Florent Laroche

Advanced industrial archaeology: A new reverse-engineering process for contextualising and digitising ancient technical objects

Since virtual engineering has been introduced inside industries, time processes have been reduced and products are more adapted to customer needs. Nowadays, the digital mock-up (DMU) is the centre point for all teams: design, manufacturing, communication etc. However, physical mock-ups and prototypes are sometimes requested. Consequently, a back-and-forth action between the real and the virtual worlds is necessary. Our research team has developed a reverse-engineering methodology not only for capturing technical characteristics of industrial objects but also for capitalising knowledge and know-how which are required for contextualising life cycles. More precisely, we work with ancient industrial machines. It is what we call advanced industrial archaeology. Thanks to the coupling of different kinds of three-dimensional (3D) digitalisation technologies and computer aided design (CAD) software, we are able to re-design old industrial objects and old processes. To illustrate our proposal, we will describe one of the experiments we have done with a salt-washing machine which is nearly 100 years old: from the global 3D digitalisation of the plant to precise parts design, we have rediscovered the enterprise process and understoo its integration in the economic context.

Virtual engineering based on knowledge integration

The current paper presents major issues on actual approaches on virtual engineering, both about methods and tools but also regarding knowledge integration. The main actual strategic way of usage is based on knowledge formalisation, one of the strategic issues of next generation design environments. The evolution of the market has necessitated for new products the reduction of time-to-market, essentially because the product lifecycle is shorter, but also because it is very important to proceed more rapidly from an initial conception to a mass production object. As a result of newly evolved software environments, knowledge-based systems for integrated design and manufacturing is applied for complex systems obtained thanks to complex virtual extended enterprises. Owing to this evolution of virtual engineering technologies and their integration within extended companies, it has become possible today to validate parts representative of customised production within a very short time. The present paper provides an overview of the actual methods and tools in different components that affect speed and efficiency of product development, from the earliest stages of a products lifecycle. An example of knowledge formalisation is also provided, with concrete aspects of expertise reuse and traceability.

Augmented historical scale model for museums: from curation to multi-modal promotion

In this paper, we describe an interactive museum application dedicated to historical scale models. This comes from a joint work between multidisciplinary teams: industrial engineering researchers, historians, museum curators and interactive interface designer. We present here the result of the project, based on scientific methodology. Results include system architecture, hardware and software, some use cases and user evaluation figures. This paper also underlines some methodologies issues that illustrate future possibilities.

Mass Customisation as a Competitive Factor for Sustainability

Mass customization (MC) is a rising paradigm. This is caused by the more demanding customers who seek uniqueness, and by all the available supporting technologies. Companies are interested in this strategy because they expect a competitive advantage and an increase of their profit. This paper provides first a short overview on what is MC, its classification and its implementation. The main challenge is, after defining the level of customization, to adapt the entire company to the MC strategy. Some concrete application is provided on European projects that aim to design tools and methods for implementing MC for enterprise sustainability.

Performance Factory in the context of mass customization

A novel performance measurement and assessment frame called Performance Factory (PerFact) applied on a specific example focussing on mass customization in the context of the Factory of the Future is presented in this work. PerFact operates target-oriented towards the mission and vision of the company by connecting the overall mission and vision via related requirements with the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and their specific reference values. The performance is measured on manufactured customer-driven products, corresponding production processes and used resources. Furthermore, PerFact is able to monitor and assess the performance of both real production systems and simulated production scenarios. Moreover, the measurement system is balanced; it assesses the performance of the factory considering all perspectives relevant for each specific case.

Virtual conservation and interaction with our cultural heritage: Framework for multi-dimension model based interface

Thanks to rapid development of Virtual Reality technologies, the research is not only limited in military training and scientific visualization realm, it has been expanded into more multidisciplinary areas, such as education, archaeology, conservation of culture heritage, etc. Many heritage objects can be found in museum, among them, historical mock-up represents a city with its precious historical value. The objective of this paper is not only to propose a prototype of future interface that uses VR technology in visualizing and interacting with 3D mockups, but also to provide a tool for decision-making aid, which helps to select proper interface depending on the content we desire to display. Our proposals exploit a variety of State of the Art, and raise a concept named multi-dimension model based interface, which can be applied to multiple VR applications, gives more information than a simple history book, explains to user the real cultural value in a virtual environment.

Co-working for Knowledge Management in Cultural Heritage: Towards a PLM for Museum

Dealing with historical knowledge implies specific approaches. Then, modeling it and the different know-hows involved is a complex task. Indeed, patrimonial objects are historical witnesses whose life cycle is hard to handle. In this paper, we discuss possibilities of managing such heterogeneous content through a PLM system dedicated to historical knowledge and museum. Based on previous research in the field of ancient advanced archaeology, we demonstrate our process through an industrial research and development project with a history museum.

A Case Study of Capitalisation and Valorisation of Our Technical Heritage

For the 2008 CIRP Design conference, we have presented a scientific article dealing with a new way of thinking our technical heritage: we would like to preserve it as a digital object. Project deals with a physical mock-up of Nantes city built in 1899 and used for the Universal exposition in France in 1900 in Paris. The heritage object is nowadays in the museum but exposed as a fish inside an aquarium. Thanks to a virtual system coupling a tactile screen with semantic research modules, 3D active screen and light pointer, it will allow the visitor to better understand the mock-up and emphasize important places of Nantes city life. However it does not mean beautiful 3D animation with nice static rendering; indeed, we create virtual mock-ups which are dynamically operating. We use CAD software and engineering simulation tools. Nowadays the global methodology has been improved: it is named Advanced Industrial Archaeology. In this communication, we will detail a new experimentation done in partnership with a French museum: the Château des Ducs de Bretagne in France. This project deals with a physical mock-up of Nantes city built in 1899 and exposed in 1900 for the World Fair that took place in Paris, France. The heritage object is nowadays in the museum but exposed as “a fish inside an aquarium”. Thanks to a virtual system coupling a tactile screen with semantic research modules, a 3D active screen and a light pointer, it will allow the visitor to better understand the mock-up and emphasize important places of the city. The mock-up represents our industrial heritage with old shipyards of Nantes.

Determining the CODP position by value network modeling and simulation

Mass customization has become a reality, and is implemented in many industries such as the shoe industry. Even though much work has been achieved until now in developing the tools and methodologies to support such a strategy, a lot has still to be done such as determining the customer order decoupling point (CODP) which is the breaking point between productions for stock based on forecast and customization based on customer demand. In this article, and under the European project DOROTHY, we propose the use of value network modeling and simulation for determining the position of the CODP based on its influence on the overall generated value of the MC system. Only the value network model as well as the modelling language and the general approach will be presented.

Knowledge management for industrial heritage

All along history, humans have always invented, created to improve their standard of liv-ing. Many machines have been built, sometimes simple and others very complex. In order to achieve the best results for customers, machines, industrial plants and humans are moved, displaced and replaced. It is the global humanity technical knowledge that dis-appears. Indeed, there is a lack in the actually conservation methods: sciences and technologies have to be considered and not only architecture. Our heritage research focuses on the mechanical and technical point of view. For instance, in a factory, there is the building but also actua-tors, motors and machines that produce product: taking into account the technical point of view can reach to a better understanding of the past. Thats why preserving the national technical patrimony has now become the priority of governments and world organizations. Our approach proposes a new kind of finality: as saving and maintaining physical object cost a lot for museums, and sometimes dismantling is impossible as the machine falls in ruin, we propose to preserve it as a numerical object. The aim of this research is to define the global process and technologies used for imple-menting a numerical model of old machines. The final aim is to constitute a new reference for museologic actors, using actual techniques and methods for putting old machines and technical means in “virtual use”, taking into account the working situation including human being at work. This process is illustrated by an example we performed: a steam engine.