439,652 research outputs found
3D-based Advanced Machine Service Support
In the face of today's unpredictable and fluctuating global market, there have
been trends in industry towards wider adoption of more advanced and flexible new
generation manufacturing systems. These have brought about new challenges to
manufacturing equipment builders/suppliers in respect of satisfying ever-increasing
customers' requirements for such advanced manufacturing systems. To stay competitive,
in addition to supplying high quality equipment, machine builders/suppliers must also be
capable of providing their customers with cost-effective, efficient and comprehensive
service support, throughout the equipment's lifecycle.
This research study has been motivated by the relatively unexplored potential of
integrating 3D virtual technology with various machine service support tools/techniques
to address the aforementioned challenges. The hypothesis formulated for this study is
that a 3D-based virtual environment can be used as an integration platform to improve
service support for new generation manufacturing systems. In order to ensure the rigour
of the study, it has been initiated with a two-stage (iterative) literature review, consisting
of: a preliminary review for the identification of practical problems/main issues related to
the area of machine service support and in-depth reviews for the identification of research
problems/questions and potential solutions. These were then followed by iterations of
intensive research activities, consisting of: requirements identification, concept
development, prototype implementation, testing and exploration, reflection and feedback.
The process has been repeated and revised continuously until satisfactory results,
required for answering the identified research problems/questions, were obtained.
The main focus of this study is exploring how a 3D-based virtual environment can
be used as an integration platform for supporting a more cost-effective and
comprehensive strategy for improving service support for new generation manufacturing
systems. One of the main outcomes of this study is the proposal of a conceptual
framework for a novel 3D-based advanced machine service support strategy and a
reference architecture for a corresponding service support system, for allowing machine
builders/suppliers to: (1) provide more cost-effective remote machine maintenance
support, and (2) provide more efficient and comprehensive extended service support
during the equipment's life cycle. The proposed service support strategy advocates the
tight integration of conventional (consisting of mainly machine monitoring, diagnostics,
prognostics and maintenance action decision support) and extended (consisting of mainly
machine re-configuration, upgrade and expansion support) service support functions.
The proposed service support system is based on the integration of a 3D-based virtual
environment with the equipment control system, a re-configurable automated service
support system, coupled with a maintenance-support-tool/strategy support environment
and an equipment re-configuration/upgrade/expansion support environment, in a
network/lntenet framework.
The basic concepts, potential benefits and limitations of the proposed strategy/
system have been explored via a prototype based on a laboratory-scale test bed. The
prototype consists of a set of integrated modular network-ready software tools consisting
of: (1) an integrated 20/30 visualisation and analysis module, (2) support tools library
modules, (3) communication modules and (4) a set of modular and re-configurable
automated data logging, maintenance and re-configuration support modules. A number
of test cases based on various machine service support scenarios, have been conducted
using the prototype. The experimentation has shown the potential and feasibility
(technical implementation aspects) of the proposed 3D-based approach.
This research study has made an original contribution to knowledge in the field of
machine service support. It has contributed a novel approach of using a 3D-based virtual
environment as an integration platform for improving the capability of machine
builders/suppliers in providing more cost-effective and comprehensive machine service
support for complex new generation manufacturing systems. Several important findings
have resulted from this work in particular with respect to how various 20/30
visualisation environments are integrated with machine service support tools/techniques
for improving service support for complex manufacturing systems. A number of aspects
have also been identified for future work
The Database Query Support Processor (QSP)
The number and diversity of databases available to users continues to increase dramatically. Currently, the trend is towards decentralized, client server architectures that (on the surface) are less expensive to acquire, operate, and maintain than information architectures based on centralized, monolithic mainframes. The database query support processor (QSP) effort evaluates the performance of a network level, heterogeneous database access capability. Air Force Material Command's Rome Laboratory has developed an approach, based on ANSI standard X3.138 - 1988, 'The Information Resource Dictionary System (IRDS)' to seamless access to heterogeneous databases based on extensions to data dictionary technology. To successfully query a decentralized information system, users must know what data are available from which source, or have the knowledge and system privileges necessary to find out this information. Privacy and security considerations prohibit free and open access to every information system in every network. Even in completely open systems, time required to locate relevant data (in systems of any appreciable size) would be better spent analyzing the data, assuming the original question was not forgotten. Extensions to data dictionary technology have the potential to more fully automate the search and retrieval for relevant data in a decentralized environment. Substantial amounts of time and money could be saved by not having to teach users what data resides in which systems and how to access each of those systems. Information describing data and how to get it could be removed from the application and placed in a dedicated repository where it belongs. The result simplified applications that are less brittle and less expensive to build and maintain. Software technology providing the required functionality is off the shelf. The key difficulty is in defining the metadata required to support the process. The database query support processor effort will provide quantitative data on the amount of effort required to implement an extended data dictionary at the network level, add new systems, adapt to changing user needs, and provide sound estimates on operations and maintenance costs and savings
A document-like software visualization method for effective cognition of c-based software systems
It is clear that maintenance is a crucial and very costly process in a software life cycle. Nowadays there are a lot of software systems particularly legacy systems that are always maintained from time to time as new requirements arise. One important source to understand a software system before it is being maintained is through the documentation, particularly system documentation. Unfortunately, not all software systems developed or maintained are accompanied with their reliable and updated documents. In this case, source codes will be the only reliable source for programmers. A number of studies have been carried out in order to assist cognition based on source codes. One way is through tool automation via reverse engineering technique in which source codes will be parsed and the information extracted will be visualized using certain visualization methods. Most software visualization methods use graph as the main element to represent extracted software artifacts. Nevertheless, current methods tend to produce more complicated graphs and do not grant an explicit, document-like re-documentation environment. Hence, this thesis proposes a document-like software visualization method called DocLike Modularized Graph (DMG). The method is realized in a prototype tool named DocLike Viewer that targets on C-based software systems. The main contribution of the DMG method is to provide an explicit structural re-document mechanism in the software visualization tool. Besides, the DMG method provides more level of information abstractions via less complex graph that include inter-module dependencies, inter-program dependencies, procedural abstraction and also parameter passing. The DMG method was empirically evaluated based on the Goal/Question/Metric (GQM) paradigm and the findings depict that the method can improve productivity and quality in the aspect of cognition or program comprehension. A usability study was also conducted and DocLike Viewer had the most positive responses from the software practitioners
Developing strategic learning alliances: partnerships for the provision of global education and training solutions
The paper describes a comprehensive model for the development of strategic alliances between education and corporate sectors, which is required to ensure effective provision of education and training programmes for a global market. Global economic forces, combined with recent advances in information and communication technologies, have provided unprecedented opportunities for education providers to broaden the provision of their programmes both on an international scale and across new sectors. Lifelong learning strategies are becoming increasingly recognized as an essential characteristic of a successful organization and therefore large organizations have shown a preparedness to invest in staff training and development. The demands for lifelong learning span a wide range of training and educational levels from school-level and vocational courses to graduate-level training for senior executive
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