Assembly Guidance in Augmented Reality Environments Using a Virtual Interactive Tool

The application of augmented reality (AR) technology for assembly guidance is a novel approach in the traditional manufacturing domain. In this paper, we propose an AR approach for assembly guidance using a virtual interactive tool that is intuitive and easy to use. The virtual interactive tool, termed the Virtual Interaction Panel (VirIP), involves two tasks: the design of the VirIPs and the real-time tracking of an interaction pen using a Restricted Coulomb Energy (RCE) neural network. The VirIP includes virtual buttons, which have meaningful assembly information that can be activated by an interaction pen during the assembly process. A visual assembly tree structure (VATS) is used for information management and assembly instructions retrieval in this AR environment. VATS is a hierarchical tree structure that can be easily maintained via a visual interface. This paper describes a typical scenario for assembly guidance using VirIP and VATS. The main characteristic of the proposed AR system is the intuitive way in which an assembly operator can easily step through a pre-defined assembly plan/sequence without the need of any sensor schemes or markers attached on the assembly components.

Montagem de uma prensa para fios de sódio metálico

Several organic chemistry labs in Brazil suffers from the absence of a safe method to extrude sodium wire, used to obtain anhydrous solvents such as THF or ethyl ether. This technical note presents the assembly instructions for a sodium wire press, similar to the one that has been used for the past four years in our laboratory without any maintenance.

Teknisen auringonsuojauksen tukikonseptin liiketoimintalähtöinen arviointi

Työssä tutkitaan erään tekniseen auringonsuojaukseen keskittyneen yrityksen päätöstä tuottaa aloittelevia yrityksiä palveleva tukikonsepti. Konsepti sisältää mitoitusohjelmia, kokoonpano-ohjeita sekä markkinointimateriaalia. Oleellista on selvittää kannattaako yrityksen keskittyä kyseisiin asiakkaisiin, sekä onko konsepti oikea ratkaisu tälle segmentille. Tätä varten työssä tutustuttiin toimiala-analyysiin, strategiaan, segmentointiin sekä differointiin. Työssä selvitettiin, että Porterin viiden voiman malli on yhä toimiva aloitus toimiala-analyysin laatimiseen. Strategiaan liittyviä koulukuntia löytyy kirjallisuudesta useita erilaisia, oleellista on löytää oikea lähestymistapa kuhunkin tilanteeseen. Segmentointi on tärkeä vaihe, koska sen avulla selvitetään yrityksen eri asiakasryhmiä. Differointi on usein suositeltu keino kilpailuedun tavoittelemiseen. Työtä varten laadittiin yritykselle toimiala-analyysi. Lisäksi yritykselle etsittiin segmenttejä sekä pohdittiin sen mahdollisuuksia differointiin. Segmenttejä löydettiin kolme erilaista. Samalla todettiin, että paras tapa differoida yrityksen tuotteita on keskittyä tuotteiden aineettomiin ominaisuuksiin. Toimiala-analyysin, segmenttien sekä differointimahdollisuuksien perusteella päädyttiin siihen, että yrityksen päätös keskittyä enemmän uusiin ja aloitteleviin asiakkaisiin vaikuttaa järkevältä. Konseptin ominaisuuksien perusteella myös konsepti vaikuttaa hyvältä tavalta palvella kyseistä asiakassegmenttiä.

Guest editorial

Full text: With the rapid development of the aerospace industry, manufacturing technologies have to continuously develop and adjust themselves to ever-growing demands coming from more complex component designs and the use of highly engineered materials. Today there is an increased number of manufacturers contributing to the realization of final products, i.e. avionics, so it is easy to perceive the truly globalized dimension of the aerospace manufacturing business. With this comes the demand for further engineering developments on which the academic/industrial research institutes need to deliver solutions to real aerospace manufacturing problems. This is a challenging task since aerospace manufacturing technologies have to cover a wide range of materials (from composites to advanced Ni/Ti alloys), processes (from forging to non-traditional machining and assembly), and parts’ dimensions/batch sizes (from airframes to turbine blades). In this wide context, this Special Issue includes high quality theoretical and experimental scientific contributions on the following topics related to the aerospace manufacturing technology: (a) machining of advance aerospace alloys; (b) abrasive processes applied to aerospace components; (c) surface treatments to enhance fatigue performance of aerospace components; (d) joining and assembly of aerospace components; (e) laser machining of aerospace alloys; (f) automated/supervised manufacture of aerospace components; (g) quality supervision of aerospace manufacturing routes. The breadth of topics in this Special Issue is perhaps indicative of the complexity and challenges that the research related to aerospace manufacturing technology can offer. We hope that this issue will act as a catalyst for the development of further research, academic and industrial interactions, and publications related to aerospace manufacturing technologies for the benefit of the academic and industrial research communities.

Learning to Interpret and Generate Instructional Recipes

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Virtual Reality as a tool to Assist Learning in Aerospace Assembly

This study examines whether virtual reality (VR) is more superior to paper-based instructions in increasing the speed at which individuals learn a new assembly task. Specifically, the work seeks to quantify any learning benefits when individuals have been given the opportunity and compares the performance of two groups using virtual and hardcopy media types to pre-learn the task. A build experiment based on multiple builds of an aircraft panel showed that a group of people who pre-learned the assembly task using a VR environment completed their builds faster (average build time 29.5% lower). The VR group also made fewer references to instructional materials (average number of references 38% lower) and made fewer errors than a group using more traditional, hard copy instructions. These outcomes were more pronounced during build one with differences in build time and number of references showing limited statistical differences.

Martine's hand-book of etiquette and guide to true politeness : a complete manual for those who desire to understand the rules of good breeding, the customs of good society, and to avoid incorrect and vulgar habits : containing clear and comprehensive directions for correct manners, dress, and conversation, instructions for good behavior at dinner parties and the table : together with the etiquette of the ball and assembly room, evening parties, deportment in the street and when traveling, and the usage to be observed when visiting or receiving calls : to which is added the etiquette of courtship, marriage, domestic duties, and fifty-six rules to be observed in general society /

"Almost every gentleman has wine at his table whenever he has invited guests"-- p. [74].

Identifying the Impact of Incomplete Datasets on Process Cycle Time Prediction in an Aerospace Assembly Line

Supply Chain Simulation (SCS) is applied to acquire information to support outsourcing decisions but obtaining enough detail in key parameters can often be a barrier to making well informed decisions.
One aspect of SCS that has been relatively unexplored is the impact of inaccurate data around delays within the SC. The impact of the magnitude and variability of process cycle time on typical performance indicators in a SC context is studied.
System cycle time, WIP levels and throughput are more sensitive to the magnitude of deterministic deviations in process cycle time than variable deviations. Manufacturing costs are not very sensitive to these deviations.
Future opportunities include investigating the impact of process failure or product defects, including logistics and transportation between SC members and using alternative costing methodologies.

A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO MANUFACTURING SYSTEM DESIGN IN THE DEFENSE AEROSPACE INDUSTRY

Manufacturing has evolved to become a critical element of the competitive skill set of defense aerospace firms. Given the changes in the acquisition environment and culture; traditional “thrown over the wall” means of developing and manufacturing products are insufficient. Also, manufacturing systems are complex systems that need to be carefully designed in a holistic manner and there are shortcomings with available tools and methods to assist in the design of these systems. This paper outlines the generation and validation of a framework to guide this manufacturing system design process.

A Holistic Approach to Manufacturing System Design in the Defense Aerospace Industry

Manufacturing has evolved to become a critical element of the competitive skill set of defense aerospace firms. Given the changes in the acquisition environment and culture; traditional “thrown over the wall” means of developing and manufacturing products are insufficient. Also, manufacturing systems are complex systems that need to be carefully designed in a holistic manner and there are shortcomings with available tools and methods to assist in the design of these systems. This paper outlines the generation and validation of a framework to guide this manufacturing system design process.

INFO2009 2012-13 Resource Group 28 Animation on Green IT

Animation on Green IT Container EdShare to be used to assemble resources developed by team for coursework 2. The metadata will be updated by the group, and description modified when the resource set has been completed. The resource has been set up with an instructional readme file. This will be replaced by each group with a new readme file. Each group needs to update this description. Further instructions in readme.txt

Collaborative Engineering Paradigm Applied to the Aerospace Industry

Airbus designs and industrializes aircrafts using Concurrent Engineering techniques since decades. The introduction of new PLM methods, procedures and tools, and the need to reduce time-to-market, led Airbus Military to pursue new working methods. Traditional Engineering works sequentially. Concurrent Engineering basically overlaps tasks between teams. Collaborative Engineering promotes teamwork to develop product, processes and resources from the conceptual phase to the start of the serial production. The CALIPSO-neo pilot project was launched to support the industrialization process of a medium size aerostructure. The aim is to implement the industrial Digital Mock-Up (iDMU) concept and its exploitation to create shop floor documentation. In a framework of a collaborative engineering strategy, the project is part of the efforts to deploy Digital Manufacturing as a key technology for the industrialization of aircraft assembly lines. This paper presents the context, the conceptual approach and the methodology adopted.

A novel algorithm of posture best fit based on key characteristics for large components assembly

Measurement and variation control of geometrical Key Characteristics (KCs), such as flatness and gap of joint faces, coaxiality of cabin sections, is the crucial issue in large components assembly from the aerospace industry. Aiming to control geometrical KCs and to attain the best fit of posture, an optimization algorithm based on KCs for large components assembly is proposed. This approach regards the posture best fit, which is a key activity in Measurement Aided Assembly (MAA), as a two-phase optimal problem. In the first phase, the global measurement coordinate system of digital model and shop floor is unified with minimum error based on singular value decomposition, and the current posture of components being assembly is optimally solved in terms of minimum variation of all reference points. In the second phase, the best posture of the movable component is optimally determined by minimizing multiple KCs' variation with the constraints that every KC respectively conforms to its product specification. The optimal models and the process procedures for these two-phase optimal problems based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) are proposed. In each model, every posture to be calculated is modeled as a 6 dimensional particle (three movement and three rotation parameters). Finally, an example that two cabin sections of satellite mainframe structure are being assembled is selected to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach, models and algorithms. The experiment result shows the approach is promising and will provide a foundation for further study and application. © 2013 The Authors.

Metrology enhanced tooling for aerospace (META):strategies for improved accuracy of jig built structures

The accuracy of many aerospace structures is limited by the accuracy of assembly tooling which is in turn limited by the accuracy of the measurements used to set the tooling. Further loss of accuracy results from different rates of thermal expansion for the components and tooling. This paper describes improved tooling designs and setting processes which have the potential to significantly improve the accuracy of aerospace structures. The most advanced solution described is environmentally isolated interferometer networks embedded within tooling combined with active compensation of component pick-ups. This would eliminate environmental effects on measurements while also allowing compensation for thermal expansion. A more immediately realizable solution is the adjustment of component pick-ups using micrometer jacking screws allowing multilateration to be employed during the final stages of the setting process to generate the required offsets. Copyright © 2011 SAE International.