A Knowledge-Augmented Socio-Technical Assistance System for Product Engineering

abstract

Manufacturing companies are exposed to increasingly complex products and shorter product engineering cycles. Unstructured data hinders the integration of knowledge over the different product engineering stages and complicates structured product development. However, combining an integrated view on relevant data sources following the Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) approach provides guidance for product engineers. In this paper, a semantic Knowledge Base (KB), a Process Execution System (PES), and a Computer Vision System (CVS) are introduced, which, in their interaction, compose a Socio-Technical Assistance System (STAS). We combine semantic models of production knowledge, APQP-guided product development, and ontology-based geometric representations of products and manufacturing resources. The PES coordinates the interaction with the user and other system components. The CVS tracks used tools and parts during the assembly and, therefore, enables traceability features and creates confidence in the quality of the assembly. As a result, the developed STAS prototype offers support from customer inquiry through product design and development to manufacturing and assembly, as well as after-sales support. The assistance system enables handling of complex products efficiently in order to reduce required times and costs.