Modern manufacturing organizations have to cope with several critical issues arising from the need for mass customization such as short product life-cycles, an increasing number of product variants and frequently changing customer requirements. One of the main factors that could aid overcoming those challenges is the use of information and communication technology (ICT) applications over a collaborative manufacturing environment, in which all stakeholders share and exchange knowledge across different manufacturing domains and applications. However, the use of ICT applications over a collaborative manufacturing environment is limited at the domain level by semantic conflicts arising from the use of different ways to describe the same objects and facts arising from different conceptualizations. Similarly, ICT usage is limited on the application level by interoperability problems arising from diverse heterogeneity between different ICT applications and tools.This research presents a semantic approach to support knowledge sharing within the assembly domain. More specifically, this research is focusing on capturing and sharing assembly design knowledge and integrating the assembly design domain and the Assembly Process Planning (APP) domain. Assembly design and APP are very important engineering domains for successful manufacturing system design, which requires an efficient collaborative environment for best utilization of the assembly resources. However, though these domains represent different perspectives in understanding of the same concepts, both domains use different software applications, which might cause interoperability issues.In this thesis, a novel integration approach has been proposed; this approach is composed of two stages: the first stage includes modelling and recognition of assembly knowledge semantics from SolidWorks (SW) CAD software by using SolidWorks’ Application Programmable Interface (SW-API). The second stage includes sharing the recognized assembly knowledge semantics by using a knowledge-based system in the form of a three-layer ontology architecture which provides a common semantic base to support knowledge sharing across assembly design and APP both on the domain and the application level. Each ontology layer shares a set of concepts from the most generic level to the most specialized level. The foundation ontology layer represents the general key concepts in the assembly design and APP domains. More specialized assembly design concepts and APP concepts are represented both in the domain ontology layer, and the application ontology layer. In the latter, concepts related to SolidWorks CAD software and to assembly robotic devices are represented.

Moderna tillverkande företag måste hantera flera utmaningar som uppstår när massproduktion och hög grad av kundanpassning kombineras, t.ex. kortare livscykler, ett ökande antal produktvarianter och ständigt förändrade kundbehov. Modern tillämpning av informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) kan erbjuda verktygsstöd som gör att olika intressenter i värdekedjan kan dela och utbyta kunskap på ett mer systematiskt sätt. Användningen av IKT-tillämpningar över en samverkande produkt- och produktionsutvecklingsmiljö är dock idag begränsad eftersom produkter, produktionsutrustningar och dess egenskaper modelleras, beskrivs och kommuniceras på olika sätt i olika delar av värdekedjan, t ex i produktutveckling respektive utveckling av monteringssystem. På liknande sätt uppstår kompatibilitetsproblem mellan de olika datorbaserade stödsystem som används.I denna avhandling presenteras en metod för att stödja semantisk kunskapsdelning mellan produktutveckling och utveckling av monteringssystem. Mer specifikt fokuserar forskningen på att fånga och dela kunskap mellan produktutveckling och modellering/planering av tillhörande monteringssystem och processer. Produktutveckling med tydlig hänsyn till monteringsaspekter och motsvarande planering av monteringsprocesser är viktiga områden för framgångsrik realisering av produkter och produktionssystem där både utvecklings- och produktionsresurser utnyttjas på ett effektivt sätt.I avhandlingen föreslås en ny datorbaserad metod för integration av produkt- och produktionssystemutveckling. Denna metod består av två steg där det första steget innefattar identifiering och semantisk modellering av den produkt- och komponentinformation som är relevant för montering, direkt från SolidWorks CAD-programvara genom att använda SolidWorks gränssnitt för applikationsprogrammering. Det andra steget innebär att den modellerade monteringsrelaterade produktkunskapen delas med hjälp en utvecklad hierarkisk ontologistruktur (kunskapsbaserat system i tre nivåer). Kunskapssystemet erbjuder en gemensam bas för kunskapsdelning mellan produktutveckling och produktionsutveckling, såväl på domännivå som på verktygsnivå. Respektive hierarkisk nivå i ontologin delar en uppsättning koncept och begrepp. Från den mest generella nivån till den mest specialiserade nivå förfinas dessa koncept och begrepp till alltmer detaljerad information. Den översta nivån representerar de mest generella koncepten inom CAD respektive monteringssystem. Specialisering av dessa koncept och begrepp återfinns på domän och applikationsnivån. På den lägsta nivån (applikationsnivån) återfinns koncept och begrepp relaterade direkt till SolidWorks CAD-modeller och till modeller av produktionsutrusning.En fallstudie verifierar att den implementerade metodiken stöder kunskapsdelningen mellan produktutveckling och utveckling produktionssystem med tillhörande monteringsprocesser.

This paper describes a novel approach to recognize product features, which are significant for Assembly Process Planning (APP). The work presented in this paper is a part of a larger effort to develop methods and tools for a more automated and bidirectional link between product CAD and the different processes and resources applied in APP. APP is the phase, in which the required assembly processes and resources are determined in order to convert a product to fully assembled or semi-assembled product. Product features will be extracted from the SolidWorks (SW) CAD file using SW- Application Programming Interface (API). SW-API is an interface that allows the exchange of data between CAD design and different software applications. The work includes automatic recognition for assembly knowledge, geometry and non-geometry knowledge (dimensions, geometrical tolerances, and kinematic constraints) in assembly design, which are relevant for assembly process and resources. Recognition algorithms have been developed by using visual basic. Net (VB.net). A case-study example is included for illustration of the proposed approach.

This paper describes a novel approach to recognize and model assembly semantic knowledge enclosed in product assembly features. The proposed approach is based on two stages: assembly semantic recognition and assembly semantic modelling. In the first stage, the internal boundary representation (B-rep) recognition method is utilized to extract assembly semantic knowledge from assembly CAD models using SolidWorks' API functions. In the second stage, a multi-level semantic assembly model is generated. The proposed assembly semantic model is characterized by separating geometrical semantic data represented by form features (basic geometrical and topological entities such as holes, slots, notches etc.) from assembly features (features significant for assembly processes such as mating, alignment, handling, joining etc.). Another characteristic for of the proposed approach is the ability to generate application-specific features based on the extracted geometrical, dimensional and positional semantic data from the assembly design. The generated application specific features will be used to integrate assembly design knowledge to the required assembly processes and resources in the assembly process planning (APP) in product life-cycle. A case-study example is included for illustration of the proposed approach. The work is part of the research within the Evolvable Production Systems paradigm and aims at linking product features to production equipment modules.

The aim of this paper is to facilitate the transfer of product data semantics from Computer Aided Design (CAD) program to assembly process planning (APP) in product life-cycle. In this paper, an approach to capture, share and transfer assembly design semantic data from SolidWorks (SW) CAD software to assembly device (robot Sony SRX series) is proposed. The proposed approach is based, on its first stage, on defining and extracting assembly design semantics from a CAD model using SolidWorks Application Programmable Interface (SW-API). The second stage of the proposed approach includes sharing and integrating the extracted assembly design semantics with assembly robot device by using three-layer ontology structure. In this layered ontology, different types of ontologies are proposed for each layer: general foundation ontology for the first, domain ontologies for the second and application ontology for the third. Each of these layers aids in defining concepts, relations and properties in assembly design domain and APP domain. Ultimately, the proposed ontology will be used to integrate both domains in product-life cycle.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a proposed methodology to extend the evolvable assembly system (EAS) paradigm for product design by utilizing assembly features in a product. In this paper, assembly features are used to bridge the gap between product design and assembly process by matching features of a part in an assembly to operations of a process in the EAS ontology. This can be achieved by defining and extracting a new set of assembly features called process features, which are features significant to specific and well-defined assembly operations. The extracted assembly features are represented in a proposed model based on product topology. A case-study example is conducted to illustrate the new methodology. A process-feature ontology is proposed as well in order to match the assembly requirements represented by process features with the available processes and skills in the EAS ontology so that adaptation of the production system can be achieved.

A self-reconfigurable robot is a robot built from potentially many modules which are connected to form the robot. Each module has sensors, actuators, processing power, and means of communicating with connected modules. The robot autonomously changes shape by changing the way these modules are connected. Self-reconfigurable robots have a high degree of robustness, versatility, scale extensibility, and adaptability. This makes these robotic systems interesting to study. Since the late 1980’s, many systems of self-reconfigurable robots have been developed. This report gives a survey of many of these projects, and discusses several interesting features and capabilities of the robotic modules and structures. An overview of each robot system is presented, highlighting the most interesting aspects of the system. Following the survey of the various robot projects, a general discussion of self-reconfigurable robots is given, summarizing the main features and concerns of physical characteristics of self-reconfigurable robots and their modules, mechanisms of locomotion and reconfiguration, capabilities and applications of self-reconfigurable robots, and challenges for self-reconfigurable robot research.