964 research outputs found
Natural language processing and advanced information management
Integrating diverse information sources and application software in a principled and general manner will require a very capable advanced information management (AIM) system. In particular, such a system will need a comprehensive addressing scheme to locate the material in its docuverse. It will also need a natural language processing (NLP) system of great sophistication. It seems that the NLP system must serve three functions. First, it provides an natural language interface (NLI) for the users. Second, it serves as the core component that understands and makes use of the real-world interpretations (RWIs) contained in the docuverse. Third, it enables the reasoning specialists (RSs) to arrive at conclusions that can be transformed into procedures that will satisfy the users' requests. The best candidate for an intelligent agent that can satisfactorily make use of RSs and transform documents (TDs) appears to be an object oriented data base (OODB). OODBs have, apparently, an inherent capacity to use the large numbers of RSs and TDs that will be required by an AIM system and an inherent capacity to use them in an effective way
Design descriptions to support reasoning about tolerances
This thesis is concerned with the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques to
support human designers. The thesis argues that support for human designers can
be improved by adopting an Al-based rather than a geometry-based approach to
engineering design. Design Support Systems (DSSs) are proposed as an effective
means of delivering this improved support. Representing and reasoning about
tolerance statements in design is introduced as a valid area to test these claims.
Tolerance statements describe the allowable variations in the geometry of a
designed artefact. Two distinct, but related problems involving the use of toler¬
ance statements in design are tackled, namely: tolerance combination (including
the way tolerance distributions combine), and tolerance allocation. The problem
of tolerance combination (and distribution) involves determining the necessary
consequences of the application of known tolerance statements to one or more
designed artefact features. Tolerance allocation concerns the assignment of tol¬
erance statements during the design process. Solutions to this second problem
are essential before manufactured instances of designed artefacts can be tested for
compliance with design descriptions.
The use of an experimental DSS, the Edinburgh Designer System (EDS), to
solve design problems is illustrated. The implementation of techniques to im¬
prove the support of tolerance combination and tolerance allocation is described
and where possible has been tested using EDS. The way that design is situated
within the product creation process is investigated and the derivation of parts
list information from an EDS design description is demonstrated. The thesis con¬
cludes that the Al-based approach can improve support for human designers, but
that further research will be required to demonstrate the effective delivery of this
support through DSSs
A manufacturing model to support data-driven applications for design and manufacture
This thesis is primarily concerned with conceptual work on the Manufacturing
Model. The Manufacturing Model is an information model which describes the
manufacturing capability of an enterprise. To achieve general applicability, the
model consists of the entities that are relevant and important for any type of
manufacturing firm, namely: manufacturing resources (e.g. machines, tools,
fixtures, machining cells, operators, etc.), manufacturing processes (e.g. injection
moulding, machining processes, etc.) and manufacturing strategies (e.g. how these
resources and processes are used and organized). The Manufacturing Model is a four
level model based on a de—facto standard (i.e. Factory, Shop, Cell, Station) which
represents the functionality of the manufacturing facility of any firm.
In the course of the research, the concept of data—driven applications has emerged in
response to the need of integrated and flexible computer environments for the
support of design and manufacturing activities. These data—driven applications
require the use of different information models to capture and represent the
company's information and knowledge. One of these information models is the
Manufacturing Model.
The value of this research work is highlighted by the use of two case studies, one
related with the representation of a single machining station, and the other, the
representation of a multi-cellular manufacturing facility of a high performance
company
Process capability modelling: a review report of feature representation methodologies
Approximately 150 technical papers on the features methodology have been carefully studied and some selected
papers have been commented upon. The abstracts of the comments are documented and attached to this report. The
methodologies reviewed are mainly divided into two approaches, ie. feature recognition and design by features.
Papers which deal with some specific topics such as feature taxonomies, dimensions and tolerances, feature
concepts, etc. are also included in the document
A Blackboard Integration of Manufacturing Databases Using an Intelligent Interface.
The explosion of computer applications into the world of manufacturing along functional lines has produced the often mentioned islands of automation. Although many issues and problems are involved in interfacing and integrating the databases that serve these applications, we can extract valuable data from these independent systems to provide important information to decision makers. This research resulted in the development of MIMIR (Multiple Integrated Manufacturing Information Resources), a decision support system based upon the blackboard architecture. The blackboard architecture extends the common expert system design to include multiple expert systems, termed Knowledge Sources (KS\u27s), which combine to solve problems too diverse or complex for conventional expert systems. Extending the architecture, MIMIR uniquely adds Data Sources (DS\u27s) to the conventional KS\u27s for problem decomposition and solution. Developed in Common LISP and CLOS, MIMIR can answer basic questions about the data in the remote databases and generate multiple queries for more complex questions. Seven partitions in MIMIR\u27s blackboard allow KS\u27s and DS\u27s to focus on specific levels of the problem decomposition. MIMIR relies on an intelligent interface to translate an internal LISP-based SQL-like query into a valid SQL query string. This query is then be submitted to an external relational database and results are returned to the blackboard environment. While MIMIR is currently limited to SQL-accessible relational databases, the architecture can be extended to support interfaces to other data formats
Virtual reality: A human centered tool for improving Manufacturing
International audienceManufacturing is using Virtual Reality tools to enhance the product life cycle. Their definitions are still in flux and it is necessary to define their connections. Thus, firstly, we will introduce more closely some definitions where we will find that, if the Virtual manufacturing concepts originate from machining operations and evolve in this manufacturing area, there exist a lot of applications in different fields such as casting, forging, sheet metalworking and robotics (mechanisms). From the recent projects in Europe or in USA, we notice that the human perception or the simulation of mannequin is more and more needed in both fields. In this context, we have isolated some applications as ergonomic studies, assembly and maintenance simulation, design or training where the virtual reality tools can be applied. Thus, we find out a family of applications where the virtual reality tools give the engineers the main role in the optimization process. We will illustrate our paper by several examples where virtual reality interfaces are used and combined with optimization tools as multi-agent systems
Development of a network-integrated feature-driven engineering environment
Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH
An annotated bibligraphy of multisensor integration
technical reportIn this paper we give an annotated bibliography of the multisensor integration literature
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