A Framework for Extended Reality System Development in Manufacturing

This paper presents a framework for developing extended reality (XR) systems within manufacturing context. The aim of this study is to develop a systematic framework to improve the usability and user acceptance of future XR systems. So that manufacturing industry can move from the “wow effect” of XR demonstrators into the stage whereas XR systems can be successfully integrated and improve the conventional work routines. It is essential to ensure the usability and user acceptance of XR systems for the wider adoption in manufacturing. The proposed framework was developed through six case studies that covered different XR system developments for different application areas of manufacturing. The framework consists of five iterative phases: (1) requirements analysis, (2) solution selection, (3) data preparation, (4) system implementation and (5) system evaluation. It is validated through one empirical case and seven identified previous studies, which partly aligned with the proposed framework. The proposed framework provides a clear guideline on the steps needed to integrate XR in manufacturing and it extends the XR usage with increased usability and user acceptance. Furthermore, it strengthens the importance of user-centered approach for XR system development in manufacturing

Virtual factory layouts from 3D laser scanning – A novel framework to define solid model requirements

In a world with increasing customer demands, manufacturing companies must develop and produce products more rapidly and adapt their production systems offline, to not disturb the ongoing processes. This creates a demand of using digital production development so that development can be performed in parallel with production. Virtual factory layouts (VFLs) are essential for companies in order to plan their factory layout and evaluate production scenarios. However, requirements for a VFL depends heavily on its purpose. For example, the requirements on a model for offline programming of robots are different from those on a model used to determine buffer locations. There is currently a lack of clear guidelines for how developed a VFL should be to fulfil said requirements, which contributes to unnecessary modelling time and variation in delivery quality. This paper aims to put the actual demands and requirements of a VFL in focus. By adapting a Level of Development-framework for establishment of Building Information Models (BIMs) and connecting it to the purpose of VFLs, development of a framework for detail and functionality level of VFLs is enabled. Such a purpose-oriented framework will help to define delivery packages suited for different circumstances, which will provide the modeler with knowledge of how much detail and functionality a specific model should contain. The increased clarity provided by the developed framework results in a clearer connection between expected result and actual output from a custom VFL project. Also, by connecting model properties or development to the model-purpose, the framework brings clarity and structure to a currently vague field. This provides means for a more efficient and accurate use of VFLs, which will support the rapid development of production facilities

A tool for holistic assessment of digitalization capabilities in manufacturing SMEs

In a constantly evolving global market, manufacturing companies need to be flexible and adaptive to survive. Digital twins of production systems have been proposed as one part of the solution, however this comes with multiple challenges. Manufacturing SMEs have limited resources and need to direct their efforts in this area wisely. This paper presents a tool for holistic assessment of an SME manufacturer\u27s level of digitalization, in order to visualize current gaps and guide digitalization efforts over a production system\u27s life cycle. The tool was empirically developed together with Manufacturing SMEs and has strengthened their digitalization awareness and capabilities

Development of virtual reality support to factory layout planning

Virtual reality (VR) technology has become ever mature today with affordable and yet powerful hardware. In the manufacturing industry, there is a growing interest of adopting VR to improve existing work procedures. Factory layout planning (FLP) is a long standing area in production engineering that sees great potentials of VR integration. Virtual reality supported layout planning (VLP) is gaining wider attention in research and practice as the virtual environment allows designers to test out “what if” scenarios in relative ease. However, previous research of VLP mostly focus on general layout planning but not the detailed level planning. Also, it is reported that the virtual modeling process is time-consuming and costly. In this study, we propose a point cloud based virtual factory modelling approach for the VLP tasks. It incorporates point cloud representation of physical environment with CAD data to model the virtual factory with the aims of simplifying the modelling process and improving decision-making for the VLP tasks. The proposed approach is exemplified and refined through three industrial cases. The implementations and results of the cases are highlighted and discussed in details. At the end, a general guidance for VLP is extracted and presented for future point cloud based VR support in FLP tasks

Interaction design for multi-user virtual reality systems: An automotive case study

Virtual reality (VR) technology have become ever matured today. Various research and practice have demonstrated the potential benefits of using VR in different application area of manufacturing, such as in factory layout planning, product design, training, etc. However, along with the new possibilities brought by VR, comes with the new ways for users to communicate with the computer system. The human computer interaction design for these VR systems becomes pivotal to the smooth integration. In this paper, it reports the study that investigates interaction design strategies for the multi-user VR system used in manufacturing context though an automotive case study

Factory Radio Design of a 5G Network in Offline Mode

The manufacturing industry is connecting people and equipment with new digital technologies, enabling a more continuous stream of data to represent processes. With more things connected, the interest in a connectivity solution that can support communication with high reliability and availability will increase. The fifth generation of telecommunication, i.e., 5G has promising features to deliver this, but the factory environment introduces new challenges to ensure reliable radio coverage. This will require efficient ways to plan the Factory Radio Design prior to installation. 3D laser scanning is used at an ever-increasing rate for capturing the spatial geometry in a virtual representation to perform layout planning of factories. This paper presents how to combine 3D laser scanning and physical optics (PO) for planning the Factory Radio Design of a cellular Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network (5G) in a virtual environment. 3D laser scanning is applied to obtain the spatial data of the factory and the virtual representation serves as the environment where PO computation techniques can be performed. The simulation result is validated in this paper by comparison to measurements of the installed network and empirical propagation models. The results of the study show promising opportunities to simulate the radio coverage in a virtual representation of a factory environment

On the tradeoff between data density and data capture duration in 3D laser scanning for production system engineering

3D laser scanning is a technology for capture of spatial data in three dimensions. The technology originates from the field of surveying and has since been spread to several other application areas. In the realm of production system engineering, 3D laser scanning is primarily used to verify equipment installation. Lately applications for the 3D scan data are emerging also when it comes to the planning of the installations and the use of the equipment. The motivation for using 3D scan data in the case of planning is primarily to have up-to-date and verified spatial data, including any undocumenter alterations from drawings and models. The process of capturing 3D scan data requires access to an unmovingproduction system which can be costly, either due to stopping produciton or by accessing it during nights or weekends. The more detailed the data collection is, the more time is required. Therefore there is a need to accurately define and plan the minimum data density requirement. This paper evaluates the effect of data density, and thus data collection duration, in a production system application. Data capture duration is shown to impact the usability of the resulting data. To further understand the trade-off and be able to use it as decision support there needs to be an analysis of the additional time and data storage costs created by increasing the number of scan locations

Environmental Impact Assessment for Manufacturing: Data Requirements for a Simulation-Based Approach

The environmental footprint of products is an increasingly important measure for companies working to improve their sustainability performance, and the same measure has also become popular for marketing purposes. As a result, the demand for environmental product declarations and, thus, life cycle assessment (LCA) projects grows. To reap the full benefit from LCA studies in production systems analysis, LCA has more frequently been complemented with simulation of production flows (i.e. discrete event simulation) during the latest decade. Several examples of the DES-LCA combination in recent literature report substantial potential and successful implementations. However, a common problem is to establish efficient and credible procedures for collecting, analyzing, and representing the extensive amounts of input data required. The aim of this paper is therefore to provide recommendations for the management of environmental data in sustainability simulations. A review of seven previous DES-LCA projects provides a list of common sustainability parameters and experiences on how they should be collected and represented in simulation models. An important result is that deterministic representations appear to be enough for data not directly linked to production time. This finding makes it possible to replace time-consuming data gathering with collection of secondary data from public databases

Framework for Ecolabeling using Discrete Event Simulation

Ecolabled products have shown a competitive advantage to other products. Regulatory changes and market pressure creates an increased need for environmental impact assessments. The dominating method for environmental impact assessments - life cycle assessment (LCA) lacks support to properly analyze the dynamic aspects of business operations and production processes. This Paper proposes to use discrete event simulation to support more extensive and detailed environmental assessments on selected parts of the production process, keeping simplicity for parts of less importance and interest

Layout Planning and Geometry Analysis Using 3D Laser Scanning in Production System Redesign

Production system layouts are traditionally redesigned and modelled using CAD tools. Frequent system changes, i.e. equipment is replaced or moved to new locations, necessitate time-consuming measurement and modelling work to keep the models valid and up-to-date. 3D imaging has been proposed as a means for rapid and accurate spatial modelling by digitalising real world objects. This paper analyses the method and result from five industrial studies where 3D imaging, specifically 3D laser scanning, were used to support layout planning and geometry analysis of production systems. The results show promise to reduce time, risks, and cost when redesigning production systems