Jianzhong Cha

A CAE-integrated distributed collaborative design system for finite element analysis of complex product based on SOOA

Large-scale finite element analysis of complex product needs a wider support from external CAE resources. This paper proposes a method of the distributed concurrent and collaborative design in the distributed intelligent resources environment to use Web-based extended manufacturing resources for product development. The CAE-integrated distributed collaborative design system architecture and enabling techniques are presented. Distributed CAE service resources on the Internet are achieved through Jini^T^M and service object-oriented architecture technologies. These CAE software tool resources are encapsulated as service providers in the system. A case study of railway bogie development is presented, and the Pro/E, HyperMesh, Ansys and HumanExpert service providers dynamically invoked and integrated as a temporary service federated environment with no need to know the exact location of a provider beforehand, flexibility can be well achieved, and collaborative design in the system can be implemented in the distributed dynamic environment. Compared with the traditional design system, some preliminary results indicate this architecture can shorten the cycle of service exchange, and strongly support concurrent and collaborative design of the complex product.

A parallel simulated annealing algorithm based on functional feature tree modeling for 3D engineering layout design

Computation complexity and modeling complexity are primary clog in 3D engineering layout design. In this paper, a parallel simulated annealing based on multiple Markov chains is employed to deal with the computation complexity. The algorithm increases computing efficiency by allocating computation burden to networked computers. To cope with the modeling complexity, machine components and space limitation are modeled by a hierarchical, feature-based modeling method-the functional feature tree modeling method. And multiple complex design constraints can be described by the representation. In order to support whole layout design solving process, a Computer Aided Layout Design System is introduced briefly. This system not only implements the algorithm and the components representation, but also integrates some other subsystems as evaluation system, constrains editor etc. The methods are demonstrated through a real engineering application, a vehicle engine compartment layout design.

Design synthesis approach based on process decomposition to design reuse

Design reuse is becoming a widely accepted strategy to meet the increasingly fierce competition in product development. This paper presents a new approach to design reuse based on the decomposition of design processes. In this approach, the basic reusable template, design process unit (DPU), is developed by decomposing the design process, which has four important characteristics: reusability, hierarchical decomposition and composition, domain independence, and decision-centric with well-defined inputs and outputs. Then the criteria of process decomposition and the scale of design process reuse are established, respectively. Based on the methodology above, a multi-tier, three-phase reuse architecture with effective DPU retrieval is presented. Experimental results show that this approach greatly facilitates DPU reuse and is a worthwhile exploration of design reuse.

A Service-Oriented Architecture framework for the distributed concurrent and collaborative design

The independent development capabilities of the new products reflect the core competitiveness of enterprises. The concurrent and collaborative design for complex product is a new mode of design based on concurrent engineering and multidisciplinary collaborative design, using various fields of CAX/DFx. At present, the most advanced collaborative work technology is based on the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). According to the theory of concurrent engineering and the optimization theory in the multidisciplinary collaborative design, the paper defines the concept of DCCD-distributed concurrent and collaborative design. Based on SOA and the distributed services environment, this paper first presents a novel distributed concurrent and collaborative design platform architecture. The architecture integrates some Large-scale commercial engineering softwares (such as Pro/E, HaperMesh and ANSYS) to quickly accomplish the design and analysis of complex product. Using the java programming language, this paper defines the interface description of the services and gives detailed introductions to the architecture by a demonstration of railway bogie. Compared with the traditional collaborative design platform, this architecture can shorten the cycle of service exchange, and strongly support concurrent and collaborative design for the complex product.

A hierarchical system modelling mechanism for planning in transportation and logistics

Planning and scheduling (P&S) is an important area of artificial intelligence (AI). In the late decade, application-oriented research receives much more attention in AI planning community. Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) is an effective AI planning approach and has been applied in many realistic domains. However, current modeling mechanisms of HTN planning are mainly based on logical and/or functional mechanism and not efficient for large and complex system modeling. In this paper, an object-oriented mechanism known as Model-based Integrated Planning Language (MIPL) is proposed, which can describe physical systems with hierarchical, logical and numerical relations, and can also describe HTN planning domain such as operator, method and task. Based on MIPL, planning process is provided concerning compiling schemes and integration of reasoning and computing. Transportation and logistics (T&L) is an attractive application domain of AI planning. A T&L system model is built by this mechanism with hierarchical structure and hybrid component attributes, and has been used in HTN planning effectively.

A Service Encapsulation Architecture for Engineering Software Based on SOOA

SOOA (Service object-oriented architecture) is suitable to construct the service sharing environment for engineering software on the dynamic network. After analyzing the service encapsulation requirements of engineering software, an SOOA-based service encapsulation architecture for engineering software (SooSEA) is proposed. In the developed SooSEA-based system, engineering software tools can be encapsulated as services by product developers without the need of programming, and the encapsulated services can be accessed and utilized through a standard Web browser. The efficient sharing of engineering software resources can be achieved in the dynamic network environment.

A Service Encapsulation Method in Cloud Simulation Platform

In a cloud simulation platform, there exist a large number of simulation software tools that need to be encapsulated as services that can be invoked conveniently when required in the product development process. An appropriate architecture for encapsulating and managing these software tools are needed to facilitate the management of these simulation resources. In this paper, the service object-oriented architecture (SOOA) is adopted to construct the service sharing environment for engineering software on the dynamic network, and the SOOA-based two-stage service encapsulation method for engineering software is proposed. With this method, simulation software tools can be encapsulated and deployed as services conveniently without the need of programming, and the encapsulated services can be invoked and accessed conveniently through a standard Web browser via the cloud simulation platform portal.

A resource integration platform for manufacturing grid based on SOOA

Most of the manufacturing grid systems are built on Web services technology. Basically speaking, they lack of the ability to handle the dynamic nature of network and manufacturing resources due to the static nature of service protocol-oriented architecture (SPOA) which Web services are built on. Recently, service object-oriented architecture (SOOA) which is suitable for constructing reliable distributed systems on the unstable Internet evolves rapidly from SPOA. In this paper, a resource integration platform for manufacturing grid (RIP-MG) is designed and implemented based on SOOA. In RIP-MG, an open template model (OTM) for encapsulating manufacturing resources is proposed, by which various manufacturing resources can be encapsulated as grid services conveniently without the need of programming, and the services can be deployed and managed locally by RIP-MG in remote service hosts. RIP-MG has been applied successfully in a collaborative design platform of manufacturing grid.

Research on Service Encapsulation of Engineering Software Based on Jini

In order to realize the effective sharing of resources of engineering software, a Jini-based method of service encapsulation of engineering software is proposed. The encapsulation templates including code template, configuration template and CLI (Command-Line Interface) template are constructed, and the process of service encapsulation of engineering software is discussed. A web-based system is developed to implement the proposed method. Engineers can encapsulate the engineering software as Jini-based engineering software services without the need of programming and can access the services through a standard Web browser. The sharing of resources of engineering software can be achieved. This method can also be used in the sharing of other resources on the dynamic network.

An Efficient Binding Algorithm for Forward-chaining HTN Planning Based on Object-oriented Knowledge

An efficient improvement on the binding process of SHOP2 planner for hierarchical task network (HTN) planning is proposed by using some object-oriented formal knowledge. Two object-oriented structures, Structure of Object and Structure of Object Set are defined to separate SHOP2’s world state to two parts, object-oriented knowledge and predicate-based atoms. By preprocessing, improved binding algorithm can avoid searching in predicate-based state atoms when reasons about the type of object and the membership relation between two hierarchical objects, and thus the CPU time cost can be reduced. Experiments show that this approach can significantly increase the efficiency of binding process for forward-chaining HTN planning in systems concerning a large number of objects and with hierarchical structures without losing generality and easiness in modeling process.