Jussi Aaltonen

Engineering intelligence - Product-service concepts and requirements in industry

European manufacturing and construction sector is wrestling with the fundamental and rapid changes in their business environment. Business environment is becoming more dynamic and distributed, thus old standardization and mass-customization methods can no longer support the companies. In order to survive the companies must be able to offer fully customized product-service concepts instead of technical solutions. This causes challenges relating to efficiency of collaboration, utilization of information flows, agility and interoperability of technical solutions and operation culture. The products, processes and services need to be designed “for humans by humans”. The competence development methods and enhanced learning have to be comprehensively taken into account. This paper summarizes the challenges among industry and provides a new approach Engineering Intelligence Ecosystem (EIE) that addresses aforementioned challenges of complex engineering systems.

Early stage design of a spherical underwater robotic vehicle

This paper presents a high performance autonomous underwater robot under development for inspection of flooded mines up to 500 meters depth. Underwater robots have multiple advanced subsystems and mechanisms. Initial structure design of subsystems and their functions are demonstrated here briefly. In addition, Hydrodynamic coefficients that contribute to robot equation of motion are addressed. The advantage of utilizing spherical design is verified by applying simplification to determine the main coefficient of motion theoretically.

Simulation Models Supporting Multiple Assets Along the Product Life Cycle

Modelling and simulation are commonly used in modern engineering work. However, the models are often created to solve individual problems and the possibilities they offer for multiple different users are not considered. Better planning and a higher level of awareness of the existence and the capabilities of the models would enable them to be used throughout the organization and all along a product’s life cycle for a wide variety of tasks. This would give much more return on the investment made in their creation. In this article some of the theoretical and strategic concepts affecting the modelling of a lifting device are discussed. To demonstrate the versatility of the model, three cases of using the model in supporting different assets in different phases of the product’s life cycle and by different types of users are shown. The conclusions are the demonstrated ability of the well planned model to be used in supporting varied engineering assets and the need to make the models available for all who might benefit from them.

Simulation as a Tool in Evaluating Combat Aircraft Shock Absorber Condition

A simulation model for an oleo-pneumatic shock absorber of a combat aircraft is presented. System equations are presented incorporating the effects of friction, gas spring and damping. The model is validated with experimental data. The objective is to use the model as a tool to improve the shock absorber condition monitoring and fault detection methods. As a part of that a new measuring instrument is discussed.