machines for Drilling Operations

Drilling and drilling-related operations constitute more than 60% of all machining processes in manufacturing industries. Consequently, it is important to know how to perform these operations properly. With availability of many machining processes capable of performing drilling operations sometimes it is difficult to decide which process would result in a higher profit or a lower unit cost for a given task. Due to increasing global competition, manufacturing industries are now more concerned with their productivity and are more sensitive than ever to their investments with respect to flexibility and efficiency of production equipment (Boothroyd and Knight, 2005, Wecka and Staimer, 2002). Researchers (Ko et al., 2005) believe that increasing the quality of production and reducing cost and time of production are very important factors in achieving higher productivity. Achieving this goal requires reconsidering current production methods that could lead to introduction of new production techniques and more advanced technologies

The Babbage principle after evolutionary economics

In this paper we analyse the cognitive roots of the division of labour and relate it to the reduction of tacitness in the organisation and technology of a firm. We study the interaction between efforts of knowledge codification and problems of control in production from an evolutionary and complex systems perspective. By applying our framework to the emergence of white-collar work in the late 19th century and the modern knowledge economy we assert that property rights and limits to codification of knowledge are important forces shaping the process of organisational and technological change.research and development ;

Space Station Human Factors Research Review. Volume 1: EVA Research and Development

An overview is presented of extravehicular activity (EVA) research and development activities at Ames. The majority of the program was devoted to presentations by the three contractors working in parallel on the EVA System Phase A Study, focusing on Implications for Man-Systems Design. Overhead visuals are included for a mission results summary, space station EVA requirements and interface accommodations summary, human productivity study cross-task coordination, and advanced EVAS Phase A study implications for man-systems design. Articles are also included on subsea approach to work systems development and advanced EVA system design requirements

On-line planning and scheduling: an application to controlling modular printers

We present a case study of artificial intelligence techniques applied to the control of production printing equipment. Like many other real-world applications, this complex domain requires high-speed autonomous decision-making and robust continual operation. To our knowledge, this work represents the first successful industrial application of embedded domain-independent temporal planning. Our system handles execution failures and multi-objective preferences. At its heart is an on-line algorithm that combines techniques from state-space planning and partial-order scheduling. We suggest that this general architecture may prove useful in other applications as more intelligent systems operate in continual, on-line settings. Our system has been used to drive several commercial prototypes and has enabled a new product architecture for our industrial partner. When compared with state-of-the-art off-line planners, our system is hundreds of times faster and often finds better plans. Our experience demonstrates that domain-independent AI planning based on heuristic search can flexibly handle time, resources, replanning, and multiple objectives in a high-speed practical application without requiring hand-coded control knowledge