Highlights from the Manufacturing
Engineering Laboratory, May 2007

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Intelligent Vehicles Book Published

A book detailing a reference architecture that provides a theoretical foundation for designing, engineering, integrating, and testing intelligent systems software for autonomous vehicle navigation has been published by Nova Science. Intelligent Vehicle Systems: A 4D/RCS Approach was edited by MEL staff members Raj Madhavan, Elena Messina, and James Albus, and contains 11 chapters, primarily authored by NIST researchers. The reference architecture, components, and example implementations are described and placed within a context of the overall standards landscape and performance requirements for successful applications of intelligent or autonomous capabilities to mobile platforms.

Contact: Raj Madhavan, 301 975 2865

2007 Interoperability Week a Success

MEL hosted its second annual Interoperability Week in Gaithersburg, Maryland, April 23-25. The Interoperability Week Conference provided a venue for people from different disciplines to network, compare issues, and share solutions to interoperability problems in their domain. The conference included participants from a variety of perspectives including manufacturing, communications, supply chain, and science. Conference session topics included manufacturing systems integration, long-term data retention with an emphasis on product engineering media, advanced semantic language development, digital 2D and 3D image research, and federal enterprise integration. The plenary session featured speakers from Microsoft, the World Wide Web Consortium, and US National Archives.

Contact: Simon Frechette, 301 975 3335

Unigraphics (UGS) Collaborates with Standardization Effort in Simulation

MEL is collaborating with Ford and its plant simulation vendor, UGS, to incorporate the UGS Simulation Data Exchange (SDX) specification into the Core Manufacturing Simulation Data (CMSD) specification currently undergoing standardization in SISO – the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization. MEL has been a leader in the initial drafting of the CMSD, and is actively working with industry under the auspices of SISO. The CMSD specification defines a data interface specification for efficient exchange of manufacturing life cycle data in a simulation environment. The specification provides neutral data interfaces for integrating manufacturing software applications with simulation systems. The initial effort is focusing on machine shop data definitions. The plan is to extend the data specification to include supply chain, aerospace assembly operations, automotive vehicle assembly operations, plant layout, and other relevant manufacturing and simulation information. This standard effort is to promote the increased, widespread, and pervasive use of advanced manufacturing technologies, in particular, the simulation technology in the manufacturing industries. The effort will benefit not only the manufacturing industry worldwide, but more specifically it will benefit the Modeling and Simulation community in the near term.

Contact: Chuck McLean, 301 975 3511

"The Limits of Optical Critical Dimension Metrology" Presentation Fills Auditorium

A paper titled "The Limits of Optical Critical Dimension Metrology" was presented by MEL's Rick Silver at the SPIE Advanced Lithography Symposium in San Jose. SPIE is an international society dedicated to advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light. Rick's paper described an in depth study carried out by jointly MEL optics researchers and Thom Germer, PL. The research was a summary of the results written up in an extensive study under contract to Sematech. This paper gave an overview of the optical critical dimension (OCD) limits from a fundamental perspective based on extensive modeling and statistical analysis. This research was considered a benchmark for the future of OCD and its capabilities. Their presentation laid the groundwork for future studies on the practical limitations as the fundamental limits are well beyond those limits imposed by the variation of the targets themselves at the nanometer scale. Multiple electromagnetic models were compared and their stability and integrity verified prior to the analysis of the fundamental limits. A number of industrial contacts have been established as the implications of the study are considerable as different methods such as spectroscopic and angle resolved techniques were compared. The study gave measurement uncertainties for the different techniques in their fundamental application and evaluation of sensitivity to changes at the nanometer scale. The study evaluated different optical techniques for their sensitivity to sub-nanometer changes in line width and side wall angle for features and lines as small as 10 nm. The study is based on collaborative efforts with the industry to use NIST modeling expertise at evaluating key measurement challenges for the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

Contact: Rick Silver, 301 975 5609

Optical overlay project leader Rick Silver served as a panelist on the future of overlay metrology for semiconductor manufacturing

At the SPIE Advanced Lithography Symposium, MEL's Rick Silver served as a panelist on a panel addressing the future of overlay metrology and key challenges in "double patterning lithography." In the next generation of lithography, two patterning steps will be used to define critical small features. This approach allows for a substantial reduction in feature size, but integrates the metrology problems of overlay and critical dimension (CD) metrology. The panel was attended by several hundred attendees from the Advanced Lithography Conference, the new name for the Microlithography conference, and had lively debate on several future challenges. Optical methods are the main stay for overlay as they have acceptable through put and low cost of ownership. One topic of discussion was the requirement for new optical techniques and methods recently developed at NIST and including the new "overlay supertarget" designs co-engineered with Sematech were viewed with great interest

Contact: Rick Silver 301 975 5609

National Capital Region Bomb Squads Gather at NIST

The March meeting of fifteen national capital region bomb squads known as MetroTech was held at NIST's Nike site facility to evaluate response robots and emerging standard test methods. Our local Montgomery County bomb squad hosted the event along with MEL's Intelligent Systems Division. The event featured several robots demonstrating advanced capabilities within emerging standard test methods being developed by NIST under sponsorship from the National Institute of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. The robot test methods, which include mobility/endurance, directed perception, grasping dexterity, visual acuity, and others, are intended to help bomb squads quantify robot capabilities, compare robot performance, and measure operator proficiency. They also provide practice tasks to learn and maintain the skills necessary to remotely operate robots in critical situations. Representatives from the bomb squads were able to rotate through practice tests with new robots demonstrating advanced features such as coordinated controlled manipulators, automatic tool changing, and teachable mobility behaviors. A small quad-rotor aerial robot was also shown with station-keeping capabilities and high-resolution cameras.

Contact: Adam Jacoff, 301 975 4235 or Elena Messina, 301 975 3510

Independent Measurement System for Vehicle Safety Systems Developed

Studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) indicate that a substantial percentage of the 3.6 million target crashes could be prevented annually by widespread deployment of integrated crash warning systems that would warn drivers of imminent crash situations and prompt them to take corrective action. The U.S. DOT's Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety System (IVBSS) program will address this issue by developing and testing an integrated, vehicle-based, crash warning system that addresses rear-end, lane change and roadway departure crashes. During system testing phase, evaluators will use an independent measurement system (IMS) developed by the NIST's MEL to:

• Support detailed analysis of conditions surrounding a warning or lack of warning
• Provide ground truth reference for measuring system performance
• Provide data and sensor redundancy for test verification purposes. MEL's IMS includes calibrated cameras that enable evaluators to measure ranges to adjacent obstacles and to the road edge at distances up to 4 m. MEL's Sandor Szabo and Joe Falco attended the recent Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety Systems (IVBSS) 5^th Quarterly Review and tested installation of their IMS for crash warning systems on Visteon's Honda Accord and Eaton's International truck (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). Sandor presented NIST's accomplishments and status at the review. In April 2007, Sandor presented NIST's work at the IVBSS 2^nd Annual Public Meeting. As the name suggests, the public meeting was an opportunity for interested parties to obtain an update on the progress of the program. The MEL researchers demonstrated the IMS data collection system and the analysis software to attendees. The final tests are scheduled for August and September of this year.

Contact: Sandor Szabo, 301 975 3438