Soldering plays an important role in the electronics manufacturing industry, whether it is carried out manually, semi-automatically or fully-automatically. Even though it is straightforward to learn the fundamental techniques involved in manual soldering, it still requires a vast amount of time and effort to reach an expert level. The research presented here aims to simulate the manual soldering process  in  a  haptics  environment,  and  by  logging  the  users' actions automatically and unobtrusively in the background, the aim is to investigate human hand dexterity and learn how novices and  experts  operate  differently  through  knowledge  capture.  A pilot study was carried out in which the obtained log files were parsed and the capture of knowledge was demonstrated. This record was migrated from the OpenDepot repository service in June, 2017 before shutting down

Dewar, R.

Lim, T.

Ritchie, J.M.

Sung, R.C.W.

Weston, N.

English

ZENODO

Predicting Perceptions: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Appearance, pp. 92-95, Edinburgh, UK, ISBN 978-1-4716-6869-2, April 2012. Pilot Study of a Haptic Soldering Environment    R.C.W. Sung, J.M.Ritchie, T.Lim Heriot-Watt University School of Engineering & Physical Sciences Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS + 44 (0) 131 451 4569 {r.c.w.sung, j.m.ritchie, t.lim}@hw.ac.uk R. Dewar, N. Weston Renishaw PLC, Research Park North Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AP + 44 (0) 131 451 1616 {Rick.Dewar, Nick.Weston }@Renishaw.com    ABSTRACT Soldering plays an important role in the electronics manufacturing industry, whether it is carried out manually, semi-automatically or fully-automatically. Even though it is straightforward to learn the fundamental techniques involved in manual soldering, it still requires a vast amount of time and effort to reach an expert level. The research presented here aims to simulate the manual soldering process  in  a  haptics  environment,  and  by  logging  the  users’ actions automatically and unobtrusively in the background, the aim is to investigate human hand dexterity and learn how novices and  experts  operate  differently  through  knowledge  capture.  A pilot study was carried out in which the obtained log files were parsed and the capture of knowledge was demonstrated.  Keywords haptics, automatic knowledge capture, knowledge representation.   1.  INTRODUCTION Haptic technology is the science of applying tactile sensation to human interaction with computers. Force-reflecting haptic devices generate computer-controlled forces to convey to the user a sense of the feel of the virtual environment and objects within it. This is referred to as a haptic interface.  Even though there is an abundance of research related to haptics, none have been found which focuses on the application of it to soldering. However, research has been carried out on a soldering simulation environment using a graphics tablet [1], and by varying the pressure applied using the stylus pen, the amount of solder applied can also be varied. Drawbacks of the current system include the tactile feedback being limited to that on the plane of the tablet surface, and the user is limited to using only one hand, rather than using both hands as in the real world.  The haptic soldering environment in this research consists of two Sensable Phantom Omni™ devices [2] that run the software environment   developed   using   the   OpenHaptics   API    [3].                   The standard configuration has the right-hand side Phantom Omni controlling the soldering iron and the left-hand side controlling the tweezers that is used to position a resistor which is to be soldered, as illustrated in Figure 1. Depressing a button on the left-hand side controller also displays the soldering wire so solder can be applied onto the soldering iron. After a specific amount of solder has been applied by the iron, a message will be flagged to the user to indicate more solder needs to be added to the iron. The current simulator does not model the solder flow or heat processes involved but this will be added in a future revision. Finally, even though the visual display of the soldering simulator is not superimposed onto the position of haptic devices, the tactile feedback provided by the haptic devices should still provide a realistic experience for the user; furthermore, the hand motions that will be captured by the system will not be affected by the positioning of the visual display.     Figure 1 - Dual Haptic Devices   2.  PILOT STUDY The pilot study carried out involved two participants with prior soldering  experience  carrying  out  a  soldering  task  in  the  real world and in the haptic environment, as shown in Figure 2. User activity in the haptic environment is automatically and unobtrusively logged in the background so properties such as the force, velocity, position and angle of the haptic pen is recorded, as well as the haptic pen buttons that are pressed. By logging expert users performing a soldering operation, their technique can be recorded used to aid in the training of novice users. By automated parsing of the log files, important user actions were extracted and formalised using several knowledge representations Predicting Perceptions: The 3rd International Conference on Appearance, 17-19 April, 2012, Edinburgh, UK. Conference Proceedings Publication ISBN: 978-1-4716-6869-2,  Pages: 92-95  @2012 Authors & Predicting Perceptions. All Rights Reserved. Predicting Perceptions: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Appearance, pp. 92-95, Edinburgh, UK, ISBN 978-1-4716-6869-2, April 2012. utilised in previous research [4] - some of which are also used in engineering companies – and these include: XML (Extensible Markup Language)[5]; PSL (Process Specification Language) [6]; IDEF0 (Integrated Definition Methods) diagrams [7]; DRed (Design  Rationale Editor) [8]; English-syntax instructions. The knowledge representations that have been automatically generated for a simple soldering task are illustrated in Figures 3-7, and the information contained in the representations include the sequence in  which the tasks  were performed, the position  of the haptic device that corresponds to the soldering iron, and the time each task took to complete.      Figure 2 - Real world Soldering (top) and Haptic Soldering (bottom)  This formalised representation could, potentially, allow the data to be stored in a knowledge base for future re-use; for example, a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system that many companies now utilise.  In the questionnaires that were completed after the experiment, positive user feedback was obtained for the intuitiveness, tactile feedback   and   graphics   quality   of   the   virtual   environment. However, the users commented that there were slight issues with depth perception and the control over the viewpoint positioning.  Regarding the realism of virtual soldering environment, the users suggested a way to monitor the PCB temperature and more accurate modelling of solder flow as possible improvements to be made to the haptic environment; however, the users felt this was not essential for the training application concerned as long as the haptic feel of the process was useful and quite similar to the real world.   3.  FUTURE WORK & CONCLUSIONS A  haptic  environment  has  been  developed  to  simulate  the soldering of electronic components to a printed circuit board, and a pilot study has been conducted to compare the soldering process in the real world and haptic environment. The users’ actions in the virtual environment were logged, and by performing automated post  processing  of  the  log  files,  knowledge  relating  to  the soldering processes  performed  by the  users  was  extracted  and formalised using various representations. Future work will involve improving the realism of the haptic environment   by   adding   a   stereoscopic   view   to   aid   depth perception. In addition, the modelling of the solder flow process can be made more accurate. Further user trials will be carried out that involve more participants, and by involving novice and expert users their performance can be compared by analysing their respective log files.   4.  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to acknowledge Renishaw PLC for their guidance throughout the project and the supply of materials for the user trials.   5.  REFERENCES [1]   Venkittarayan, C., Jayaprakash, Gopal, V.M., Kartikkumar, R., Nitin, B.S., Madan, N., Rajamani, K., Achyutan, K., Bijlani, B. (2010) Virtual soldering environment using touch and gesture for engineering labs education, Students' Technology Symposium (TechSym), IEEE, 206-210, 3-4 April 2010. [2]   SensAble Phantom Omni:  http://www.sensable.com/haptic- phantom-omni.htm [3]   SensAble OpenHaptics API: http://www.sensable.com/products-openhaptics-toolkit.htm [4]   Sung, R.C.W., Robinson, G., Day, P.N., Ritchie, J.M., Corney, J.R., Lim, T. Automated design process modelling and analysis using immersive virtual reality, Computer-Aided Design, Vol. 41 (12), December 2009, 1082-1094. [5]   Extensible Markup Language:  http://www.w3.org/XML/ [6]   Gruninger, M., Bock, C., PSL A semantic domain for flow models, Software Systems Modeling, 2005, Vol. 4, 209-231. [7]   Integrated Definition Methods: http://www.idef.com/ [8]   Kim, S., Bracewell, R.H., Wallace, K.M., From discourse analysis to answering design questions, International Workshop on the Application of Language and Semantic Technologies to Support Knowledge Management Processes, October 2004, Whittlebury, UK.    Predicting Perceptions: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Appearance, pp. 92-95, Edinburgh, UK, ISBN 978-1-4716-6869-2, April 2012.   Figure 3 - IDEF0 Knowledge Representation      Figure 4 - DRed Knowledge Representation     Figure 5 - PSL Knowledge Representation Predicting Perceptions: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Appearance, pp. 92-95, Edinburgh, UK, ISBN 978-1-4716-6869-2, April 2012.   Figure 6 - XML Knowledge Representation       Figure 7 – English-Syntax Knowledge Representation 

Pilot Study of a Haptic Soldering Environment

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Pilot Study of a Haptic Soldering Environment

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