AN AUTOMATED 3D FACILITIES PLANNING AND OPERATIONS MODEL GENERATOR FOR SYNTHESIZING GENERIC MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Abstract

One of the basic building blocks in virtual manufacturing is a 3D facility. An automated method for reconstructing a 3D facility from a 2D layout is presented here. The 3D facility is reconstructed using spacefilling curves (SFC), and simultaneously creating hierarchy levels within a scenegraph structure, which is a directed acyclic graph (DAG). An iterative process is used to acquire knowledge about the layout, and reorganize the scenegraph structure based on the acquired knowledge, and cell formation within the layout. Additional CAD data models for the equipment within the facility provide depth within the scenegraph framework to synthesize generic manufacturing operations, such as load, unload, move and process, in a virtual manufacturing environment. The objects within the 3D facility have been modified to provide the links required for synthesizing the generic manufacturing operations in the virtual manufacturing environment. The generic manufacturing operations are realized by updating the hierarchy links between the manufacturing resources and the parts being produced, within the scenegraph framework. An example is provided to illustrate the use of the proposed reconstruction method.