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Highlights from the Manufacturing |
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Impact of NIST Research and ServicesNIST Led Development of Advanced ISO 10303 (STEP) Standard After years in the making, NIST led the development of the newly released revision of ISO 10303-203, more commonly known as "AP203 Edition 2." Engineers make use of software packages to digitally design new parts. This standard helps ensure that tomorrow's engineers will be able to understand today's complex designs. The new standard allows more sophisticated descriptions of proprietary designs and processes. The additional descriptive information covering three-dimensional mechanical designs and assemblies helps engineers to duplicate or repair complex machines such as aircraft, or ships, long after the original design and manufacturing software has been discontinued or changed beyond recognition. A diverse mix of private sector partners from aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding and computer software corporations participated in advancing the original AP203's functionality. For more information, see the press release article in NIST's Techbeat: http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/techbeat/tb2005_0209_hold.htm#plans. Contact: Simon Frechette, (301) 975 3335 Programmatic/Technical AccomplishmentsDraft Standard on Dimensional Inspection Available for Committee Draft Ballot The draft standard, entitled "Product data representation and exchange: Application protocol: Dimensional inspection information exchange," was recently offered for Committee Draft ballot under ISO Technical Committee 184 on Industrial Automation Systems and Integration, Subcommittee SC4 on Industrial Data. If approved it will be ISO Standard 10303 - Part 219, also called AP 219. AP 219 is an information standard developed using the modeling principles of STEP (STandard for the Exchange of Product data). This standard enables information exchange between automated systems that develop and use dimensional inspection data, such as coordinate measuring machines and automated manufacturing systems. It contains sections on the modeling of dimensions and tolerances, inspection features, and manufacturing features. Its contents build on and are harmonized with previous standards in automated manufacturing developed and dimensional specification under STEP and enables, for example, the comparison of designed dimensions of manufactured parts with parameters calculated from coordinate measurements of those parts. The standard will be open for balloting and comments until April 5, 2005. After that two more levels of editing and balloting are likely, as a Draft International Standard and as an International Standard. A Project Team led by MEL's Ted Vorburger included MEL researchers Simon Frechette, Son Bui, Larry Welch, Howard Harary, and modeling experts Len Slovensky from Northrop Grumman and Bill Danner from Seneca-IT.com developed the standard. Contact: Ted Vorburger, (301) 975 3493 MEL Releases Naming Assister Tool Software designers use Extensible Markup Language (XML) to add intelligence to their digital applications. Since its introduction on to the market, many corporations and organizations like IBM, Microsoft and General Electric have been converting their documentation to XML. And XML has become the de-facto standard for data transfer. XML Schemas allow computer-based machines to carry out rules made by people. Providing a consistent naming convention is essential in the creation, development, and maintenance of XML schemas (http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema). It improves schema readability and consistency, consequently speeding up future schema adoptions and implementations. The Naming Assister developed by MEL staff focuses on mapping terms used to assemble element or type names against a table of allowable terms, and verifies the structure of the entire compound word in accordance with naming conventions established by ISO 11179, Information Technology - Metadata Registries (MDR). This tool was originally written to determine naming inconsistencies within the BFRL-led AEX Testbed XML schemas (FIATECH press release: http://fiatech.org/news/07-26-04.html), and to assist in establishing a table of standard terms. It has since been used by other agencies to verify their XML schemas. For more information or to download the tool: http://www.mel.nist.gov/msid/Naming_Assister.html. Contact: Puja Goyal, (301) 975 3990 InteractionsNIST Contributes to New DHS Sensor Standards Working Group Kang Lee (MEL), Al Wavering (MEL), and Paul Domich (BFRL) participated in an initial meeting of a new Sensor Standards Working Group on February 22, 2005 convened by Bert Coursey, Director of the Standards office in the Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Representatives from DHS, NIST, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) contributed to this meeting. The goals of the Sensor Standards Working Group are to:
Kang presented a summary of the IEEE 1451 smart and wireless sensor interface standards. He also discussed the cooperation with the Open Geospatial Consortium SensorWeb project, which aims to establish a web service infrastructure in an open standard environment to support the discovery, access, and tasking of fixed and mobile sensors in sensor networks. Bryan Gorman of ORNL discussed SensorNet, a sensor program supported by Department of Defense (DoD) and Fort Bragg and its interaction with SensorWeb. SensorNet is a networked sensor system based on the IEEE 1451 standards. It could be used as a model to build the infrastructure for very large sensor network systems to cover the entire United States for homeland security purposes. Paul Domich discussed the ANSI/ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air Conditioning Engineers) standard BACnet (building automation and control network) for building control systems. The meeting closed with a discussion of next steps for the Sensor Standards Working Group. This included identifying key stakeholders and sensor standards-setting organizations across a broad range of sectors and infrastructures; identifying existing standards groups like IEEE that can provide leadership in the development and adoption of integration and interoperability requirements; and identifying stakeholder groups that can provide useful guidance on current and future requirements for sensor networks, standards, and integration and interoperability requirements. Contact: Kang Lee, (301) 975 6604 NIST Holds Second Workshop on Defining Requirements for US&R Robots On January 26th - 28th, NIST hosted the second of three workshops to define the performance requirements for Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) robots as part of the DHS-sponsored program to produce standards for these novel robots. As with the first workshop, participation was limited to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) task force members, whose expertise ranges from first response as part of local fire departments to deployment at major national and international disasters when activated by FEMA. Twenty responders, representing sixteen different FEMA Task Forces, attended in person, with a very high return rate from the first workshop. Two additional structural specialists participated via teleconference. A representative from the National Guard who is focusing on Weapons of Mass Destruction also contributed. Several NIST staff, from MEL, BFRL, and ITL attended, as well as Larry Skelly and Eric Brumer of the Emergency Preparedness and Response organization within DHS. The team made very good progress on detailed performance specifications for various aspects of robot technologies under different deployment scenarios. Requirements are also examined through the lens of the various "roles" that are performed by the task forces, such as reconnaissance, primary search, structural, medical, and so forth. Originally, discussions revolved around two main scenarios: "scenario A" that involves the upper stories of a multi-story pancake collapse, and "scenario B" which involves a sub-surface void (i.e., below ground, small, confined, wet space). The responders suggested "scenario C" this time, which would incorporate robots into a Type II situation - that is, a chemical, biological, or radiological contamination in an urban area, where the buildings are intact, but a large number of non-ambulatory victims need to be extracted and decontaminated. This new scenario poses many new opportunities for deployment of robots to keep humans out of harm's way, yet may also have the benefit of reducing the mobility challenges for the robots, since they do not have to negotiate around rubble or in confined spaces. Keeping the momentum going, the final requirements workshop will be held at the end of February. A web site and discussion group for participants are being set up to continue making progress in the interim. Contact: Elena Mesina, (301) 975 3510 | |||