***Conference Report - Global Virtual Manufacturing, Detroit
by Jonathan Sunberg
On March 19-20th, 4th WAVE's (WAVE's parent company) president, Dr.
John spoke at the first Global Virtual Manufacturing conference in
Detroit, MI. The conference, co-sponsored by EDS and VR News with
cooperation from SGI and The Engineering Society, lived up to its claim
of being a precedent-setting conference on the use of virtual reality
and related technologies to stimulate prototyping and the rest of the
manufacturing process.
The first day comprised of speeches and floor exhibits, while the
second day contained small, classroom type workshops, where attendees
could learn more about where VR and manufacturing is being utilized
today. Exhibits were also showcased on the second day.
Speakers
Copies of Dr. Orr and the rest of the speakers can be found at:
www.vrnews.com
Dr. Latta's speech can be found at:
www.fourthwave.com/VM-Final/index.html
Mayor of Detroit - Honorable Dennis W. Archer
The conference began with words of hope and a bright future for Detroit
and the manufacturing community, when the Mayor of Detroit, the
Honorable Dennis W. Archer gave a more than optimistic glance of where
he sees Detroit in the upcoming century. As the Mayor put it "VR and
Manufacturing could create the second Industrial Revolution."
Dr. Joel N. Orr - Keynote
Dr. Orr, head of Orr Associates International, a consulting firm in the
area of advanced manufacturing and engineering automation, reiterated
Mayor Archer's sentiments on the upcoming 2nd Industrial Revolution.
But also stated that GVM represented the "point where VR becomes an
actual tool rather than a novelty in manufacturing." Dr. Orr continued
by reminding the audience of the rapid evolution of technology, thus
concluding that if they do not attempt Virtual Manufacturing soon they
could be left in the dust.
Dr. David K Kahaner - Asian Perspective
Dr. Kahaner, founder and Director of ATIP, a US nonprofit organization,
which deals with advanced technologies throughout Asia, gave the
Japan/Asia perspective of Virtual Manufacturing. Unfortunately due to
time constraints his talk was primarily about Japan.
Dr. Kahaner described Asian Virtual Manufacturing occurring primarily
within research and development in the universities. He feels that it
is being led by the government with a large cash flow going into
institutions and labs, but no commercial elements have yet to be
created other than art and games. Dr. Kahaner named four Japanese
professors and one commercial researcher as the primary experts in this
field:
Susumu Tachi (University of Tokyo)
Michitaka Hirose (University of Tokyo)
Hiroo Iwata (University of Tsukuba)
Tohru Ifukube (Hokkaido University)
Junji Nomura (Matsushita Inc.)
Mr. Gary Eves - European Perspective
Mr. Eves works at Pera International's Reality Centre, one of the
world's most advanced virtual reality demonstration and development
facilities located in the UK.
Like Dr. Kahaner and Dr. Latta, following him, Mr. Eves felt that the
big named companies were the ones using VR Software, but he felt that
it was the smaller companies pushing the products. Mr. Eves went on to
explain that nearly every European aerospace and automobile company is
currently using VR software programs. He broke down the European
Virtual Manufacturing segment into five countries and named a few of
the players for each;
UK- Division, Superscape, VRS, Pera, Datapath, CADCentre
Germany - Fraunhoffer Research Institute
France - Arscimed, Corys, INRIA
Italy - a few small companies making high quality products
Sweden - Clarus, Media 2000 Networks
Dr. John N. Latta - North American Perspective
If you are a frequent reader of WAVE, you should be very familiar with
Dr. Latta and his style of analysis. Nothing changed, as he gave more
stats, slides, and analysis that one could bat an eye at. To view these
slides go to www.fourthwave.com.
In a snapshot Dr. Latta dissected the Virtual Manufacturing market into
three areas: Products, Research, and Institutions. In each section he
gave numerous examples of applications and descriptions of what is
occurring in each area. After a rather fast synopsis of the three
categories he then described key major developments for some major US
companies that have used Virtual Manufacturing, these included; Boeing,
McDonnell Douglass, Caterpillar, John Deere, Chrysler, Ford Motor
Company, and General Motors. Finally he wrapped up his talk by
describing what he sees as a need for a so-called rebel within the
company to take Virtual Manufacturing in and spread it throughout the
company without letting antiquated management beliefs spoil it.
Otherwise Dr. Latta feels Virtual Manufacturing cannot catch on without
such a catalyst. But, he does feel it will catch on and gave the market
figures to prove it:
Virtual Manufacturing
1997 - $570.0 Million
1998 - $684.0 Million
1999 - $991.0 Million
2000 - $1,586.9 Million
Workshops
On the second day, the conference was broken up into five 1 1/2 hour
workshops, with each attendee able to attend four.
TEAM - Technologies Enabling Agile Manufacturing
TEAM is a collaboration between five DOE labs and plants, 50 + industry
members, industry consortia, academia, and other government agencies.
Both Richard Neal and Bob Burleson spoke on behalf of TEAM. They each
explained TEAMs goal of addressing manufacturing as a total
collaborative system over network environments.
TEAM's ultimate goal is to deliver an integrated set of tools enabling
integrated product realization through commercial vendors by the year
2000. They set up the following criteria for the tools; they must be
affordable, easy-to-use, validated, modular and plug and play
compatible.
In September TEAM is planning a demonstration which will highlight:
1. Forming Process Models
2. Inspection Criteria for Tooling
3. Closed Loop Control of Press
4. Designer/Mftg. Interaction
To learn more about team email: team@ornl.gov
cewww.eng.ornl.gov:/team/home.html
Conceptual Virtual Design
The I-CARVE Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is currently
developing COVIRDS, a system for conceptual shape design of products or
components using virtual reality technologies. Professor Rajit Gadh
along with 3 of his students demonstrated the work that they are doing.
An interesting aspect of this workshop was the work that Prof. Gadh and
his students are doing with hand and speech input into design and
development. By using haptic controls (i.e. Cyberglove) the user was
able to move and alter the design within the constraints he had placed
in the program. But the user could also use speech to alter the design
and move parts, making the interaction flow smoothly and much more
effectively. Prof. Gadh explained that once the user was comfortable
with this way of working, design time was greatly reduced.
By using haptic tools, the lab also discovered they could incorporate
attributes like weight, global constraints, sharp edges, thermal
fluctuations, and conductivity to the design process.
icarve.me.wisc.edu/groups/virtual
Converting CAD Models into Virtual Prototypes
The Iowa Center for Emerging Manufacturing Technology or ICEMT is one
of the leading VR research institutions in the US. Dr. James Oliver,
professor at Iowa State University, explained the center and its
mission. The center, which consists of 15 faculty members and 75
graduate students, emphasizes scientific and engineering applications
for synthetic environments. Their goal is to take off-the-shelf
equipment and apply it to real-world applications. Currently the
center's pride and joy is its 12x12 foot C2. The C2 is a CAVE
environment with three walls and a floor. If you are unfamiliar with a
CAVE, it is a completely immersive virtual reality environment.
Dr. Oliver did not gloat too much about his center's prowess, but did
get into his thoughts on Virtual Prototyping. He feels that there are
three main applications that Virtual Prototyping will complement. They
are:
1. Ergonomics, for visibility and reach assessment
2. Analysis Interpretation (i.e. Thermal Flows)
3. Real-time, human-in-the-loop systems (human factor studies and
performance assessment)
Dr. Oliver, though, also pointed out Virtual Prototyping's challenges
with frame rate being the most important, followed by latency, tracker
resolution and accuracy, registration, physically-based behavior, and
haptics.
www.icemt.iastate.edu
Virtual Component Sourcing
Prof. Pat Banarjee and his two students held this workshop from the
University of Illinois, Chicago College of Engineering. They are
investigating the use of VRML to represent engineering parts in
Internet-accessible supplier catalogs. Using a web browser they
demonstrated how they could select and view - stereoscopically if
necessary - 3D models of components and subassemblies.
Unfortunately the workshop really did not delve into any uses for this
type of catalog other than as a depository to look at images and find
out their dimensions and characteristics. Therefore I surmised my own
thoughts on possible uses for the application. I wondered out loud, if
a user might be able to actually pull the part out of the page and
place it into his own CAD model to see if it would work effectively in
his model. Or maybe it could work the other way with one taking a part
from his own CAD model and seeing if it would integrate into the HTML.
They said that is interesting and something they would think about.
www_ivri.me.uic.edu
Virtual Factories
Unfortunately WAVE was unable to make every workshop, thus we missed
Virtual Factories. But we have included a short description from the
GVM program.
A team led by Prof. Dana S. Nau at the Institute for Systems Research
is developing an integrated virtual manufacturing tool kit for design,
planning, and partner selection in the manufacture of complex
electromechanical assemblies. The project is a cooperative venture with
several industrial companies and government agencies, and its purpose
is to aid competitiveness by providing ways to rapidly assess the cost,
performance, and time to market of proposed designs. The resulting
system will provide feedback on design performance, manufacturability,
and production alternatives, taking into account the capabilities of
potential partners.
Exhibitors
AESOP
AESOP showcased SiMPLE++, software for object-oriented, graphical and
integrated modeling, simulation and animation of systems and business
processes. SiMPLE supports all UNIX workstations and Win95 and NT.
www.aesop-us.com
Bentley
Bentley showcased MicroStation MasterPiece V5.6. MasterPiece is an
advanced engineering visualization tool for PC, Mac, and UNIX. It
utilizes ray tracing and animation to let the user create
photorealistic images, walk-through and object animations, and process
or mechanical simulations.
MasterPieces features include rendering, lighting, various view
controls, animation controls, texture mapping, and fully integrated
modeling.
www.bentley.com
Deneb Robotics
Deneb Robotics highlighted its exhibit with its eight core products;
IGRIP, the 3D simulation based tool for designing and evaluation and
off-line programming robotic workcells; QUEST, the Queuing Event
Simulation Tool; ENVISION, the 3D simulation based tool for virtual
prototyping and ergonomic analysis; VirtualNC, the 3D simulation based
tool for machine tool functionality; UltraArc, for robotic arc welding
applications, UltraSpot, for robotic spot welding applications;
UltraPaint, for robotic painting application, and UltraFinish for
robotic painting applications.
www.deneb.com
Division
Division showed off all of its dVISE products, which comprise of
dV/Pilot, dV/Player, dV/Review, dV/MockUp, and dV/Reality. All of
Division software supports UNIX and Win NT.
www.division.com
Engineering Animation Inc.
Engineering Animation Inc. (EAI) showcased its Vis Product line. These
3D visualization software products are built to allow complete
visualization throughout the entire product assembly with fly -through
control and mock-up capabilities.
EAI did make a major announcement the day before the conference. Along
with Sense8 Corporation, EAI has agreed to collaborate EAI's cost
effective Vis products with Sense8's 3D/VR expertise to allow customers
to model complex behavioral characteristics into their CAD data and 3D
models and immersively interact with designs.
Sense8's products include WorldToolKit, a 3D/VR development tool, and
World Up, and easy to use 3D/VR development tool for less technical
users.
www.eai.com
www.sense8.com
EDS
EDS showcased a very impressive exhibit, portraying a complete digital
manufacturing process. The exhibit took attendees from the first steps
of the design process of a public bus to be used in the streets of
Detroit, showcasing a demo drawing on Input Technologies VisionMaker
PS, to actually creating the final clay prototype. Each step after the
initial design process up to the actual prototype production was
created through Division's dVISE software.
The exhibit was used not only to showcase EDS's capabilities, but also
to exemplify the benefits of visiting their new Virtual Reality Center
in Detroit.
www.eds.com
www.vrinstitute.com
Hewlett Packard
HP featured its own version of a 3D viewer. The HP Shared 3D Viewer is
used for viewing and annotating 3D CAD Models and 3D Model
conferencing. The user can rotate, move and zoom 3D models, browse
product structure information, highlight part structures, print model
views, and set personal preferences. One can also, point at specific
locations in 3D space, mark a 3D area, measure distances in 3D space,
and add text comments.
The major factor that separates this software from most 3D viewers is
its conferencing capabilities. HP Shared 3D Viewer offers session
management, a dynamic list of participants, password protection for
shared sessions, automatic data delivery, personal and shared camera
control, and the ability for users to join and leave conferences at any
time. The software is currently available for most workstation
platforms.
www.hp.com or e-mail: enterprise_info@hp.com
ICEMT
This research center actually was not showcasing any commercial
products, but instead some projects that they are currently working on.
Their main exhibit feature was a complete front seat driver simulator.
One was able to actually drive a virtual car in the drivers seat and
feel torque against the steering wheel and brake and gas peddles as
he/she manipulated the roads on the screen in front of him. A very
realistic showcase. The visual imagery was delivered through the
driver's head-mounted-display.
This exhibit showcased just one of many research projects occurring in
the area of virtual reality at Iowa State University.
www.icemt.iastate.edu
Input Technologies
One of the most impressive products showcased at GVM was VisionMaker
PS. This electronic drawing table allows users to draw in a completely
natural way. The pressure sensitive cordless pen allows for extreme
cursor accuracy and broad sweeping strokes. The desk is also foldable
for easy storing. It currently supports SGI, Sun, PC, and Mac. This is
one is a designers dream, but its current price is about $60,000.
Toronto, Ontario (416) 778-8990
Multigen
Multigen exhibited SmartScene, a real-time immersive 3D assembly
product line. With SmartScene users are immersed in a 3D visual
workspace that takes advantage of natural hand-eye coordination, making
the 3D scene assembly process more intuitive and creative.
SmartScene features a two-handed pinch glove interface, a 3D visual
browser and widget toolset, ModelTime Behaviors for Models, Smartkits
and SmartPallettes for a variety of models and parts, and optimization
for real-time modeling.
www.multigen.com
Pyramid Systems
Pyramid Systems showcased the ImmersaDesk. The ImmersaDesk is a semi-
immersive, projection-based system featuring a 4x5 rear projected, 4.5"
angled screen. It allows the user to look down and forward experiencing
both bird's eye view and elevation views.
Pyramid tries to show the benefit of ImmersaDesk's portability, but
being as large as a projection TV shows limitations in this thought.
Though compared to a CAVE, it will save space and money, but won't give
you the full immersive experience that CAVE's grant. Pyramid also
offers CAVE environments.
www.pyramidsystems.com
SDRC
I-DEAS Master Series an integrated mechanical CAE/CAD/CAM software
systems was being showcased by SDRC. This software package coupled with
their product data management solution allows for a concurrent
engineering approach to product development.
The software suite comes with eight open architecture programs; I-DEAS
Master Modeler for precision modeling systems, I-DEAS Master Surfacing
for surface modeling, I-DEAS Master Assembly for digital mock-up, I-
DEAS Simulation for structural optimization, I-DEAS Generative
Machining for single system manufacturing, planning, and tooling, I-
DEAS Drafting for detailed production mechanical drawings, I-DEAS Test
for defining product specifications and guidelines, and I-DEAS Team
Data Manager for product data management.
www.sdrc.com
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics workstations were the primary machines being used at
the conference. The company also showcased their SiliconWorks Solution
Centers. These centers; Worldwide Automotive Solution Center -
Farmington Hills, MI, Worldwide Aerospace Solution Center - Mountain
View, CA, and SiliconWorks Solution Center - Boston, Mass., each
utilize industry collaboration along with SGI knowledge and technology,
to collaborate various platforms and people to the manufacturing
process.
The technologies that these centers highlight include:
Web-based collaboration, rapid prototyping, digital/VR prototyping,
simulation-based design, video-conferencing, metal forming, and
CAD/CAE.
www.sgi.com
Tecoplan Informatik Inc.
Tecoplan gave an overview of their Virtual Workshop. This program
system identifies mistakes and problems in the assembly of components
designed using CAD at an early stage. Within the system, objects are
quickly and completely checked in 3D. Parts are also fit checked and
assembly checked.
Virtual Workshop which operates on UNIX machines consists of five
modules; BASE for data compression, visualizing, fit determination;
ENHANCED for investigating moving parts, G-SEARCH for geometric
components searches and 3D relations; D-SPACE for design space and
determination for construction space; and an API for a program library.
www.tecoinf.de
Wave Issue 9706 3/28/97 Article 7-01