International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems - Volume 9, issue 2

Authors: Zha, Xuan F.

Article Type: Editorial

DOI: 10.3233/KES-2005-9201

Citation: International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 43-44, 2005

Authors: Yip, Daniel C.Y. | Law, M.C. | Cheng, K.P. | Lau, K.H. | Barnes, Stuart

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Use of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) for design validation in a product development cycle has been pursued as a state-of-the-art strategy to compete in the global competition. However, the combined use of CAD and CAE is still impractical to solve non-linear design problems that are multi-disciplinary in nature, even allowing for the speed offered by the advancement of computer computation. In order to bridge the gap for the full deployment of a computer aided/virtual design alternative, a methodology that involves the combined use of CAE and Artificial intelligent (AI)/knowledge intensive approach is proposed. Starting with a breakdown of attributes of …a design task, a number of potential artificial intelligent algorithms are screened. Followed by a subsequent training schema, the most suitable AI algorithm is then selected. After the crystallization of the final knowledge database, the application can then be deployed into modules for subsequent or further new applications. The proposed model was illustrated with a case study for the design of a plastic toaster cover with respect to a heat test. Show more

Keywords: data mining, KIC, design validation

DOI: 10.3233/KES-2005-9202

Citation: International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 45-61, 2005

Authors: Huang, Chun-Che | Tseng, Tzu-Laing (Bill) | Gung, Roger R. | Chang, Hsuan-shao

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In today's global world, manufacturers are facing many challenges such as product design with distributed and collaborative workflows. Complexity in collaborative product design arises from the need to synthesize different perspectives of a problem. Specifically, dependency identification of the product design process, as well as integration and sharing of computing application among the design teams that are critical for efficiency of manufacturability. Web services are considered to be the key to collaborative product design through the Internet. Web services alone are passive whereas agents can provide alerts and updates when new information becomes available. In this paper, an agent-based Web …services architecture is proposed and applied to augment manufacturability. Not only the agent-based Web services architecture makes system interoperation feasible, but also increases the efficiency of the distributed collaboration. Show more

Keywords: web services, agent technology, dependency identification, product design, manufacturability

DOI: 10.3233/KES-2005-9203

Citation: International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 63-79, 2005

Authors: Manns, Martin | Tönshoff, Hans Kurt

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Production lines are often planned with very demanding time constraints. The offer phase commonly lasts only few days. It comprises conceptual work, layout planning, calculation and writing of the offer. Today, elaborated tools like material-flow simulation, which analyze the layout's quality, are rarely used in the offer phase, because they require much modeling time. Others are not applied due to strong restrictions or high abstraction level. In this paper, a neuro-fuzzy based approximation approach to forecast material-flow behavior in the offer phase is proposed. Within this approach, a neuro-fuzzy system maps material-flow simulation input parameters on performance measures. It is …trained with results of multiple simulations using a model of the production line. Four different function approximation systems – CANFIS, NefPROX, Fuzzy Graph Construction and Adaptive Logic Networks – are tested. Results are compared to simple analytic forecast tools that are common in industry. The approximation approach yields results comparable to the analytic approach. Furthermore, it is able to learn behavior of production lines, which does not follow the analytic approach's model restrictions. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/KES-2005-9204

Citation: International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 81-92, 2005

Authors: Wu, Tong (Teresa) | Blackhurst, Jennifer

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The concept of an integrated or synthesized supply chain is a strategy for managing today's globalized and customer driven supply chains in order to better meet customer demands. Synthesizing individual entities into an integrated supply chain can be a challenging task due to a variety of factors including conflicting objectives, mismatched incentives and constraints of the individual entities. Furthermore, understanding the effects of disruptions occurring at any point in the system is difficult when working toward synthesizing supply chain operations. Therefore, the goal of this research is to present a modeling methodology to manage the synthesis of a supply chain …by linking hierarchical levels of the system and to model and analyze disruptions in the integrated supply chain. The contribution of this research is fourfold: (1) supply chain systems can be modeled hierarchically, (2) the performance of synthesized supply chain system can be evaluated quantitatively, (3) reachability analysis is used to evaluate the system performance and verify whether a specific state is reachable, allowing the user to understand the extent of effects of a disruption and, (4) an industry case is presented to empirically validate the proposed methodology. Show more

Keywords: supply chain synthesis, supply chain disruptions, petri net, hierarchical model

DOI: 10.3233/KES-2005-9205

Citation: International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 93-105, 2005

Authors: Kulvatunyou, Boonserm (Serm) | Cho, Hyunbo | Son, Young Jun

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: As markets become unexpectedly turbulent with a shortened product life cycle and a power shift towards buyers, the need for methods to develop products, production facilities, and supporting software rapidly and cost-effectively is becoming urgent. The use of a loosely integrated virtual enterprise based framework holds the potential of surviving changing market needs. However, its success requires reliable and large-scale interoperation among trading partners via a semantic web of trading partners' services whose properties, capabilities, and interfaces are encoded in an unambiguous as well as computer-understandable form. This paper demonstrates a promising approach to integration and interoperation between a design …house and a manufacturer that may or may not have prior relationship by developing semantic web services for business and engineering transactions. To this end, detailed activity and information flow diagrams are developed, in which the two trading partners exchange messages and documents. The properties and capabilities of the manufacturer sites are defined using DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) ontology definition language. The prototype development of semantic webs shows that enterprises can interoperate widely in an unambiguous and autonomous manner. This contributes towards the realization of virtual enterprises at a low cost. Show more

Keywords: semantic web, distributed planning and manufacturing, DAML ontology, virtual enterprise, distributed manufacturing, DAML

DOI: 10.3233/KES-2005-9206

Citation: International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 107-127, 2005

Authors: Ho, William | Ji, Ping

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: A chip shooter machine for electronic components assembly has a movable feeder carrier holding components, a movable X-Y table carrying a printed circuit board (PCB), and a rotary turret having multiple assembly heads. This paper presents a hybrid genetic algorithm to optimize the sequence of component placements for a chip shooter machine. The objective of the problem is to minimize the total traveling distance of the X-Y table or the board. The genetic algorithm developed in the paper hybridizes the nearest neighbor heuristic, and an iterated swap procedure, which is a new improved heuristic. We have compared the performance of …the hybrid genetic algorithm with that of the approach proposed by other researchers and have demonstrated our algorithm is superior in terms of the distance traveled by the X-Y table or the board. Show more

Keywords: printed circuit board assembly, component placement sequencing, chip shooter machines, heuristics, genetic algorithms

DOI: 10.3233/KES-2005-9207

Citation: International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 129-136, 2005

Authors: Liu, Chengliang | Zha, Xuan F. | Miao, Yubin | Lee, Jay

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: E-Products, e-Manufacturing and e-Service are the goals of an enterprise to achieve. To achieve these goals, smart software and NetWare are needed to provide proactive maintenance capabilities such as performance degradation measurement, fault recovery, self-maintenance, and remote diagnostics. This paper reports the preliminary development of an Internet server controller based intelligent maintenance system for information appliance products (consumer appliances). The discussion also involves on how to develop products and manufacturing systems using Internet-based intelligent technologies and how to ensure product quality, coordinate activities, reduce costs and change maintenance practice from the breakdown reaction to prevention. In the paper, a hybrid …intelligent approach using hardware and software agents (watchdog agent) is adopted. The server controller is web-enabled and its core is an embedded network model. The software agent is implemented through a package of Smart Prognostics Algorithms. The package consists of embedded computational prognostic algorithms including neural network based, time-series based, wavelet-based and hybrid joint time-frequency methods, etc. and a software toolbox for predicting degradation of devices and systems. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by developing a real system for the washing machine. Show more

Keywords: e-Products, e-Manufacturing, e-Service, remote monitoring, diagnosis, maintenance, integrated intelligent systems, neural computing, internet, WWW

DOI: 10.3233/KES-2005-9208

Citation: International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 137-148, 2005

Authors: Liu, Tien-I | Ordukhani, Farhad | Jani, Dipak

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Roller Bearings have extended use throughout the industry and their proper operation is paramount in insuring quality products. Therefore, an on-line monitoring and diagnostic system is needed to detect faulty bearings. In this work, by applying the feature selection technique to the data obtained from vibration signals, six indices were selected. Artificial neural networks and soft computing were used for nonlinear pattern recognition. An attempt was made to distinguish between normal and defective bearings. Furthermore, classification of roller bearing conditions into six different categories was conducted for the diagnostic purpose. Back propagation neural networks (BPN's), counterpropagation neural networks …(CPN's), and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) were used for on-line monitoring and diagnosis of roller bearing conditions. All of them were able to recognize normal bearings from defective bearings with 100% success rate. In classifying the defect types, BPN obtained a success rate of 20% to 100%; CPN obtained a success rate of 31.7% to 100% while ANFIS achieved a success rate of 5% to 48%. CPN have the best performance among the three intelligent techniques. In order to monitor roller bearing conditions, a 1 × 20 × 1 CPN should be used to distinguish normal bearings from defective bearings. Furthermore, a 6 × 24 × 1 CPN can be used to diagnose the roller bearing conditions into six categories. In this manner, monitoring and diagnosis of roller bearings can be performed successfully. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/KES-2005-9209

Citation: International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 149-157, 2005

Authors: Liu, Tien-I | Oh, Chong

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is a new field. However, the application of MEMS has increased drastically for the past decade. The design and manufacturing of MEMS require specific expertise. A computerized consultant system for thorough static and dynamic analysis of MEMS is needed for design and manufacturing. A PC-based Expert System, EASYMEMS, has been developed. EASYMEMS contains domain specific knowledge of MEMS as well as the reasoning process of a human expert. It includes three sections: material, design, and manufacturing. It can be used to select the material for MEMS. It supports human reasoning and thus can offer MEMS …design guidelines for engineers. It is also capable of performing thorough static and dynamic analysis and then calculating critical dimensions for the design of MEMS. Furthermore, it can be used for the consultation for MEMS manufacture. The computer graphics offered by EASYMEMS are very helpful for both MEMS design and manufacturing. In simple words, EASYMEMS is very user-friendly and is very beneficial for MEMS engineers. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/KES-2005-9210

Citation: International Journal of Knowledge-based and Intelligent Engineering Systems, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 159-171, 2005