In this paper, an agent-based design and development of an interactive virtual environment for a manufacturing assembly process is described. Agents in the assembly are identified through their respective responsibilities and are implemented so that they coordinate between one another to accomplish the PC assembly / disassembly process. The robot agent, crucial to the assembly operation, is des...

Virtual manufacturing systems carry out the simulation of manufacturing processes in digital environment in order to increase accuracy as well as productivity in part production. There are different error sources in machine tools such as tool deflection, geometrical deviations of moving axis and thermal distortions of machine tool structures. The errors due to tool deflection is caused by cutti...

globally distributed manufacturing is possible. Virtual corporations can be established involving participants from around the world. Design, production, and assembly can occur wherever is most convenient and cost-effective for the enterprise. Developments in CAD/CAM, including advances in product data models and international standards, have made this possible. See COMPUTER PROGRAMMING; DIGITA...

Today's development of industrial products faces high requirements. Manufacturing companies need to produce high quality products, of low cost, to be marketed earlier than those of the competitors. Products must satisfy consumer requirements, must be developed fast, and must be of high quality. Many manufactures are adopting concurrent engineering in an attempt to reduce the lead time for new p...

Software continues to play an ever-increasing role throughout manufacturing systems, in many cases as the prime contributor to Overall Factory Effectiveness (OFE), as well as system reliability, capability, operational cost and ramp-up and reconfiguration cost. The integration of information technology in manufacturing is one of the most important drivers for productivity growth in the manufact...

Next Generation Manufacturing Systems (NGMS) will support the Next Generation Manufacturing Enterprises (NGMEs). Adaptive distributed manufacturing systems seem to be a promising solution for NGMEs to provide increased levels of flexibility, reconfigurability and intelligence to respond to the highly dynamic market demands. Virtual Enterprises (VEs) are expected to be the dominant manufacturing...

This keynote paper sets the scene for the International Scientific Workshop ‘Virtual Reality and Prototyping Conference’ organised by the Laval International Virtual Reality Meeting. It briefly examines the background of today’s impressive VR technology, which can be used to evaluate complex products from the conceptual design stage through to the manufacturing process. The emerging virtual rev...

Micro assembly involves the assembly of micronsized devices. Given the complexity of this domain, the role of virtual environments becomes important as they provide a basis to propose and compare assembly alternatives virtually prior to physical assembly. This paper proposes an integrated approach which includes the use of virtual reality-based assembly environments that interface with physical...

Manufacturing systems are changing its structure and organisation. Supply chain are evolving to more coupled organisations, like virtual enterprises, though maintaining the single entities autonomy, adaptability and dynamism properties. Such organisations are very different, which imply organisational and technological shift through agility, distribution, decentralisation, reactivity and flexib...