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Data handling
The goal of the project “data handling” is to support the collaborative process of co-located and remote teamwork within the “virtual project room”. Therefore it focuses on data-handling in order to elaborate, collect, share and interact with data. The final goal of this project is to improve the efficiency as well as the effectiveness of the collaborative and interdisciplinary product design process by applying new communication technologies.
Therefore an application framework was developed which allows fast and easy development of collaborative applications for typical engineering tasks. As a common base these applications combine data and gaze awareness by overlaying them. This is realized by the metaphor of collaboration through a transparent glass as introduced by as sketched in the figure below. Participants of a collaboration session work together on a virtual glass window. Such, they can face each other and point on information displayed on the window. To verify the framework as well as the feasibility of the concept, three scenarios were implemented along the product-development process.
Brainstorming With the first scenario, the collaborative idea phases in product development will be supported. Nowadays most applications supporting the ideation phase are focussed on process-oriented, web-based platforms. In this approach human to human collaboration will serve as the central element to support the creative processes of generating ideas as creativity is stimulated by human interaction. Goal of this application is to moderate an online brainstorming session between two locally separated groups. Data structuring elements are based on the meta-plan technique.
Developing function structures Within the second scenario, two lacks during the collaborative concept phases of mechatronic product development is addressed. First, interdisciplinary development often causes remote operations. Therefore, the application supports synchronous operations over internet. Second, data of the concept phase usually is not mapped structured nor represented completely digitally. Most data only is available as sketches or as a result of a whiteboard session. Thus the application handles und manages the function-structures of mechatronic products.
Plant-planning The third scenario allows planning a plant. In this example, a real plant of Rieter Textile AG is presented. Different work stations process wool from the raw material to yarn. This procedure includes at least 5 machines in a row and several rows may be assembled. Thus, it is a challenge, to collocate them in an optimal order. As shown in Figure 11, the shapes were defined as machines and each possesses a unique ID. With this ID, the shapes can be easily attached to its correspondent 3D-model, which is presented within the software Mediator. Thus, engineers can now plan and collaborate on a 2D-map, while the plant is represented in 3D on an adjoining screen.
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Collaboration In Action |
Idea Brainstorming |
Plant Planning |
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Concept |
System Architecture |
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