Matthias Neges

Smart Engineering as Enabler for the 4th Industrial Revolution

The convergence and synergies of the latest ICT developments in the areas of embedded micro-devices, mobile communication, hardware infrastructures, as well as Internet and software technologies penetrate any artifact and product in our real lives. Traditional products are becoming more and more multidisciplinary, intelligent, networked, agile, and include product-related services. However, not only consumer goods (i.e. smartphones) but also industrial goods are becoming ‘smart’. Smart Product Service Systems (smartPSS) will dominate most industrial sectors in the near future and lead to the 4th Industrial Revolution. Thus, the engineering of these smartPSS will be of crucial importance for the competitiveness of industrial companies. This contribution summarizes the related ICT developments and describes their successive penetration of industrial products. It points out the need for new Smart Engineering approaches, which also use the latest ICT innovation and similarly smart features like smartPSS. Smart Engineering defines the highest level of requirements for engineering processes, methods, and tools.

Combining visual natural markers and IMU for improved AR based indoor navigation

The operation and maintenance phase is the longest and most expensive life-cycle period of buildings and facilities. Operators need to carry out activities to maintain equipment to prevent functionality failures. Although some software tools have already been introduced, research studies have concluded that (1) facility handover data is still predominantly dispersed, unformatted and paper-based and (2) hence operators still spend 50% of their on-site work on target localization and navigation. To improve these procedures, the authors previously presented a natural marker-based Augmented Reality (AR) framework that digitally supports facility maintenance operators when navigating indoors. Although previous results showed the practical potential, this framework fails if no visual marker is available, if identical markers are at multiple locations, and if markers are light emitting signs. To overcome these shortcomings, this paper presents an improved method that combines an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) based step counter and visual live video feed for AR based indoor navigation support. In addition, the AR based marker detection procedure is improved by learning camera exposure times in case of light emitting markers. A case study and experimental results in a controlled environment reveal the improvements and advantages of the enhanced framework.

Internet of Things (IoT) for Integrating Environmental and Localization Data in Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Digital transformation is an ongoing challenge in construction. Whereas central storage and planning with Building Information Modeling (BIM) can be considered state-of-the-art, the integration of realtime data like environmental and localization data of workers in indoor work environments can provide further benefits for operations management in construction and facility management. This paper introduces the concept of permanent availability of up-to-date actual performance data sets through an Internet-of-Things (IoT) approach that integrates environmental and localization data in a cloud-based BIM platform. In this paper, we reflect on the usage of Internet of Things (IoT) technology and the lean and injury-free (LIFE) construction management approach, create a concept to implement the topics in existing systems, design and create a prototypical application, validate the prototype in field-typical work settings, and critically review the results.

Graph-Based Model for Context-Aware Maintenance Assistance with Augmented Reality and 3D Visualization

The benefits of augmented reality applications in maintenance are widely known and since high-performance smart devices are the common standard for mobile devices, the actual preconditions for the usage of such applications seem promising. Problems emerge whenever service is to be conducted in an area of banned photography. Using a smart device with a camera is either simply not allowed, or the internal camera has to be pasted over to allow entrance into the restricted areas. Either way, the technician still relies on his maintenance assistant system to provide useful information if he does not want to go back to pen and paper. In this article a concept is elaborated that offers context-sensitive guidance, a highly dynamic data model and different views, depending on the availability of an internal camera and/or restrictions of the work environment. The approach presented was implemented and validated under laboratory conditions with a complex hydraulic system as a demonstrator machine. The prototype will be the foundation of an industrial case study concerning the combination of IoT enabled machinery and smart devices in maintenance later this year.

Framework for Augmented Reality Scenarios in Engineering Education

The goal of the presented approach is to show a method suitable for better integration of real-time sensor data into practical education, without leaving the students to sort out the digital content by themselves. The authors want to empower teachers on-site to show their students relevant sensory data, effectively controlling the content the students can use and explore themselves. The students are enabled to find individual approaches towards the learning scenario, take different perspectives of the plant into account and try several virtual steps before the experiment is undertaken by themselves. The two main functions of the presented framework are the authoring of augmented reality content and controlling the augmented reality content of the student’s smart devices via the teacher’s master view. The authors created a simple setup phase, which is usable on-site, utilizing only one device in the master view mode. For students, the usage is even simpler, as their content is controlled via the master view. The framework technically supports an unlimited number of student clients to be controlled by one teacher view. The functionality has been established and validated with two experimental setups, both situated within the context of chemical engineering education.

3D Geometry Recognition for a PMI-Based Mixed Reality Assistant System in Prototype Construction

The purpose of prototypes in an industrial mass production context is the assessment and validation of desired product characteristics, relating to functional, geometrical or aesthetical aspects. Therefore, a prototype is an abstracted model with a subset of selected properties. Before single prototype parts are assembled, a quality inspection on receiving is mandatory.

Enabling Round-Trip Engineering Between P&I Diagrams and Augmented Reality Work Instructions in Maintenance Processes Utilizing Graph-Based Modelling

Round-trip engineering usually describes the synchronization between formalized documents and realizations in software engineering. Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams are commonly used in process engineering and play a major role in planning and documentation of maintenance processes. The authors propose a method for the synchronization of engineering data via a dynamic graph-based model, which offers context-sensitive work instructions utilizing smart devices and feedback from maintenance processes back into the engineering documents, thus facilitating manual consolidation afterwards. This paper elaborates the concept of graph-based modeling for hydraulic systems, the transfer of P&I Diagrams into the proposed model, utilization of the model for Augmented Reality support in maintenance processes and the feedback for added assistance in keeping engineering documents up-to-date. The authors implemented and validated the concept under laboratory conditions.

Improving Indoor Location Tracking Quality for Construction and Facility Management

Real-time location tracking systems (RTLS) for personnel and machinery in outdoor civil engineering environments quite often use commercially-available Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology. Although the GNSS is an important approach in outdoor positioning and logistics coordination, their signals are not able to penetrate buildings due to their signal strength. Despite some recent advances in research, reliable indoor navigation remains an unsolved problem. This work deals with a detailed study of the methods and approaches of indoor location tracking. The focus lies on systems based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology that meet the specific requirements of construction site and facility management. The authors develop a prototypical application with which measurements are taken using different BLE hardware. The experiments show that location tracking is only applicable to a limited extent using BLE technology and path loss model. There were great differences in the behavior of different devices observed since the environment greatly influences the signal transmission. Proposed is an alternative, holistic system for location tracking using BLE. It uses a systematic classification of the work space by positioning the BLE beacons according to the a-priori known spatial building structure from a Building Information Model (BIM). By the relative observation of the received signal strengths of the individual beacons spread on a building floor, the calibration of the receivers is obsolete so that several different or alternative device types can be used together at the same time.