Remote Access to a Prototyping Laboratory

There is a growing global demand for continuing adult higher education particularly in science and engineering subjects. New technologies are emerging which would enable the development of a Remote Access Laboratory for rapid prototyping of Artificial Intelligence, as a learning environment for mechatronic engineering, in which high precision electromechanical devices are designed to exhibit autonomous behaviour. Secondary research investigated the learning theories for a Remote Access Laboratory, and the current practices for distance learning, involving groupware in shared activity 'collaboratories'. Having determined that the laboratory would need a multi-user interactive environment architecture, with the requirement for adaptability to rapid developments,a distributed software architecture was selected. The laboratory design was subsequently argued to be best served by Intelligent Agents in a Multi-Agent system. The aims of the research were to establish the viability of a Remote Access Laboratory for mechatronic experimentation, and to evaluate the technologies required to implement such a laboratory environment for rapid prototyping. These were achieved by developing a novel user interface, based on a multi-functional screen layout, and a graphical specification facility to provide robotic navigation that is intuitive to use and does not require text-based programming. The research investigated the prototyping of robotic behaviour, which used Programming by Demonstration as an innovative technique to prototype robot navigation. The method of designing behaviours met an anticipated need to allow the robot to interact with an environment, to achieve goals under conditions of uncertainty, while requiring a level of abstraction in the behaviour design. The interface structured a composite of the designed behaviours into prototype Artificial Intelligence using a hierarchical behaviour architecture, which complied with the principles of Object Orientated programming. This was subsequently a new and original programming method to facilitate rapid prototyping of Artificial Intelligence design and structuring. Experimentation involved 20 participants attempting to accomplish a series of tasks which involved using the prototyped interface and an existing text-based robot programming system. The participants were profiled by their formal qualifications, knowledge and experience. The experimental data obtained were used to establish a comparative measure of the prototype interface success compared with an existing distance-learning, home experiment kit, in the form of a small controllable model vehicle. The data obtained provided strong evidence to support the hypothesis that a Programming by Demonstration based system for rapid prototyping is more flexible and easier to use than a previously existing distance learning text-based system. The Programming by Demonstration system showed great promise, being quicker for prototyping, and more intuitive. The learning interface design pioneered new techniques and technologies for rapid prototyping of Artificial Intelligence in a Mechatronics Remote Access Laboratory

A Knowledge-based Decision Support System for RP&M Process Selection

Due to the large variety of RP&M material/machines and the. strengths/weaknesses associated with different RP&M processes, the decision·to select a suitableRP&M system becomes increasingly difficult. This paper presents a knowledge-based approach for the selection ofsuitable RP&M material/machine to meet specific. requirements ofRP&Mapplications. The system receives input data on the CAD modelandthe user's specifications,andgenerates outputs that provide the most appropriate combination ofRP&Mmaterial/machine.·Optimal orientations, together with estimated manufacturing time and cost, are considered and given in the final outcome to help the user make the choice.Mechanical Engineerin

TURTLE: Four Weddings and a Tutorial

The paper discusses an educational case study of protocol modelling in TURTLE, a real-time UML profile supported by the open source toolkit TTool. The method associated with TURTLE is step by step illustrated with the connection set up and handover procedures defined for the Future Air navigation Systems. The paper covers the following methodological stages: requirement modeling, use-case driven and scenario based analysis, object-oriented design and rapid prototyping in Java. Emphasis is laid on the formal verification of analysis and design diagrams

Product Focused Freeform Fabrication Education

Presented in this paper is our experience of teaching freeform fabrication to students at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and to high school students and teachers. The emphasis of the curriculum is exposing students to rapid product development technologies with the goal of creating awareness to emerging career opportunities in CAD/CAM. Starting from solid modeling, principles of freeform fabrication, to applications of rapid prototyping and manufacturing in industry sponsored product development projects, students can learn in-depth freeform fabrication technologies. Interactive course content with hands-on experience for product development is the key towards the success of the program.Mechanical Engineerin

Survey on Additive Manufacturing, Cloud 3D Printing and Services

Cloud Manufacturing (CM) is the concept of using manufacturing resources in a service oriented way over the Internet. Recent developments in Additive Manufacturing (AM) are making it possible to utilise resources ad-hoc as replacement for traditional manufacturing resources in case of spontaneous problems in the established manufacturing processes. In order to be of use in these scenarios the AM resources must adhere to a strict principle of transparency and service composition in adherence to the Cloud Computing (CC) paradigm. With this review we provide an overview over CM, AM and relevant domains as well as present the historical development of scientific research in these fields, starting from 2002. Part of this work is also a meta-review on the domain to further detail its development and structure

Prototyping a process-centered environment

This paper describes an experimental system developed and used as a vehicle for prototyping the Arcadia-1 software development environment. Prototyping is viewed as a knowledge acquisition process and is used to reduce risks in software development by gaining rapid feedback about the suitability of a production system before the system is completed. Prototyping a software development environment is particularly important due to the lack of experience with them. There is an acute need to acquire knowledge about user interaction requirements for software environments. These needs are especially important for the Arcadia project, as it is one of the first attempts to construct a process-centered environment. Our prototyping effort addresses questions about effective interaction with a process-centered environment by simulating how Arcadia-1 would interact with users in a representative range of usage scenarios. We built a prototyping system, called PRODUCER, and used it to generate a variety of prototypes simulating user interactions with Arcadia-1 process programs.Experience with PRODUCER indicates that our approach is effective at risk reduction. The prototypes greatly improved communication with our customer. They confirmed some of our design decisions but also redirected our research efforts as a result of unexpected insight. We also found that prototyping usage scenarios provides conceptual guides and design information for process programmers. Most of the benefits of our prototyping effort derive from developing and interacting with usage scenarios, so our approach is generalizable to other prototyping systems. This paper reports on our prototyping approach and our experience in prototyping a process-centered environment

Approach Tolerance in the Assemblies of Evolutionary Hybrid Prototypes

A new answer is proposed to replace the traditional “one shot” prototype (manufactured in one piece with one process): the hybrid rapid prototype. It is used to highly reduce time, cost and increase reactivity during the development times of new products. The part is decomposed in several components which can quickly be changed and can be manufactured with a process the most adapted. The main objective of the presented method is to propose an available technological assembly between the different components of the part in the respect of technological and topological function, and initial tolerance. Using a graph of representation, fuzzy logic and a tolerance point of view, some entities are associated with a CIA (Assembly Identity Card) in accordance with evolutionary and manufacturing analysis. This work will be illustrated by an industrial tooling for plastic injection.Mechanical Engineerin

Modeling of system knowledge for efficient agile manufacturing : tool evaluation, selection and implementation scenario in SMEs

In the manufacturing world, knowledge is fundamental in order to achieve effective and efficient real time decision making. In order to make manufacturing system knowledge available to the decision maker it has to be first captured and then modelled. Therefore tools that provide a suitable means for capturing and representation of manufacturing system knowledge are required in several types of industrial sectors and types of company’s (large, SME). A literature review about best practice for capturing requirements for simulation development and system knowledge modeling has been conducted. The aim of this study was to select the best tool for manufacturing system knowledge modelling in an open-source environment. In order to select this tool, different criteria were selected, based on which several tools were analyzed and rated. An exemplary use case was then developed using the selected tool, Systems Modeling Language (SysML). Therefore, the best practice has been studied, evaluated, selected and then applied to two industrial use cases by the use of a selected opens source tool.peer-reviewe

What influences the speed of prototyping? An empirical investigation of twenty software startups

It is essential for startups to quickly experiment business ideas by building tangible prototypes and collecting user feedback on them. As prototyping is an inevitable part of learning for early stage software startups, how fast startups can learn depends on how fast they can prototype. Despite of the importance, there is a lack of research about prototyping in software startups. In this study, we aimed at understanding what are factors influencing different types of prototyping activities. We conducted a multiple case study on twenty European software startups. The results are two folds, firstly we propose a prototype-centric learning model in early stage software startups. Secondly, we identify factors occur as barriers but also facilitators for prototyping in early stage software startups. The factors are grouped into (1) artifacts, (2) team competence, (3) collaboration, (4) customer and (5) process dimensions. To speed up a startups progress at the early stage, it is important to incorporate the learning objective into a well-defined collaborative approach of prototypingComment: This is the author's version of the work. Copyright owner's version can be accessed at doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57633-6_2, XP2017, Cologne, German