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1 Introduction
Product development is the result of a network based collaborative design process, since most of
the projects, which are usually geographically distributed for the design of a new product, require
co-operation among expert groups with diverse competence.[Chryssolouris, 2006]. A
collaborative product design project is necessary to take into consideration issues related to the
users integration, organization and communication, as well as to product data sharing,
management and visualization. New and efficient paradigms of a web-based collaborative
product design, in a global economy, will be driven by increased outsourcing and the reduction
of product development time [Draghici et al., 2007]. These constitute the motivation for the
conceptualization of the proposed framework of an integrated web-based platform in support of
the collaborative design activities. This is a holistic solution, applying mainly to Small and
Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which cannot usually afford to integrate, in their processes,
sophisticated large-scale commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions for a collaborative product
design.
The CPD system serves as a multi-user real-time collaboration tool for supporting product
development activities and it could be used efficiently by designers, engineers, managers,
suppliers and customers. It enables single users and/or user groups to work in a collaborative
way, even if they are dispersed over different sites, without changing the existing design
environment. It provides the infrastructure necessary to make engineering teams efficient, by
improving their productivity, which results in decreasing considerably the time required for the
designing phase to be completed. The key contribution of this system is its architecture that
integrates the CAD/VR/AR environments, into a modular system, easy to use and manage. Some
of the benefits by using the system are:
Quick and easy product data storage and sharing through an easy to use web-based
content management platform.
Decision support for the evaluation of the alternative product designs / variants.
2 Background
A great number of Web-based systems have been developed for supporting collaborative
activities, in the different life-cycle phases of a products development. These include
marketing, design, process planning, production, distribution, service, etc. Distributed product
development life-cycle activities, in a globally integrated environment, are associated with the
use of internet as well as with web technologies. Some product development software systems
have been integrated, through web technologies, into web-based collaboration systems [Yang et
al., 2003]. Related to the web-based collaborative product design systems are: Immersive
Discussion Tool (IDT), cPAD [Shyamsundar et al., 2002], Detailed Virtual Design System
(DVDS) [Arangarasan et al., 2000], Virtual-based Collaborative Environment (VRCE) [Kan et
al., 2001], Web-enabled Product Data Management (PDM) [Xu et al., 2003]. Moreover, a few
commercial tools, such as the OneSpace.net [CoCreate, 2009], IBMs Product Lifecycle
Management (PLM) Express Portfolio, eDrawings Professional [Solidworks, 2009], Matrix10
[MatrixOne, 2009], are also available. However, the global market still lacks in collaboration
tools, capable of providing both Virtual Reality (VE) and Decision Making techniques with the
possibility of product design evaluation. Most collaborative tools are related more to a PLM
environment and less to shared Virtual Environments. Thus, the research work described in this
paper, has been focused on the development of a web-based platform for product collaborative
design, in full co-operation with an interactive and immersive VE to support the advanced
visualization of a product prototype, as well as to provide multi-user navigation and interaction
capabilities along with a smart decision support system for strengthening the products design
evaluation procedure.
Modeller, the Immersive Integrator, the Collaboration Manager, the Collaborative Prototype
Designer, the Factory Constructor and the Training Simulator have been integrated into a new
solution for collaborative digital manufacturing activities. These components support the teams
collaboration on the analysis of a product design, sharing information, evaluating testing results,
managing knowledge and making decisions concerning product development issues.
The CPD integrated platform consists of the following components, each one comprising several
modules. A detailed presentation of the CPDs components, modules and user workflow is
presented in the diagram below:
1. A Web-based Collaboration platform that supports brainstorming and a user friendly
communication and product data management. It also provides a 3D interactive
presentation of products, through an AR and/or VR-based product showrooms.
2. A Collaborative CAD module that enables distributed real-time co-design of the 3D
geometry models of the new product components.
3. A Virtual Reality module(s) that enables product design and assembly review within a
shared VR environment facilitating visualization and interaction with virtual prototypes
and alternative assembly sequences.
4. A Decision Support module that supports the evaluation of the alternative solutions,
based on a set of criteria in order for a final decision to be reached.
5.1
Authentication Module: This module provides security and blocks any unauthorised
access attempt into the system .Users should register first, prior to be assigned by the
platform administrator the proper rights and privileges of accessing the data and services
of the electronic collaborative environment.
Data Management Module: This module provides a shared working space, users roles
and access rights management. It also offers a mechanism for the automatic project file
versioning, thus providing the users with an easy way of keeping track of all recent
modifications made on product designs.
Authoring Module: This module enables the users to upload the new product models to
the companys online catalogue, so that product information can be made available to
customers. The user is able to explore the web based catalogue of the product and
interact with them in a 3D mode (VRML-based product presentation). The user has the
options to visualise the product in several 3D modes (standalone, AR, VR).
5.2
An 'in house' collaborative CAD tool (CoDesigner) has been developed to allow users
(product/part designers) to have real-time, on-line, concurrent CAD sessions. Users are provided
with a standard CAD functionality (e.g. design curves, surfaces, solids etc). Those participating
in the collaboration session will have the capability of concurrently viewing and modifying the
attributes of the geometry model, thus being provided with the ability to make real-design
changes and being able to create different design alternatives. The CAD files generated from
such a collaboration session can be saved in formats that can be exported to other CAD/VR/AR
systems. These formats currently are: STEP, IGES, BREP, STL, and VRML. The focus being
on the real-time collaboration capability, the CoDesigner has been providing so far, standard 3D
CAD functionality (compared to other world class tools). However, it has the potential to be
extended with additional geometric modelling features. It can be also integrated with other CAD
tools providing them with a multi-user collaboration functionality. The users participating in the
collaboration session share and work on a common CAD model therefore, the design changes
are populated in real-time to the model instances of all the participants. The CoDesigner consists
of the following modules:
CAD Kernel: The CAD kernel is based on the Open Cascade engine [Open CASCADE,
2009].
Application Framework: This module provides access to the CAD kernel functionality
and enables the management of the geometry model information.
Collaboration Broker: This module is based on the Apache Active MQ message broker.
Different CoDesigner application instances may communicate by subscribing and
publishing topics in the server.
5.3
The integration of a VR platform into the CPD allows users to create, share, review and
customize, in a collaborative way, the virtual prototype of the product. A commercial VR
platform [PTC DIVISION MockUp 2009] and a non-commercial 3D viewer [Vigano et al.,
2007], have been integrated into the CPD platform and have been tested with different design
review use cases. In the case of complex mechanical products, the VR platform allows users to
co-create the virtual prototype by importing the geometry models built during the collaborative
CAD session.
Additionally, users are able to navigate and interact into the virtual environment. Typical scene
building functions (e.g. lighting, add/remove geometry, colouring and material selection etc) are
provided. Moreover, the assembly design can take place in this frame along with product
performance evaluation. The users can collaboratively test/review design alternatives. The CPD
flexible and modular architecture will allow, in future, the integration with several other
commercial or research VR/AR tools that would fit better to the design review needs.
5.4
Evaluation Core: This module is responsible for the calculation of each alternatives
score. Its input is a list of alternative solutions, a list of criteria with their relative weight,
a list of evaluators and the scores of the evaluators for each alternative-criterion pair.
The output is a ranking of the alternatives, based on the calculated scores.
Data Source: This module handles the persistency of the domain data and is responsible
for the serialization of the data from XML format into memory data structures and vice
versa.
Application Manager: This module is responsible for managing the dataflow among the
data source, the external actors (such as end user's and other applications) and the
evaluation core. Additionally, it provides basic security/login functionality.
6 Conclusions
The CPD provides functionality for real-time collaboration, among geographically dispersed user
groups during product design, review, evaluation and demonstration. One of the systems major
benefits is the improvement of the design process, by enabling real-time collaboration and
communication among distributed design centres, besides providing multi-user navigation and
interaction capabilities through a shared virtual environment. The system also supports the
grouped decision making process consequently, decreasing the overall product development time
and cost. The CPD system, which mainly targets SMEs that usually cannot afford a commercial
solution, has been successfully tested in real-life industrial design use cases, for both mechanical
(e.g. laser machine) and non-mechanical (e.g. carpet) products.
Acknowledgement
The research work documented in this paper has been partially supported by the IST research project Digital
Factory for Human-Oriented Production System (DiFac), FP6-2005-IST-5-035079, funded by the EC within the
priority 2.5.9 Collaborative Working Environment (http://www.difac.net/).
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