Trends like IoT, digitalization and Industry 4.0 are bringing several opportunities as well as lot of challenges for the manufacturing industry particularly SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises). One of the possible ways to deal with some of the challenges, such as reducing time-to-market and dealing with market uncertainties, is to improve the New Product Development Process (NPDP). This in turn needs a holistic approach to address both technological and non-technological aspects simultaneously. The research presented in this article investigates the factors and their dependencies which can accelerate or decelerate NPDP. The findings are based on empirical studies from two Swedish manufacturing companies. The data is obtained for the projects related to digitalization and connectivity as well as traditional product offerings by the case companies during the last 10 years. From managerial perspective the work provides guidelines as a basis for improving NPDP in an organization for attaining sustainable competitive advantage in the adoption of new trends.

Virtual and augmented reality is increasingly prevalent in industrial applications, such as remote control of industrial machinery,due to recent advances in head-mounted display technologies and low-latency communications via 5G. However, theinfluence of augmentations and camera placement-based viewing positions on operator performance in telepresence systemsremains unknown. In this paper, we investigate the joint effects of depth-aiding augmentations and viewing positionson the quality of experience for operators in augmented telepresence systems. A study was conducted with 27 non-expertparticipants using a real-time augmented telepresence system to perform a remote-controlled navigation and positioningtask, with varied depth-aiding augmentations and viewing positions. The resulting quality of experience was analyzed viaLikert opinion scales, task performance measurements, and simulator sickness evaluation. Results suggest that reducing thereliance on stereoscopic depth perception via camera placement has a significant benefit to operator performance and qualityof experience. Conversely, the depth-aiding augmentations can partly mitigate the negative effects of inferior viewingpositions. However the viewing-position based monoscopic and stereoscopic depth cues tend to dominate over cues basedon augmentations. There is also a discrepancy between the participants’ subjective opinions on augmentation helpfulness,and its observed effects on positioning task performance.

In this article, we have investigated a VR simulator of a forestry crane used for loading logs onto a truck. We have mainly studied the Quality of Experience (QoE) aspects that may be relevant for task completion, and whether there are any discomfort related symptoms experienced during the task execution. QoE experiments were designed to capture the general subjective experience of using the simulator, and to study task performance. The focus was to study the effects of latency on the subjective experience, with regards to delays in the crane control interface. Subjective studies were performed with controlled delays added to the display update and hand controller (joystick) signals. The added delays ranged from 0 to 30 ms for the display update, and from 0 to 800 ms for the hand controller. We found a strong effect on latency in the display update and a significant negative effect for 800 ms added delay on latency in the hand controller (in total approx. 880 ms latency including the system delay). The Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) gave significantly higher scores after the experiment compared to before the experiment, but a majority of the participants reported experiencing only minor symptoms. Some test subjects ceased the test before finishing due to their symptoms, particularly due to the added latency in the display update.

In this study, we investigate a VR simulator of a forestry crane used for loading logs onto a truck, mainly looking at Quality of Experience (QoE) aspects that may be relevant for task completion, but also whether there are any discomfort related symptoms experienced during task execution. A QoE test has been designed to capture both the general subjective experience of using the simulator and to study task performance. Moreover, a specific focus has been to study the effects of latency on the subjective experience, with regards to delays in the crane control interface. A formal subjective study has been performed where we have added controlled delays to the hand controller (joystick) signals. The added delays ranged from 0 ms to 800 ms. We found no significant effects of delays on the task performance on any scales up to 200 ms. A significant negative effect was found for 800 ms added delay. The Symptoms reported in the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) was significantly higher for all the symptom groups, but a majority of the participants reported only slight symptoms. Two out of thirty test persons stopped the test before finishing due to their symptoms. 

In this paper, we investigate how different viewing positions affect a user's Quality of Experience (QoE) and performance in an immersive telepresence system. A QoE experiment has been conducted with 27 participants to assess the general subjective experience and the performance of remotely operating a toy excavator. Two view positions have been tested, an overhead and a ground-level view, respectively, which encourage reliance on stereoscopic depth cues to different extents for accurate operation. Results demonstrate a significant difference between ground and overhead views: the ground view increased the perceived difficulty of the task, whereas the overhead view increased the perceived accomplishment as well as the objective performance of the task. The perceived helpfulness of the overhead view was also significant according to the participants. 

EAST-ADL is a domain specific Architecture Description Language (ADL) for safety-critical and software-intensive embedded systems. The language allows a formalized and traceable description of a wide range of engineering concerns throughout the entire lifecycle of system development. This makes it possible to fully utilize the leverage of state-of-the-art methods and tools for the development of correct-by-construction system functions and components in a seamless and cost efficient way. This paper focuses on the recent advancement of EAST-ADL in supporting an architecture-centric analysis, verification&validation of complex behaviors for the purposes of requirements engineering, application design, and safety engineering. The approach is architecture centric because all behavior descriptions are formalized and connected to a set of standardized design artifacts sitting at multiple levels of abstractions. We present the language design to support this, the theoretical underpinning and tool implementation. To show the capability of EAST-ADL, we also introduce an algorithm and its implementation for transforming the EAST-ADL behavior models to SPIN models for logic model checking. Exploiting mature state-of-the-art technologies from computer science, electronic engineering, and other related domains for a model-based incremental system development, the contribution enables the developers of embedded systems and software to maintain various engineering concerns coherently using EAST-ADL.

The increasing development complexity of automotive embedded systems has led to industrial needs of improved information management, early verification and validation of a system etc. EAST-ADL; an automotive-specific architectural description language provides a structured model-based approach for information management throughout the development process. A method to formally analyze consistency of EAST-ADL based timing constraint specifications using timed-automata is presented. A mapping scheme providing a basis for automated model-transformations between EAST-ADL and timed-automata is the main contribution. The method is demonstrated with a case study of a brake-by-wire system. Guidelines for extending the mapping framework are also provided.

The increasing complexity of embedded systems has led to a multitude of efforts in the direction of component and model-based development. The use of formalized (or semi-formal) system descriptions enable (early) analysis and synthesis, reuse and also support structured information management. Several challenges however face industrial adoption. One of the challenges is the gap between models describing system requirements, functions and architecture at a higher level of abstraction (such as SysML), withrespect to software/hardware architecture description languages (such as the AADL and the means forsystem description provided by AUTOSAR). The presented work addresses the gap between EAST-ADL and AUTOSAR. EAST-ADL is an architecture description language which provides an extension and profiling of SysML dedicated to automotive embedded systems. AUTOSAR provides means to describesoftware and hardware based architectures.

The contributions include a mapping between different concepts in the two languages along with possible variation points, identification of both existing and required tool features and methodological aspects by considering a specific tool chain. A discussion on the possible decision support is also a part of the outcomes of the presented work. Two case studies, i.e. a position control and a fuel control system, havebeen used to support the work, and a third case study of a brake-by-wire system has been used to validate the results. The findings provide a basis for automated refinement of EAST-ADL based architecture models to AUTOSAR configurations.