Robert Woll

Augmented reality in a serious game for manual assembly processes

This paper presents results from a study in which Augmented Reality (AR) technology has been employed in a serious game for teaching the assembly of a car power generator. Most used car power generators can be remanufactured in order to save material and cost. This is usually done manually and requires a mechanic who knows the different steps of disassembly, cleaning, replacement and re-assembly of the generators components. A serious game has been developed that teaches an apprentice mechanic of which components a car power generator consists and how these components have to be assembled. The game has been implemented as an application for smartphones running the Android operation system. The game employs augmented reality technology in order to let the user interactively experience the spatial arrangement of components and to support the user in validating his learning success.

Intelligent Information Technologies to Enable Next Generation PLM

The steadily growing complexity of products, interfacing processes, value creation networks and IT environments drive today’s PLM solutions to their limits. How does this effect engineers? Over 1,400 engineers from the German industry provided feedback in 2011 – with alarming but expected results. Almost two thirds of the respondents can only spend 20% or less time on average for core tasks such as development, design or validation. The study confirmed a lack of time for creative engineering activities caused by a massive coordination and communication overhead. Could engineers and designers be relieved from routine and administrative tasks in product lifecycle management by means of current “intelligent” technologies? In constant dialogue with industry and PLM experts, the Fraunhofer IPK and TUB have investigated the demand for intelligence in product lifecycle management. This paper reflects on the current situation of PLM and introduces a conceptual framework (Engineering Operating System) for next generation PLM. Subsequently, an Engineering Automation Capabilities (EAC) stair step model is proposed and selected research results for “intelligence” in PLM are presented.

Approaches for Sustainability Assessment in the Conceptual Design Phase

This paper presents two different approaches to support the development of sustainable products. One approach is management-oriented. A sustainability dashboard has been developed to visualize the impact of different design alternatives on sustainability dimensions as well as the technical performance. The second approach directly assists the designer to narrow the design solution space when taking sustainability demands and technical performances into consideration. Both approaches are demonstrated on the example of a technical product. The paper concludes with a critical evaluation and a comparison of the two approaches.

Semantic Integration of Product Data Models for the Verification of Product Requirements

Along the product development process concurrent engineering teams repeatedly create new product data and exchange it among each other as a logical input for subsequent engineering activities. Almost every piece of product data logically builds on another. However, usually product data is scattered over different, domain-specific IT systems and this physical separation is a challenge for product developers and IT experts. Since the management of logical interrelations between distributed product data is costly, such semantic links are often not modelled explicitly. Hence, engineers need to know these interrelations implicitly in order to ensure logical consistency of the overall product model. In this paper an approach for efficient semantic data integration and its application to an exemplary use case, knowledge-based test planning, is presented. It is supported by an integration framework that uses ontologies for interlinking different systems of virtual product creation. The paper also presents the findings of a case study on the process of defining a mapping between a requirements ontology and a domain-specific data exchange format, the Requirements Interchange Format (ReqIF).

Interdisciplinary Function-Oriented Design and Verification for the Development of Mechatronical Products

Mechatronical products integrate components that are developed by different fields of engineering and combine them in order to provide new functionalities. The main challenge is the ever increasing complexity and the required degree of interdisciplinarity. The joint research project MIKADO adressed this demand by integrating domain specific development methods and tools into a more systems-engineering-oriented approach. Special emphasis has been placed on the early phases of product development in order to facilitate an early coordination between mechanical, electronical and software engineers and to provide them with easy means for the functional verification of virtual product models.

Nachhaltige Produktentwicklung: Eine interdisziplinäre Herausforderung

Kurzfassung Eine nachhaltige Produktentwicklung muss darauf abzielen, ein Produkt zu entwickeln, welches über seinem gesamten Lebenszyklus hinweg Nachhaltigkeitsforderungen erfüllt. Da ein Produktentwickler alleine diesen nicht ausreichend überblicken kann, muss die Konzeption und Gestaltung eines Produkts in interdisziplinärer Zusammenarbeit mit Experten aus anderen Fachgebieten durchgeführt werden. In dem Projekt „Methodische Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung von Maschinenkomponenten im Entwicklungsprozess” wurde eine Methodik entwickelt, bei der Produktentwickler, Prozess- und Nachhaltigkeitsexperten gemeinsam dazu beitragen, Gestaltungsalternativen für ein Produkt bezüglich ihrer Nachhaltigkeit bewertbar zu machen.