Engineering Workstation Research Articles

Automatic generation of equations of motion from graphic input of vibration model. A system for two-dimensional vibrations of multibody systems.

In order to make vibration analysis an easily input, automated task for designers, it is desirable to develop an interactive vibration analysis system, using personal computers or engineering work stations which have a user-friendly interface for easy input of the vibration model, and which can perform automatic generation of equations of motion, and automatic numerical analysis of them. As the first step towards such a system, an automatic generation system of equations of motion was developed for two-dimensional vibrations of multibody systems. The system is written in Smalltalk-80, which is a typical object-oriented language having the following advantages : (1) user-friendly interface for graphic input of a vibration model, enabling users to make a variety of configurations of a vibration model on the display by choosing the vibration model elements listed in the menu with a pointing device (mouse) ; (2) applicability to extensive models of two-dimensional vibrations of multibody systems which contain various constraints and nonlinear elements.

Design Considerations for Engineering Workstations

Computer workstations must be designed to provide a wide range of capability and flexibility if their ability to enhance the productivity of the professional staff is to be used fully. This paper discusses various hardware and software considerations that should be addressed if workstations are to be deployed successfully in either domestic or foreign locations.

Automatic generation and automatic analysis of equations of motion from the graphic input of a vibration model.

In order to make vibration analysis an eary and automated task for designers, an interactive vibration analysis system using a personal computer or an engineering workstation was developed. The system has the following advantages: (1) The system has a user-friendly interface for graphic input of vibration models which enables users to make figures of vibration models on the display by choosing the vibration model elements listed in the menus by a pointing device (mouse). (2) The system can perform automatic generation of equations of motion from the graphic input, and automatic numerical analysis of them including eigen-value analysis and time history analysis. (3) The system is applicable to extensive models of two-dimensional and three-dimensional vibrations of multi-body systems which can contain various constraints and nonlinear elements including a friction element, an elasto-plastic hysteresis element and nonlinear springs/dampers defined by users. The main part of the system was written in Smalltalk-80 and the part for the numerical analysis was written in C.

Assembly of Blocks by Autonomous Assembly Robot with Intelligence (ARI)

Summary Robots in the next decade should be able to easily understand the job to be performed, automatically plan action procedures and successfully execute the plan. This paper describes the robot ARI [Assembly Robot with Intelligence) which achieved these objectives for simple assembling operations. ARI has two eyes, a neck, two arms and a trunk -like upper half of a human body. The robot is controlled by a engineering work-station and several micro-computers. By simply observing a sample assembly of toy blocks, ARI can autonomously construct a replica. The robot first determines the 3-dimensional structure of the sample assembly and then plans a procedure to construct a replica. ARI next carries out the procedure with the aid of vision and force sensors.

道路交通公害の広域的評価のための情報システム

An information system was designed, which supports calculation of indices evaluating automotive traffic pollution from area-wide point of view. Aggregation of local environment evaluation indices to area-wide indices is indispensable for environmental protection to compromise with “top down” style physical planning procedures. Some basic issues were discussed to evaluate automotive traffic pollution in area-wide scale, and several types of aggregate formula from micro-indices to macro-indices were proposed.The informaion system presented here helps such aggregation procedure of indices, as well as visual understanding of the state of the road traffic and its environmental effects. This system, which works both on super-mini-computer and on engineering workstation, provides many functions, including display of overlaying map, histogram and scattergram, and interactive data processing and data search. In addition, roadside land use data aggregation sub-system was presented with an example of trial application to calculation of indices.

A comprehensive CAD approach to the design of MMICs up to mm-wave frequencies

A comprehensive computer-aided design (CAD) approach has been developed that forms the core of a layout-oriented, process-independent simulator for an MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) design engineering workstation (EWS). The CAD solutions developed and in progress for EWS are described. The solutions include a field-theory-based, high-resolution generator which produces the modal characteristics of complex MMIC microstrip structures. Another portion used as a support tool is a three-dimensional, hybrid-mode-based analysis package for discontinuities, nonelementary rectangular conductor patterns, and the analysis of coupling problems. Thus, the layout-oriented analysis and optimization scheme developed can handle interdigitated and spiral components as well as complex coding situations.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

エンジニアリングワークステーションの動向

エンジニアリングワークステーションの動向

StrateGene: object-oriented programming in molecular biology.

This paper describes some of the ways that object-oriented programming methodologies have been used to represent and manipulate biological information in a working application. When running on a Xerox 1100 series computer, StrateGene functions as a genetic engineering workstation for the management of information about cloning experiments. It represents biological molecules, enzymes, fragments, and methods as classes, subclasses, and members in a hierarchy of objects. These objects may have various attributes, which themselves can be defined and classified. The attributes and their values can be passed from the classes of objects down to the subclasses and members. The user can modify the objects and their attributes while using them. New knowledge and changes to the system can be incorporated relatively easily. The operations on the biological objects are associated with the objects themselves. This makes it easier to invoke them correctly and allows generic operations to be customized for the particular object.

The control of a quick turnaround cell — An integrated CAD and CAM system

Quick turnaround Cell (QTC) is an integrated software/hardware system for rapid product prototyping. A QTC consists of some engineering workstations, one of a few machine tools, and a vision inspection system. The major objective of the project is to study the integration of CAD, process planning, cell control, and vision inspection. Currently a prototype QTC has been implemented at Purdue Uniersity. It is capable of producing prismatic parts. After a part is designed, it can be machined and inspected automatically. There is no human decision necessary for the planning, part programming, and cell control. The cell controller plays an extremely important role on coordinating all the system functions and providing user and machine interfaces. In this paper we will address the issues encountered in designing the cell control. The structure and the functionality of the specific design will be discussed.

The advantages of RISC architectures

Reduced Instruction Set Computers (RISCs) offer more performance per transistor than conventional Complex Instruction Set Computers (CISCs). There are now many examples of this advantage being exploited in the design of processors for high-end engineering workstations, where the RISC approach allows greater performance to be extracted from a single integrated circuit than could be obtained from a CISC processor based on the same silicon technology. Acorn has used the inherent advantage of RISC technology in a different way. The RISC approach allows 32 bit processing power to be offered at much lower cost than was possible with a CISC, because of the smaller die size required to implement the processor. The availability of this power allows system functionality to be moved from hardware to software, which in turn simplifies the support chips and further reduces system cost. A complete RISC system has been designed to partition efficiently onto four custom chips. The chipset combines with standard memory devices to deliver superminicomputer processing performance, with full support for multi-tasking and virtual memory, at a similar silicon cost to standard PC.

An Assessment of Tools for Building Large Knowledge-Based Systems

A number of tools that support the development, execution, and maintenance of knowledge-based systems are marketed commercially. Many of these tools, however, are designed for applications that can be executed on personal computers and are not suitable for building large knowledge-based systems. The market for knowledge engineering tools designed for applications that require the computational power of a Lisp machine or an engineering workstation is dominated by a few vendors. This article is an assessment of the current state of tools used to build large knowledge-based systems. This assessment is based on the collective strengths and weaknesses of several tools that have been evaluated. In addition, an estimate is made of the features that will be required in the next generation of tools.

Benchmarking simple database operations

There are two widely-known benchmarks for database management systems the TP1 benchmarks (Anon et al [1985]), designed to measure transaction throughout, and the Wisconsin benchmarks (Bitton, Dewitt, &amp; Turbyfil [1984]), designed to measure the performance of a relational query processor. In our work with databases on engineering workstations, we found neither of these benchmarks a suitable measure for our applications' needs. Instead, our requirements are for response time for simple queries. We propose benchmark measurements to measure response time, specifically designed for the simple, object-oriented queries that engineering database applications perform. We report results from running this benchmark against some database systems we use ourselves, and provide enough detail for others to reproduce the benchmark measurements on other relational, object-oriented, or specialized database systems. We discuss a number of factors that make an order of magnitude improvement in benchmark performance caching the entire database in main memory, avoiding query optimization overhead, using physical links for prejoins, and using an alternative to the generally-accepted database “server” architecture on distributed networks.

Foreign functions and common Lisp

The language Common Lisp is a standard dialect of Lisp which has been implemented on a wide range of machines by a variety of commercial and academic groups. One serious flaw in the Common Lisp standard, at least to many Common Lisp users on "general-purpose" hardware, 1 is the lack of an defined foreign function interface, or FFI. The subject of this note is a discussion of FFI's for three different Common Lisp systems on engineering workstations and some thoughts on what foreign function interfaces ought to look like.

REFINING EARLY DESIGN DECISIONS WITH A BLACK-BOX MODEL

For all the modules of Computervision's computer-aided design, engineering and manufacturing workstation, the CADDS station, the number of icons representing the various applications and tools is greater than 5000, with the new icon designs being added daily. This number of symbols is greater than the number of characters in the basic Chinese system of ideograms, according to one introduction to the language. Computervision had no icon design manual to ensure legibility, readability, and consistency among these signs, which were being developed by software groups in four different countries.

CAD/CAM in the electronic manufacturing industry

In the electronic field, computerized algorithms and computer aided tools have received much more attention and operative acceptability than in any other manufacturing industry. As a consequence, a larger technical cad/cam integration has been achieved between the two traditionally separated worlds of design and production.The transfer of methodological know-how from the latter to the former, in addition to the availability of stand-alone powerful engineering workstations, is now opening the way to a new innovative cycle which is likely to reshape to whole structure of the electronic systems industry.The paper comments this innovation process by following the evolution of three of the basic manufacturing technologies. Trends driving future organizational changes will be drawn together with some parallelism toward the manufacturing mechanical industry.

An edge-based data structure for two-dimensional finite element analysis

The introduction of engineering work stations has made it possible for an analyst to describe a two-dimensional finite element model and view its response in a real-time, interactive graphical environment. This interactive environment puts severe performance restrictions on finite element programs. The programs must be able to respond to an analyst's request in a reasonable amount of time. The traditional finite element data structures cannot provide the required performance. This paper introduces a new application of an existing data structure, the winged-edge, which can provide the required performance. The winged-edge data structure is described, with particular emphasis given to its use for finite element analysis. The implementation of the data structure in a fracture analysis program is discussed and a number of examples of its use are presented.

Automatic generation of equations of motion from graphic input of vibration model. The system for two-dimensional vibrations of multi-body systems.

In order to make vibration analysis an easy and automated task for designers, it is desirable to develop interactive vibration analysis systems using personal computers or engineering work stations which have a user-friendly interface for easy input of the vibration model, and which can perform automatic generation of equations of motion, and automatic numerical analysis of them. As the first step towards such systems, an automatic generation system of equations of motion was developed for two-dimensional vibrations of multi-body systems. The system developed is written in Smalltalk-80 which is a typical object-oriented language, and can perform the following : (1) The system has user-friendly interface for graphic input of vibration model which enables users to make figures of a vibration model on the display by choosing the vibration model elements listed in the menu by a pointing device (mouse). (2) The system is applicable to extensive models of two-dimensional vibrations of multi-body systems which contain various constraints and nonlinear elements.

Integral-C—a practical environment for C programming

Integral C 1 is an industrial grade integrated programming environment for C programming on an engineering workstation. A single interactive tool replaces a syntax checking editor, a compiler, and a source-level debugger. Its multi-window user interface allows program editing and animated source level debugging, tailored to the needs of a C programmer. The compiler accepts standard C code and reacts to editing changes with function-level incremental compilation. Compilation is done without prompting to maintain the client program in a ready-to-run state. Emitted code is instrumented to catch run-time errors and to permit fine grained debugging. Debugging support code is written in C in a 'workspace', which grants it direct access to a local scope while keeping it separate from the client program.

An Intelligent Workstation for Electrocenter Design

Using techniques of artificial intelligence, a prototype of an intelligent engineering workstation to be used in the design of Electrocenters specialized buildings that contain equipment for the distribution and control of electrical power is being developed. The research has two primary goals: 1) to provide an engineer with an environment that will enhance his productivity, and 2) to gain insight into, and develop a model of, the creative processes involved in engineering design. The results of this research may be generalized to apply to other ill-structured problem domains that require creative decision-making. The verbalizations of an expert engineer as he worked through the entire task of translating a customer's specifications into a final design proposal were observed and recorded. Analysis of these verbal protocols and subsequent interviews have led to 1) a preliminary model of his decisionmaking and design processes, and 2) a model of an intelligent engineering workstation. The workstation is intended to fill the role of a trained assistant to the engineer. The current state of the research is described, and the proposed architecture of the workstation is discussed. A short review of related research is also presented.

The evolution of the mission control center

A discussion of the function and history of the Space Shuttle Mission Control Center describes the communications and data processing facilities, with an emphasis on display system changes. The current display system will be replaced by new technology as part of a project called the Mission Control Center Upgrade. That upgrade will implement a set of high-performance Local Area Networks (LANs) which transmit real-time and historical data to engineering workstations for processing and display. The benefits from such an architecture include a more flexible software development environment and a more modular system which will promote future upgrades. The proposed upgrade architecture is explored, and the engineering and project management challenges of that effort are described, emphasizing the local area networks task.