[ieee 2006 10th international conference on computer supported cooperative work in design - nanjing,...

Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design

ASP Platform and Its Federation Integration Based on INTERNET Used inNetworked Collaborative Designing and Manufacturing

Cheng Wu, Tianyuan XiaoThe National CIMS Engineering Research Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China

wuc@tsinghua. edu. cn

Abstract

The ASP platform for networked collaborativedesigning and manufacturing has been developed. In thispaper, the framework and key issues for the platform areintroduced. Then the federation integration architecture(FIA) and Federation Executive Infrastructure (FEI) aredescribed, including the kernel techniques. Finally, twotypical application examples are presented.

Keywords: ASP platform, collaborative designing, FIA,FEI, Networked Manufacturing

1. Introduction

In order to meet the various requirements of thecustomers and the markets, the new generationmanufacturing pattern and management methods shouldhave faster response and better flexibility. Informationtechnologies have significantly impacted on themanufacturing pattern in every aspect and will continue toinfluence it in the future. Thus, the modern industry ismoving forward from the traditional technology agecharacterized with machines to the digital technology agecharacterized with the information. The rapiddevelopment of information network technology hasprovided more effective methods for realizing the newconcepts and patterns of manufacturing.Up to 2000, e-Enterprise in China was the integration

of various IT systems, such as CAx, ERP, etc. in anenterprise or in a group corp. The integration focused oninformation & process, sharing of some industrialresources among cooperation partners.

However, most medium/small enterprise require moreefficient integrative information service instead ofestablishment of various IT systems, i.e. from "build itoneself' to "buy it as a service". Because of the smallscale and simple management mode, they should not andneed not create the same information system as bigenterprises. Also, they are just in growth, theirmanagement modes, scales, goals and production oftenvary. accordingly, their information system must have theability to adjust rapidly to adapt to requirements.Additionally, due to the lack of money, technique and

persons for constructing, maintaining and runninginformation system, their abilities to defend risks are veryweak.

2. Related Efforts by CIMS-ERC

As known, of all the companies in China, 9900 areSmall and Medium Enterprises (whose production valueare less than 100 million Yuan and employees are lessthan 300), and they create 4000 of all production value.The manufacturing environment in China are distinctdifference between east and west, distinctive centralizedindustry area, regional economy, and so on. How toaccelerate the informationization process of small andmedium enterprises, and centralized industry area,regional economy is the key of the nationalmanufacturing informationization.

Industrialization driven by informationization hasbecome the national strategy. It becomes the missions ofall local governments. The governments not only guidebut also promote informationization. Local governmentscan enhance industrial information infrastructure, and cangather local advantaged resources. Networkedmanufacturing should be the rational choice ofaccelerating industry informationization in China.

Since 2000, the research of networked manufacturingtechniques has been conducted in National CIMS ERC,including following research projects:* Research on Framework and Key Technique of The

Capital Networked Manufacturing, funded by theBeijing municipal tech-projects.

* Scheme Design and Research on Key Technique forthe Networked Manufacturing System of Beijing,funded by the national 863 Program projects.

* Research on Key Technique for ProductionCollaboration Designing and Development Platformbased on ASP, funded by Beijing municipal tech-projects.

* Development and Application of ASP Platform ForNetworked Manufacturing , funded by the national863 Program projects.

* Research and application of technology fornetworked manufacturing service platformintegration, funded by Beijing municipal tech-projects.

1-4244-0165-8/06/$20.00 C 2006 IEEE.


and several typical Applications projects:* ASP-based e-Manufacturing platform for electronic

zone of Zhong Guan Cun Science Park.* ASP-based Networked Manufacturing Service Test

bed of Beinei Incubator.* Typical Application of Networked Collaborative

Designing in Jiangkui Group, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu.* Networked collaborative design of the medical

Cardiovascular angiography Interventional therapysystem, Wandong Ltd.

* The collaborative development of expresswaysweeping vehicle, Sany group.

ASP based cooperative product development platformin Tsinghua University is introduced in this paper at first.Then the federation integration architecture (FIA) andFederation Executive Infrastructure (FEI) are described,including the kernel techniques. Finally, two typicalapplication examples are presented.

3. The ASP Based Collaborative Platform

According to the definition of ASP given by theIndustrial Association, a provider who provides theservice focused on application, who sells or rent theapplication in a one-to-multiple sharing mode throughcentralized management data center (other than in client)and network. The main feature of ASP is that multiformof clients creates the multiform of requirement, hence, themultiform of application mode, the shared resource, thecommerce mode, and the complexity of safe guarding andcharging mode. In this paper, the ASP based collaborativeplatform is discussed mainly.

Fig. 1 Application Sever ProviderThe collaborative platform is based on the Software

Tool Resource Center and the Data Resource Center. Itprovides the functions of resources sharing andcollaborative operation that can support the cooperativeproduct development. The platform is composed of threefunctional levels with common resource centers,management level, cooperation level and taskimplementation (service) level. The functions of theplatform are shown as Figure 2.

Collaborative Product Development Environment

Managemet Level

Worflow Projet UsrMngMana ement aaeet b Mnm en

Cooperation LevelCollaborativ K. K Remote K Claoai

Design K Rmt nls Manufactuinng n Asml

Service LevelA

Tools Sharing Tools Integration Informatine A Data Sharing

Software Tools Center Common Data Center

X L CAD ACAM 0 Standad Part A Platnba

C F CAPP C CAAPM0d~1 ~ A Da tabase_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oe Daaa es gnPraee

Fig2. The Framework of Cooperative ProductDevelopment Platform

The Management level is the top layer, which providesuser management, project management, and workflowmanagement related to the cooperative productdevelopment. The cooperation level is the middle layer,which provides specific capability under the Internet-based manufacturing environment, including thecooperative design, the remote analysis, the remotemanufacturing, cooperative assembling and so on. TheService level is the bottom layer, which provides theservice, including remotely sharing tool resources anddata resources, information exchange tools integrationand etc. The Software Tool Resource Center providessoftware tools, such as CAD, CAM, CAE, CAPP, PDMand computer aided assembling software. The CommonData Resource Center provides standard part library,craftwork library, product model library, designparameter library and etc.

Auto-adaptive png format of image compression andextraction, local updating png format and cubic splineinterpolation compression and transmission of image areadopted. Only 2M bandwidth can implement the Real-Time Synchronization in interactive collaborativedesigning.

From the view point of software realization, theplatform can be divided into four layers: web explorer,web server, LAN control agent and application server. Itis developed with JAVA based on J2EE, so it can runningon many kinds of operation systems, such as windows2000/2003, Windows XP, UNIX, Linux. And it hasn'tany additional demand to client except web explorer.

4. Federation Integration of ASP Platforms

During past several years, more than 5 ASP basednetworked manufacturing service platforms were createdin Beijing. Because of the absence of common integrationstandard, it is difficult for the platforms to interconnect,intercommunicate and interoperate each other. As theresults, it is difficult to collaboration among multiplatforms, because of the difficulty of sharing distributedresources (public resources and professional resources).


Also, the providers of platform want to expand moreservices, but individual platform is not able to include allkinds of service resources, so platforms should beintegrated.

The project--Research and application of technologyfor networked manufacturing service platform integration,funded by Beijing municipal tech-projects has beencarried out. It aims at Constructing the infrastructurewhich support many kinds of services of multi-platformand multi-field, so that each platform can run in the formof integration as well as independently, and can enterfederation or exit from federation freely, no influence toeach others existence.

The Federation Integration Architecture (FIA) forNetworked Manufacturing has been specified, referring toHLA and GLOBUS. FIA is not a realization of systembut a standard of integrated Architecture, which canimplement the interconnection, the intercommunicationand, more important, the interoperation between differentplatforms.

Federation is a distributed system, consisting of manyfederates which can affect each other. Each federate is aconcrete ASP manufacturing platform or an application,which is a member of a federation executive. FEI is thesoftware realization of services specified by FIA interfacespecification. Federation executive is a virtual world

which, via a specific federate and related systems, isestablished by federation management according tofederates' demand in order to implement the interactiveactions. 6 Main functions of federation managementconsist of federation management, resource management,search management, charging management and securitymanagement. The example for integrating three ASPplatforms is shown as Fig 3.

The Key Techniques of realizing federation integrationbased on FEI include followings* Dynamic resource information transmission

technology based on data filtering scheme, using theidea of declaration management and data distributionmanagement, based on"matching" scheme.

* Service dispatching technology for Distributed SharedResources, with classifying and transforming sharedresources based on topology, keeping the balancebetween the dispatching results and response time ofservices.

* Mixed Search Technology across platforms based onconfiguration files mode and broadcast search mode.

* Security and accreditation technologies of federationIntegration Platform, transforming the address of userid into uniform id, to avoid clients information to beobtained by other platforms.

Ilnternet

NewredMnf

Fig 3 Example of FEI Realization

;~~~~~~~Networked Platfonu

I zl---M

Networked tarmg Platfonn


* Technologies of detection and data synchronization ofshared dynamic resource.

Integrated charging management that federates constituteand obey reciprocal agreement, referring to WTO mode.

5. Typical Applications

The ASP based collaborative designing andmanufacturing platform has been applied in more than200 enterprises. Typical Demonstration Applications aregiven as following.

5.1. Networked Collaborative Development ofmedical X-Ray angiographic systems

C-Arm system is a set of robot arms named for theshape of its primary part and is widely used in medical X-Ray angiographic systems. High safety and manipulationadaptability are especially required by medical product,but the great size, multi-freedom and randomness of thearm motion bring difficulty to these aims, so collisionprevention without excessive motion contour lose is theprimary problem of motion control designing.

Fig. 4 shows sketch map of the research object, theheart angiographic system. As signed out, the objectcontains many movable parts and 8 freedoms in all, sowithout right constrains to the motions, many collisionswould occur during operation.

5.2. Collaborative VirtualExpressway Sweeper Vehicle

Development of

The total length of the high way in our country hasalready taken the second position in the world, butgenerally speaking the performance of highway clearingvehicles made in our country is not so good as expected.There are many disadvantages, such as low speed andclearing efficiency, uncomfortable, etc. It's very urgent todevelop the clearing vehicles with fast speed and highclearing efficiency.

Using the CFD of CIMS ERC of Tsinghua, via thecollaborative designing platform, the design team of Sanygroup and Tsinghua has simulated the flow field of dust-suction system and dust-collection system, and developedthe Virtual Prototype vehicle.

Fig5 Expressway Sweeper Vehicle

Fig. 4 Sketch map of the research object

C-Arm system kinetic collision analysis andoptimization have been carried out collaboratively underPro/E & Pro/Mechanica based on ASP platform. And thepractical product has been developed based on the digitalprototype. It is proved that the collaborative designingand manufacturing are more efficient, lower cost, lessmanpower and material resources consuming and more

faithful compared with physical experimentation.

Based on the design result of the virtual prototype, thephysical prototype has been made. The results ofmeasuring the physical prototype shows that all of theperformance indexes have reached the expected values,and some key performance indexes have reached orexceeded the requirements of the national standards. Theclearing efficiency, max clearing speed, max inhalationgranularity, etc., have exceeded the correspondingperformances of the same domestic products. Patent hasbeen applied for the designed cupules, and the primitivecreative development of the high-speed road clearingvehicles of our country has been realized.

6. Conclusions

The public Internet-based manufacturing serviceplatform is analyzed and the technical solution isproposed respectively. The collaborative designing &manufacturing platform based on ASP mode has beenrealized and some of kernel techniques have been solved,including:* Advanced image compression and transmission

technology with high efficiency and lowtransmission load. Interactive three-dimension


collaborative designing can be implemented underlimited bandwidth of internet.

* Synchronization technology for multi-personcollaborative designing, multi-model driventechnology.

* Conflict Resolution technology of shared resourcesfor collaborative process, shared technology ofnetworked software resource, and so on.

* Referring HLA, Web service and Globus, theFederation Integration Architecture for ASPplatform integration has been established, andreciprocal interconnection, intercommunication andinteroperation ofASP platforms are implemented.

Small and Medium enterprises can share advancedmanufacturing equipments and software and realize theinformation without expensive expenditure that is used toconstruct infrastructure of network and buy equipmentsand software. The ASP platform based on federationintegration makes the collaborative designing andmanufacturing easy and effective, which upgrades thedevelopment ability of small and medium enterprises.

References

[1] Montreuil, Benoit, Frayret, Jean-Marc, D'Amours, Sophie. Astrategic framework for networked manufacturing. Computers inIndustry. 2000, 42( 2-3): 299-317.[2] Kern Thomas, Kreijger Jeroen, Willcocks Leslie. ExploringASP as sourcing strategy: theoretical perspectives, propositionsfor practice. Journal of Strategic Information Systems. 2002,11(2): 153-177.[3] WANG Yun-lin, XIAO Tian-yuan, YANG Nan, et al.Research and implementation of collaborative product

development platform[J]. Computer Integrated ManufacturingSystems. 2002, 8(8): 640-644.(in Chinese)[4] ZHAO Xiaohui, SUN Linyan, ZHANG Tao. Study onnetwork based manufacturing resource integration [J]. ChinaMechanical Engineering. 2002, 13(14): 1026-1029.(in Chinese)[5] I. Foster, C. Kesselman, J. Nick, S. Tuecke, Grid Servicesfor Distributed System Integration, Computer, 35(6):37-46, Jun2002.[6] H.A. Akkermansa, H. van der Horstc, Managing ITinfrastructure standardisation in the networked manufacturingfirm, International Journal of Production Economics, 75:213-228, 2002.[7] Wang, Aimin; Fan, Liya; Xiao, Tianyuan; Fan, Wenhui.Research on application platform and virtual enterprisemodeling for manufacturing grid. Chinese Journal ofMechanical Engineering, 2005, 41(2): 176-181 (in Chinese).[8] Gu Yue, Xiao Tianyuan, Zhao Yinyan. Interference Analysisfor C-Arm Angiographic System under Simulation Environment[C], Asian Simulation Conf./the 5th Conf. on System Simulationand Scientific Computing, 2002, 795-800.

Brief introduction to Authors:

Wu Cheng, the Professor of Tsinghua University,Beijing, China, director of the National CIMSEngineering Research Center, His research fields includeCIMS, Complex scheduling and Optimization,Application Grid, Networked Manufacturing.Xiao Tianyuan, the Professor of Tsinghua University,Beijing, China, the executive director of the NationalCIMS Engineering Research Center. His research fieldsinclude CIMS, Virtual Manufacturing, Modeling andsimulation, Networked Manufacturing.

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