Torsten Kjellberg

Design in the New e-Commerce Era

The computing and communication have become indispensable in every aspect of design and manufacturing. Its impacts on production engineering community have been significant and long lasting. In this paper, we reviewed new e-Commerce models that directly link among production capabilities and with end consumers. We then identified three major forces that will affect the design community, namely, speed of decision, expansion of scope and degree of concurrency. Understanding the implication of these forces would be conducive to leading structural changes in design. The transformations include expanding the scope of design, linking customers and suppliers proactively throughout the entire value chain, and collaborating across boundaries.

ASTOR: an autostereoscopic optical see-through augmented reality system

We present a novel autostereoscopic optical see-through system for augmented reality (AR). It uses a transparent holographic optical element (HOE) to separate the views produced by two, or more, digital projectors. It is a minimally intrusive AR system that does not require the user to wear special glasses or any other equipment, since the user would see different images depending on the point of view. The HOE itself is a thin glass plate or plastic film that can easily be incorporated into other surfaces, such as a window. The technology offers great flexibility, allowing the projectors to be placed where they are the least intrusive. ASTORs capability of sporadic AR visualization is currently ideal for smaller physical workspaces, such as our prototype setup in an industrial environment.

Software Tools for the Digital Factory – An Evaluation and Discussion

This paper presents an evaluation and discussion of the digital factory tools, based on various software applications. The aim is to map the software tools within the digital factory and evaluate t ...

Large Format 3D Interaction Table

This paper presents some aspects and applications of the Interaction Table, which is a tool for interactive communication around a virtual 3D model between a small number of people. Some issues with large format displays of this kind are discussed, as well as their image quality, especially the contrast. The demands of some engineering applications are also described.

Cutting Tool Data Representation and Implementation Based on STEP AP242

For cutting tool data exchange in manufacturing CAx (Computer-Aided technologies), standardized representation and classification of items and properties is important. ISO 13399 (Cutting tool data representation and exchange) provides a solution to represent cutting tool data classified with an ISO 13584 (Parts Library, PLib) based dictionary. However, ISO 13399 does not support classification of shape geometry directly, which limits its use. Another limitation is representing GD&T (Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing) as simplified general properties, which does not fulfill high semantic precision and validation rules. This research provides a unified solution to represent cutting tool parameters integrated with geometry and dedicated properties based on STEP AP242 (ISO 10303-242 Managed model-based 3D engineering). Standardized libraries such as the ISO 13399 dictionary can be reused with the modeling approach for AP242 cutting tool representation. Software is developed to validate and demonstrate how this solution facilitates the data integration process to support CAx applications.

System integration for kinematic data exchange

Industry needs a system neutral solution for exchange of kinematic models. In this article, the first known valid implementation of kinematic mechanisms based on ISO 10303 Standard for the Exchange of Product (STEP) is presented. The result includes an implementation framework and two developed prototypes. Two major challenges of standard-based development are identified and generalised: data integration and system integration, which are solved by the framework. The two prototypes are implemented to establish kinematic data exchange between Siemens NX® and STEP-NC MachineTM via STEP AP214 files. Experiences of design and development of the applications are presented, and a validated case study of data exchange using the developed applications is shown. There are other attempts of using STEP as basis for modelling, but as the first valid STEP implementation on kinematics, this approach demonstrates the feasibility of pure STEP-based data exchange for kinematic mechanisms. The prototypes also show potential of utilising the framework for general standard implementations. The research is expected to motivate deeper understanding and extensive applications of the STEP standard in industry and academia.

Production pilot for co-operation in factory development

This paper is dedicated to the factory development where management of established knowledge and company practice is a big challenge because its process involves many competence domains such as process planning, production investment and building construction, etc. This article presents an in-house developed production pilot for a better cooperation and support in factory development. Details about methodologies and the thinking behind the pilot will be presented in the paper. The pilot aims to ease the sharing and reuse of knowledge and experiences, create a valueadding working process, and ease the collaboration and semantic interpretation between disciplines within factory development.

Model infrastructures and human interaction in a stereo table environment

The digital modelling of technical systems and physical phenomena and their environment forms the basis for design and development in the future. Based on models and visualisation technologies, the appearance and behaviour of a technical system can be studied, simulated and viewed for different purposes, in different disciplines, and at different detailing levels. It forms the base for human communication and interaction to meet the goals of all stakeholders in their study and development. Adding new technologies for man-model interaction and for the dynamic change of models and their viewing will further increase human possibilities for interaction and communication in the same co-located environment as well as in a virtual co-located environment. The paper will focus on a stereo interaction table environment as an important vehicle for integrated human-to-model and human-to-human interaction and some future possible developments.

User friendly development architecture for standardised modelling : STEP Toolbox

Standardised information modelling is currently an important solution of enhancing the interoperability of computer-aided technology (CAx) systems in the manufacturing industry. The success of this solution is critically dependent on the complexity of data structure and implementation methodology. This study presents development architecture, STEP toolbox, which enables users to implement information standards via a simplified process with minimised knowledge requirements. This study starts with an analysis of relevant user groups for different types of tasks and knowledge requirements. Then STEP toolbox is presented as the simplified development architecture that consists of conceptual modelling and an object-oriented application programming interface (API). It is more convenient for typical developers than the conventional implementation methodology. Based on results from test cases for implementing three prototypes, a two-month learning process required for average developers of the information standards is expected to be eliminated.

Representation and Exchange of Digital Catalogues of Cutting Tools

Information management for manufacturing resources such as cutting tools is an important research topic in the context of cloud manufacturing. Vendors and customers usually use catalogues to communicate information for such manufacturing resource. Incompatibilities of information in syntax, semantics, and structure among supply chains often result in inefficient manual sharing and management of the catalogue information. It is difficult for cloud based applications to pool information from various sources. This communication failure calls for a system neutral solution for data modeling and exchange to enhance interoperability of the cutting tool catalogue information. Previous studies has present solutions for representation of the cutting tool information with STEP AP242 (ISO/DIS 10303-242) with semantic classification referring to a PLib (ISO 13584, Part Library) based dictionary. This approach can be extended for the catalogue modeling, due to functionalities for specification and configuration control of general product variants in the same standard.With a modeling approach with standardized information schemas, system architecture to guide implementation is proposed to enhance the communication in practice. Relative elements to represent vendors’ catalogues and customers’ requirements are modeled. Associations to the PLib-based dictionary complete semantics and enable information mapping between vendors and customers. Principles of the mapping are identified to facilitate implementation of related software systems. Prototypes are developed to verify the proposed system architecture. The proposed solution is promising to migrate to other types of products than cutting tools, because the data models are based on the general product models defined in AP242.Copyright