Development of a PC-based Open Architecture Software-CNC System

As a key te..hnology in the field of advanced manufacturing, an open architecture controller is studied. In order to develop an open architecture software-CNC system on personal computer （PC） according to open modular architecture controllers （OMAC）. First, the software and hardware platform is chosen and software realization methodology for the CNC system is determined. Second, static modeling methods of an open architecture controller inclusive of object-oriented （OO） programming technology, dynamic link library （DLL） technology and system modules partition are investigated. Third, the dynamical behavioral modeling and the data flow representation of open architecture controller are discussed, which are both described in hierarchy fmite state machine （FSM） model. Fourth, a reusable software module model is established to develop software function module library. Finally, a 3-axis milling machine tool test-bed, named for HIT-CNC, is successfully designed by means of the constructed software function module library and the system configuring method. The experimental results show that, besides increasing the degree of reusability and openness, application of above-mentioned method- ology leads to significant decrease of development time as well as maintenance cost.

Personalization for Massive Product Innovation Using Open Architecture

Product innovation is creation of new concepts to plan and realize technological and functional details in the product to satisfy market and customer needs. One of the key drivers to product innovation is reactions of the product to users’ needs. Product innovation needs a cognitive design method based on needs of variant users for the product personalization. In this paper, an open concept is introduced to provide ways to meet user’s individual need in product lifespan. It is for industries to propose product concepts based on open sources, develop and support the product on the public capability. Using the open concept in the product architecture, called open?architecture product(OAP), can improve the product personalization leading to massive product innovation. To promote this promise of the OAP, effective methods are discussed for the OAP development. This paper introduces research on OAPs using adaptable design methods to meet product personalization. Adaptable design is based on the modular structure for product adaptability using function modules and adaptable interfaces. The proposed method provides solutions for planning modules and implementation of OAPs. Methods of OAP module planning, detail and interface design are described for transformation of product concepts into physical structures. A multiple?purpose electrical car is developed in a case study to show effectiveness of the proposed method.

RETROFITTING AN AUTOMATIC MANUFACTURING WORKCELL FOR STUDY OF OPEN ARCHITECTURE INTEGRATION OF MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS

Research work on plug-and-play open architecture and object-orientedmechatronic system integration is described. The original controllers of two popular industrialrobot manipulators Puma 560 and IBM 7575 are completely retrofitted and integrated with a conveyorsystem to form a robot workcell. This robot workcell can be programmed to run under the Ch languageenvironment. The outline of the Ch language, and the retrofitting strategy of the robot workcellwill be described. A sample application program for simulated assembly operations of this robotworkcell will be presented to demonstrate the underlying principles of open architecture integrationof mechatronic systems under the programming paradigm of the Ch language environment.

OPEN ARCHITECTURE CNC SYSTEM HITCNC AND KEY TECHNOLOGY

Aiming at the characteristics of modularity and reconfigurable in open architecture computer numerical control （CNC） system, the open architecture CNC system, Harbin Institute of Tech- nology computer numerical control （HITCNC）, is researched and manufactured based on the interface standards. The system＇s external interfaces are coincident with the corresponding international standards, and the internal interfaces follow the open modular architecture controller （OMAC） agreement. In the research and manufacturing process, object-oriented technology is used to ensure the openness of the HITCNC, and static programming is applied in the CNC system according to the idea of modularization disassembly. The HITCNC also actualizes real-time and unreal-time modules adopting real-time dynamical linked library （RTDLL） and component object model （COM）. Finite state ma- chine （FSM） is adopted to do dynamically modeling of HITCNC. The complete separation between the software and the hardware is achieved in the HITCNC by applying the SoftSERCANS technique. The application of the above key techniques decreases the programming workload greatly, and uses software programs replacing hardware functions, which offers plenty technique ensures for the openness of HITCNC. Finally, based on the HITCNC, a three-dimensional milling system is established. On the system, series experiments are done to validate the expandability and interchangeability of HITCNC. The results of the experiments show that the established open architecture CNC system HITCNC is correct and feasible, and has good openness.

Linux-based Platform for Open Architecture Controller and Its Modular Developing Method

Linux-based Platform for Open Architecture Controller ( POAC ), a new open architecture controller and its modular developing method are discussed. POAC divides the application software of controller into the developing system and the application system. In the developing system, PAOC abstracts a series of function modules with unified data interface and function interface. In the application system, POAC defines the model of the architecture module, realizing the interoperability and interchangeability between the architecture modules. The modular developing method entities the users to make up an application system with some architecture modules, which consist of a set of function modules. The modular developing method decreases the developing time from the standard of controller architecture to the product.

Open Architecture of Single-processor Real-time Robot Control System Based on Windows NT

This paper introduces the architecture and implementation of an industrial robot control system based on Windows NT. This robot control system, which is based on a single-processor structure, can run on general industrial computers. Owing to using Windows NT's real-time extension RTX, the control system can achieve good realtime performance and friendly user interface in one general-purpose operating system. A three layer hierarchical architecture of control software is proposed to make the system more scalable and flexible. Furthermore a communication and configuration system is implemented to enable modules to communicate with each other, which make the control system scalable and flexible.

Integrated Open Source Design for Architecture in High-Density Housing Practice

High-density housing can be interpreted as collections of individual units, which inevitably results in the dilemma between the global standardization designed by architects and local customization implemented by users. However, it is impossible to reflect the users＇ various needs in the conceptual design stage for high-density housing because of the economic, industrial and time constrains. In response to this challenge, this research paper outlines a different high-density housing design approach that can adopt users＇ individual customization in the conceptual design stage during the housing design practice. Hence, the design process would be an open-ended evolutionary and transparent process rather than deterministic executions as we have now in most high-density cities, such as Hong Kong. In order to overcome the deficiency in addressing future uncertainties of different users and address the issues of one-off developments without iterating users＇ feedback in the housing practice, this essay proposes IOSDA （integrated open source design for architecture） for the design practice of high-density housing, through collective data and parametric connectivity between users and architects. IOSDA reflects a different design attitude towards the future, i.e., to shift from architects＇ heroic prediction of the future to collective engagement of the present with more robust capacities for new possibilities.

Resource management framework for manufacturing grid

Based on open grid service architecture (OGSA) and Globus Toolkit 3. 0 (GT3), a manufacturing grid (MG) is proposed to realize resource sharing and collaborative working among manufacturing enterprises. Nevertheless, resource management in MG is much more complicated than that in other grid applications due to the geographically distributed manufacturing resources, which range from CAD, CAPP and CAE to various kinds of machine tools. With the interaction of manufacturing grid information service (MGIS, developed by ourselves) and globus resource allocation manager (GRAM, provided by GT3), a resource management framework is presented to perform the functions of resource encapsulation, registry, discovery and monitoring. Furthermore, the application architecture and an example are depicted to illustrate the utilization of the resource management system.

Development and Application of the NT Device Driver in CNC System

The key technology of open architecture CNC systems kernel device driver,including the interrupt mechanism, I/O subsystem, the structure of device driver and the communication between the driver and the application program, is discussed in the paper and a specific application is given at the end.

Development of a Multi-DOF Robotic Controller for Academic Purposes

This article presents the development of a robotic controller for technical training, academic teaching, and research. The controller was designed to interact from 1 to 6 DOF （degrees of freedom） serial robotic arms, actuated by brushed DC （direct current） servomotors equipped with incremental encoders. Controller architecture is based on four components： a processor, a reconfigurable FPGA （field-programmable gate array）, measurement I/O hardware and software. Functionality of the robotic controller has been proved by means of the interaction with an SCARA （selective compliance assembly robot arm）. The proposed controller presents the potential to teach technical courses （like robotics, control, electronics and programming） and to implement and validate advanced control algorithms.

Design and Implementation of NAREGI SuperScheduler Based on the OGSA Architecture

NAREGI is a 5-year Japanese National Grid Project during 2003--2007, whose chief aim is to develop a set of grid middleware to serve as a basis for future e-Science. NAREGI also aims to lead the way in standardization of grid middleware, based on the OGSA architecture. Its super-scheduler is based on the proposed OGSA-EMS Architecture, in that it becomes the first working implementation that implements the documented component relationships within the OGSA-EMS architecture document v.l.0. Through the efforts and experience in the design and implementation, it has been confirmed that the documented OGSA-EMS architecture is quite feasible, but will require significant amount of refinement and speed improvements to finalize its detailed specifications. The super-scheduler also supports co-allocation across multiple sites to support automated execution of grid-based MPIs that execute across machines. Such a resource allocation requires sophisticated interactions between the OGSA-EMS components not covered in the current OGSA-EMS architecture, some of which are non-trivial. Overall, job scheduling with OGSA-EMS has proven to not only work, but also that its job allocation and execution time is within reasonable bounds.