Practitioner requirements for integrated Knowledge-Based Engineering in Product Lifecycle Management.

The effective management of knowledge as capital is considered essential to the success of engineering product/service systems. As Knowledge Management (KM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) practice gain industrial adoption, the question of functional overlaps between both the approaches becomes evident. This article explores the interoperability between PLM and Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) as a strategy for engineering KM. The opinion of key KBE/PLM practitioners are systematically captured and analysed. A set of ranked business functionalities to be fulfiled by the KBE/PLM systems integration is elicited. The article provides insights for the researchers and the practitioners playing both the user and development roles on the future needs for knowledge systems based on PLM

Categorisation of visualisation methods to support the design of Human-Computer Interaction systems

During the design of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) systems, the creation of visual artefacts forms an important part of design. On one hand producing a visual artefact has a number of advantages: it helps designers to externalise their thought and acts as a common language between different stakeholders. On the other hand, if an inappropriate visualisation method is employed it could hinder the design process. To support the design of HCI systems, this paper reviews the categorisation of visualisation methods used in HCI. A keyword search is conducted to identify a) current HCI design methods, b) approaches of selecting these methods. The resulting design methods are filtered to create a list of just visualisation methods. These are then categorised using the approaches identified in (b). As a result 23 HCI visualisation methods are identified and categorised in 5 selection approaches (The Recipient, Primary Purpose, Visual Archetype, Interaction Type, and The Design Process).Innovate UK, EPSRC, Airbus Group Innovation

A new knowledge sourcing framework for knowledge-based engineering: an aerospace industry case study

New trends in Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) highlight the need for decoupling the automation aspect from the knowledge management side of KBE. In this direction, some authors argue that KBE is capable of effectively capturing, retaining and reusing engineering knowledge. However, there are some limitations associated with some aspects of KBE that present a barrier to deliver the knowledge sourcing process requested by industry. To overcome some of these limitations this research proposes a new methodology for efficient knowledge capture and effective management of the complete knowledge life cycle. The methodology proposed in this research is validated through the development and implementation of a case study involving the optimisation of wing design concepts at an Aerospace manufacturer. The results obtained proved the extended KBE capability for fast and effective knowledge sourcing. This evidence was provided by the experts working in the development of the case study through the implementation of structured quantitative and qualitative analyses

Route networks within the air transport system:A comparative study of two European low-cost airlines using network metrics

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the route networks of two European low-cost airlines in 2015. A case study is presented which highlights the key differences and similarities of their route network characteristics that they operate, aimed toward improving understanding of the current Air Transport System (ATS) for modeling and simulation purposes

A metamodel to annotate knowledge based engineering codes as enterprise knowledge resources

The encoding of Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) software applications is becoming a prominent tool for the automation of knowledge intensive tasks carried out using Computer Aided Design (CAD) technology. However, limitations exist on the ability to manage the engineering knowledge models embedded in these executable KBE applications. This research proposes a metamodel to annotate encoded KBE applications. Resulting from the annotation, XKMs become explicit knowledge resources whose content can be better accessed and managed. The attachment of metadata to data sets in enterprise repositories is a necessary step to identify and index them so they can be queried, browsed and changed. The sophistication of metadata models for these data “items” ranges from the simple indexing using numbers to more sophisticated representations describing their context information (i.e. author, creation date, etc.), their internal structure and their content. Current engineering data repositories like Product Data Management and Product Lifecycle Management systems offer predefined metamodels to annotate a range of engineering data items including CAD files or special types of documents. At the moment, there is no metadata model specifically designed to annotate KBE codes. In this situation, an undifferentiated metadata model needs to be used for XKMs. However, in this case the only information retained by the system about them would be context metadata. Once an instance of the metadata is attached to an XKM, it can be used as its identifier within an enterprise data repository. The proposed metamodel contains abstract entities to annotate XKMs. The resulting descriptive model for an XKM pays attention to its internal structure and its operation at different levels of granularity. The particular design of the proposed metamodel positions it at a level of abstraction between non executable domain knowledge models and executable KBE applications. This design choice is made to support the use of the metadata not only as an informative model but also as an executable one. The achievement of this target is becoming possible through the emergence of semantic modelling standards that allow the description of data models independently from the language of implementation. Using this approach, the generation of code and metadata is made automatically using mapping rules resulting from the semantic agreement between models and specific syntax rules. The immediate application of the developed metamodel is to annotate XKMs within PLM systems. The approach shall contribute not only to systematically store instances of XKMs but also to manage the lifecycle of the engineering knowledge encoded within them. The proposed representation provides a more comprehensive approach for non KBE language experts to understand the code. On this basis, the change on the metamodels can be automatically traced back to the code and vice-versa. During the research, evidence has been gathered from the community of KBE technology users and vendors on the need to support this research effort. In the long term, the research contributes to the use of PLM systems as a platform for engineering knowledge management.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Assessing 3D Scan Quality Through Paired-comparisons Psychophysics

ABSTRACT Consumer 3D scanners and depth cameras are increasingly being used to generate content and avatars for Virtual Reality (VR) environments and avoid the inconveniences of hand modeling; however, it is sometimes difficult to evaluate quantitatively the mesh quality at which consumer available 3D scans should be exported, and whether the object perception might be affected by its shading. We propose using a paired-comparisons test based on psychophysics of perception to do that evaluation. As psychophysics is not subject to opinion, skill level, mental state, or economic situation it can be considered a quantitative way to measure how people perceive the mesh quality. In particular, we compare four different levels of mesh quality (1K, 5K, 10K and 20K triangles). We present two studies within subjects: in one we investigate the influences of seeing an object in a regular screen vs. in a Head Mounted Display (HMD); while in the second experiment we aim at detecting the effects of shading into quality perception. At each iteration of the pair-test comparisons participants pick the mesh that they think had higher quality; by the end of the experiment we compile a preference matrix. The results show a correlation between real and assessed quality, despite participants' reported uncertainty. We also find an interaction with quality and shading, which gains importance for quality perception when the mesh has high definition. Furthermore, we assess the subjective realism of the most/least preferred scans using an Immersive Augmented Reality (IAR) video-see-through setup to compare the real vs the 3D scanned object in the same HMD environment. Results show higher levels of realism were perceived through the HMD than when using a regular monitor, although the quality was similarly perceived in both systems

Measuring the learning effectiveness of serious gaming for training of complex manufacturing tasks

© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. Background. Training new workers on complex manufacturing tasks has long been a challenge for high value manufacturing companies. Equipment downtime, costly instructors, and dangerous working environments are some of the impediments of hands-on training. To overcome these hurdles, a traditional manufacturing paper manual was transformed into a serious game through capturing and embedding expert knowledge. Aim. This article investigates the learning effectiveness of learning via a serious game (Training Game) compared with the tradition learning method (Paper Manual) through a user study. Method. Twenty employees took part in a randomised controlled trial. They were assigned to one of two conditions: Training Game (experimental condition), or Paper Manual (control condition). Participants spent a maximum of 30 minutes to study manufacturing instructions before completing two tests to evaluate the amount of learning achieved. Results. The results show that the Training Game was more effective for learning procedu ral knowledge than the Paper Manual. Regarding factual knowledge, no significant difference was identified between the two conditions. In terms of motivation, increased engagement levels were reported in the Training Game condition. Conclusions. This user study shows evidence that the serious TG being evaluated is an effective method for training procedural knowledge in a complex manufacturing scenario