Cloud-based Design Research Articles

Digital design and manufacturing on the cloud: A review of software and services—RETRACTED

AbstractThis paper (Wu 2016), which was published in AI EDAM online on August 22, 2016, has been retracted by Cambridge University Press as it is very similar in content to a published ASME Conference Proceedings paper. The article in question and the ASME Conference Proceedings paper were submitted for review with AI EDAM and the ASME at similar times, but copyright was assigned to ASME before the paper was accepted in AI EDAM and therefore the article in AI EDAM is being retracted. (In recent years, industrial nations around the globe have invested heavily in new technologies, software, and services to advance digital design and manufacturing using cyber-physical systems, data analytics, and high-performance computing. Many of these initiatives, such as cloud-based design and manufacturing, fall under the umbrella of what has become known as Industry 4.0 or Industrial Internet and are often hailed as pillars of a new industrial revolution. While an increasing number of companies are developing or already offer commercial cloud-based software packages and services for digital design and manufacturing, little work has been reported on providing a review of the state of the art of these commercial software and services as well as identifying research gaps in this field. The objective of this paper is to present a state-of-the-art review of digital design and manufacturing software and services that are currently available on the cloud. The focus of this paper is on assessing to what extent engineering design, engineering analysis, manufacturing, and production across all phases of the product development lifecycles can already be performed based on the software and services accessed through the cloud. In addition, the key capabilities and benefits of these software packages and services are discussed. Based on the assessment of the core features of commercial software and services, it can be concluded that almost all phases of product realization can be conducted through digital design and manufacturing software and services on the cloud. Finally, existing research gaps and related challenges to overcome are identified. The state-of-the-art review serves to provide a technology guide for decision makers in their efforts to select suitable cloud-based software and services as alternatives to existing in-house resources as well as to recommend new research areas.)

A system framework for OKP product planning in a cloud-based design environment

Nowadays, one-of-a-kind (OKP) companies, which generally operate in an 'engineer-to-order' business mode, strive to deliver individualized products with quality to achieve customer satisfaction. Thus, an accurate and prompt analysis of customer requirements (CRs) in the early design stage is critical to its success. However, most OKP companies are small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Due to the limited resources and low product planning budget, they often cannot obtain abundant CR information nor can they afford the expense of complicated planning process. To address these issues, a system framework is proposed in support of OKP product planning process in a cloud-based design (CBD) environment. The challenges and future market niches of OKP companies are presented. The comparison of typical distributed systems shows that CBD, which utilizes advanced information technologies and business model, has advantages in providing sufficient resources, decreasing product development time span for OKP companies in a cost-efficient way. This article describes the proposed system architecture, the business interaction process and the information communication among customers, designers and marketing analysts at the product planning stage. To validate the proposed framework, a prototype system module MyProduct is under development in the CBD environment with an illustrative example.

A Service-oriented Secure Infrastructure for Feature-based Data Exchange in Cloud-based Design and Manufacture

Under the impact of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and cloud computing, Cloud-Based Design and Manufacture (CBDM) has been a flexible and effective way for Collaborative Product Development (CPD). As a crucial issue in sharing CAD models for CPD, Feature-Based Data Exchange (FBDE) among heterogeneous CAD systems should be adapted in CBDM. On the other hand, the sensitive information and intellectual property of CAD models should be protected in the process of FBDE and CBDM. This paper presents a service-oriented architecture for secure FBDE in CBDM. This architecture replaces traditional data exchange and secure process, which are based on client sides, with a service-oriented data exchange and secure process on clouds. In this way, feature-based CAD models could be exchanged among collaborative designers with the sensitive information protected in CBDM. The service-oriented infrastructure provides cost-effective, flexible and scalable solutions for secure FBDE. The case study and experiments demonstrate the proposed idea and method.

Software-defined Cloud Manufacturing for Industry 4.0

Many of the world's leading industrial nations have invested in national initiatives to foster advanced manufacturing, innovation, and design for the globalized world. Much of this investment has been driven by visions such as Industry 4.0, striving to achieve a future where intelligent factories and smart manufacturing are the norm. Within this realm, innovations such as the Industrial Internet of Things, Cloud-based Design and Manufacturing (CBDM), and Social Product Development (SPD) have emerged with a focus on capitalizing on the benefits and economies of scale provided by Internet Protocol (IP) communication technologies. Another emerging idea is the notion of software-defined systems such as software-defined networks, which exploit abstraction and inexpensive hardware advancements in an effort to build more flexible systems. Recently, the authors have begun considering how the notion of software-defined systems might be harnessed to achieve flexible cloud manufacturing systems. As a result, this paper introduces the notion of Software-Defined Cloud Manufacturing (SDCM). We describe a basic SDCM architecture based on leveraging abstraction between manufacturing hardware and cloud-based applications, services, and platforms. The goal of SDCM is to advance Cloud-Based Manufacturing and other Industry 4.0 pillars by providing agility, flexibility, and adaptability while also reducing various complexity challenges.

A Cloud-Based Framework for Lean Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul of Complex Equipment

Large, complex, expensive, and long-lived equipment often operate in harsh environments, which leads to the requirements of lifecycle maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO). To support the continuous improvement of productivity and to reduce the cost of MRO, this paper developed a cloud-based framework for lean MRO of the equipment with the aforementioned characteristics. A concept and a model of lean MRO are proposed. Taking advantage of cloud-based design and manufacturing (CBDM) into account, an architectural framework of cloud-based MRO is proposed. A case of a lean MRO for continuous casting equipment demonstrates that the proposed cloud-based framework can achieve the goal of lean MRO of complex equipment.

Economic Benefit Analysis of Cloud-Based Design, Engineering Analysis, and Manufacturing

AbstractFrom a business perspective, cloud computing has revolutionized the information and communication technology (ICT) industry by offering scalable and on-demand ICT services as well as innovative pricing plans such as pay-per-use and subscription. Considering the economic benefits of cloud computing, cloud-based design and manufacturing (CBDM) has been proposed as a new paradigm in digital manufacturing and design innovation. Although CBDM has the potential to reduce costs associated with high performance computing (HPC) and maintaining ICT infrastructures in the context of cloud computing, it is challenging to justify the potential cost savings associated with design and manufacturing because of the complexity in the economic benefit analysis of migrating to CBDM. In response, this paper provides important insights into the economics of CBDM by identifying key cost factors and potential pricing models that can influence decision making on whether migrating to the cloud for computationally expensive analyses that are commonplace for design and manufacturing (e.g., computer-aided design (CAD)/computer-aided engineering (CAE)/computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)) is economically justifiable. This work, for the first time, identifies the key economic benefits required for a comparative study that supports organizations in determining when traditional in-house design and manufacturing versus CBDM is most appropriate. Several comparative case studies and a hypothetical application example are provided to demonstrate and quantitatively validate decision support methods. Finally, key issues and road blocks for CBDM are outlined.

Cloud-based design for disassembly to create environmentally friendly products

To date, environmental awareness and government regulations have made businesses more responsible for waste disposal. From the product development standpoint, particularly in the design phase, disa...

English

The paper explores the ways how Russian students with different social background view the cloud- based foreign language learning. The empirical data was collected through questionnaires and in-depth interviews of students from metropolitan and regional universities, taking into account the students’ family incomes, ethnic and religious affiliation. Quantative and qualitative methods were combined to interpret the survey results. Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) was used to process statistic data. The paper reveals the issues the students feel sensitive about. The research findings lead to the conclusion that it is the students’ family background in terms of metropolitan or remote region origin and income level that most affect their positive/negative attitude and also the degree of aptitude to cloud-based learning. The research findings aim to contribute to better understanding of the issues regarding the overall cloud-based course design and implementation. Key words: Cloud-based education, technology-supported foreign language learning, cultural diversity, ducation.

RETRACTED: Cloud-Based Design, Engineering Analysis, and Manufacturing: A Cost-Benefit Analysis

From a business perspective, cloud computing has revolutionized the information and communication technology (ICT) industry by offering scalable and on-demand ICT services as well as innovative pricing plans such as pay-per-use and subscription. Considering the economic benefits of cloud computing, cloud-based design and manufacturing (CBDM) has been proposed as a new paradigm in digital manufacturing and design innovation. Although CBDM has the potential to reduce costs associated with high performance computing (HPC) and maintaining ICT infrastructures in the context of engineering design and manufacturing, it is challenging to justify the potential cost savings associated with HPC in the cloud because of the complexity in the cost-benefit analysis of migrating to CBDM. In response, this paper provides important insights into the economics of CBDM by identifying key cost factors and potential pricing models that can influence decision making on whether migrating to the cloud is economically justifiable. Specifically, the cost breakdown of adopting CBDM is presented. The general key benefits are demonstrated using real case studies. In addition, a hypothetical application example is presented to compare costs in CBDM with that of traditional in-house design and manufacturing. Finally, some of the key issues and road blocks are outlined.

Cloud-based design and manufacturing: A new paradigm in digital manufacturing and design innovation

Cloud-based design manufacturing (CBDM) refers to a service-oriented networked product development model in which service consumers are enabled to configure, select, and utilize customized product realization resources and services ranging from computer-aided engineering software to reconfigurable manufacturing systems. An ongoing debate on CBDM in the research community revolves around several aspects such as definitions, key characteristics, computing architectures, communication and collaboration processes, crowdsourcing processes, information and communication infrastructure, programming models, data storage, and new business models pertaining to CBDM. One question, in particular, has often been raised: is cloud-based design and manufacturing actually a new paradigm, or is it just “old wine in new bottles”? To answer this question, we discuss and compare the existing definitions for CBDM, identify the essential characteristics of CBDM, define a systematic requirements checklist that an idealized CBDM system should satisfy, and compare CBDM to other relevant but more traditional collaborative design and distributed manufacturing systems such as web- and agent-based design and manufacturing systems. To justify the conclusion that CBDM can be considered as a new paradigm that is anticipated to drive digital manufacturing and design innovation, we present the development of a smart delivery drone as an idealized CBDM example scenario and propose a corresponding CBDM system architecture that incorporates CBDM-based design processes, integrated manufacturing services, information and supply chain management in a holistic sense.

Cloud-based Design and Implementation of a Mobile Game Interface

Cloud-based Design and Implementation of a Mobile Game Interface

Energy Efficiency Benefits of RAN-as-a-Service Concept for a Cloud-Based 5G Mobile Network Infrastructure

This paper focuses on energy efficiency aspects and related benefits of radio-access-network-as-a-service (RANaaS) implementation (using commodity hardware) as architectural evolution of LTE-advanced networks toward 5G infrastructure. RANaaS is a novel concept introduced recently, which enables the partial centralization of RAN functionalities depending on the actual needs as well as on network characteristics. In the view of future definition of 5G systems, this cloud-based design is an important solution in terms of efficient usage of network resources. The aim of this paper is to give a vision of the advantages of the RANaaS, to present its benefits in terms of energy efficiency and to propose a consistent system-level power model as a reference for assessing innovative functionalities toward 5G systems. The incremental benefits through the years are also discussed in perspective, by considering technological evolution of IT platforms and the increasing matching between their capabilities and the need for progressive virtualization of RAN functionalities. The description is complemented by an exemplary evaluation in terms of energy efficiency, analyzing the achievable gains associated with the RANaaS paradigm.

Enhancing the Product Realization Process With Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing Systems

The rise of cloud computing is radically changing the way enterprises manage their information technology assets. Considering the benefits of cloud computing to the information technology sector, we present a review of current research initiatives and applications of the cloud computing paradigm related to product design and manufacturing. In particular, we focus on exploring the potential of utilizing cloud computing for selected aspects of collaborative design, distributed manufacturing, collective innovation, data mining, semantic web technology, and virtualization. In addition, we propose to expand the paradigm of cloud computing to the field of computer-aided design (CAD) and manufacturing and propose a new concept of cloud-based design and manufacturing (CBDM). Specifically, we (1) propose a comprehensive definition of CBDM; (2) discuss its key characteristics; (3) relate current research in design and manufacture to CBDM; and (4) identify key research issues and future trends.