Manufacturing Cell Operator's Expert System (MCOES)
- Project id: BRITE-EURAM BR-3528
- Schedule: 1.6.1990-31.5.1993
Partners
- Diseño y Metodologia S.A. (Spain)
- Oxford Computer Services Ltd. (UK)
- Bremer Institut für Betriebstechnik und Angewendte Arbeitswissenschaft
(BIBA) an der Universität Bremen (Germany)
- Instituto Superior Tecnico (Portugal)
- Erwin Halder KG (Germany)
- Helsinki University of Technology (Finland)
- Technical Research Centre of Finland
- Valmet-Tampella Ltd. (Finland)
- National Technological University of Athens (Greece)
Objectives
- To study process planning and manufacturing practices.
- To design and implement on a prototype level a process planning system
specifically targeted for a workshop oriented factory.
- To demonstrate the system.
Results
- Operative Process Planning System for automatic generation of NC programs
- Generative Process Planning System for preparation of process plan
schemata for new products
- A feature-based representation of process plans and the related
manufacturing knowledge
- Factory Model data base for representing static factory information
- Demonstration of the system for paper roll bearing housing manufacture
at Valmet-Tampella Ltd.
The system implemented during the original project is written chiefly on Common LISP and runs on Sun Sparcstations. The system utilizes a locally developed C-based geometric modeling system.
Present activities
After completion of the original project, the system has been extended further in follow-up projects:
- IMS/GNOSIS: Further capability for non-linear process planning was
added to the system, and an interface with the SYSFUND system from University of Tokyo was created.
- ABB Prototyping: A demonstration system for electric engine rotor shaft turning has been created for ABB Industry Ltd.
- New implementation: A new implementation called MCOES++ of the system is presently underway with funding from Academy of Finland. See this for a sampler of the new system's functionalities. The EXTDesign++ modeller implements the feature modelling facilities of the new system; it is implemented in C++ on top of the ACIS geometric modeler. Knowledge representation is based on an embedded Scheme interpreter based on the Elk extension language kit. Click this for more poster-type information on MCOES.
MCOES team at HUT
The work is headed by prof. Martti Mäntylä. Other present members of the team include Dr. Timo Laakko and Lic.Tech. Jussi Opas.