Joint NCSU-Boeing Academic-Industrial Research Project

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The purpose of this project is to build a collaborative structure involving personnel from Boeing's Mathematical and Engineering Analysis Division (John Betts and Daniel Pierce) and NCSU's Applied Mathematics program (Carl Meyer, Stephen Campbell, Ilse Ipsen, Carl Kelley and four graduate students) to investigate problems of mutual interest which arise in the design and development of modern aircraft. Modern manufacturing techniques attempt to utilize sophisticated automatic assembly machines to reliably construct a product while reducing production cost and time. The problem of modeling the motion of complex dynamical systems such as robot arms, multi-axis milling machines and automated assembly tools is a central issue in the effort toward manufacturing modernization. Complex differential-algebraic equations (DAE's) are often at the heart of these problems, and the goal is to use these DAE's to simulate system performance, thereby avoiding ad hoc process design approaches and circumventing the need to build physical mockups. Notwithstanding recent advances, computer simulations in these areas are not always performed using the DAE's because state-of-the-art solution technology for DAE's is not robust and reliable enough for everyday use. Instead, engineers convert the problems to initial value differential equation problems and treat algebraic constraints using heuristics. As a result of this ad hoc process, each problem requires special treatment which not only translates into increased costs, but extends product-to-market times. The net result is a degradation in both industrial and national competitive advantages. This joint academic-industrial research project focuses on some immediate problems requiring advanced and robust DAE solvers. Specific applications include Boeing's current tool planning project which is aimed at optimizing the path of a trim tool in the production of airplane parts, the solution of an inverse problem that uses measured d ata to determine actual air pressures, and the trajectory planning problem required for Boeing's high speed civil transport project. Common to each application are DAE models which require advances in DAE solution technology before more sophisticated production engineering computing tools can be developed. The joint research effort will be facilitated through regular short visits by members of each team to the other team's site, and it will be further strengthened by installing NCSU graduate students in Boeing's Mathematics and Engineering Analysis division. Boeing will allocate a substantial amount of salary support from their research budget to allow members of their team to engage in this collaborative effort. Boeing will provide facility support in the way of office space, computing hardware and software, library resources, etc., while NCSU team members visit Bellevue. NCSU will reciprocate when Boeing personnel visit Raleigh. Boeing will provide funds to help support NCSU graduate students working on the project commensurate with their level of involvement. These funds will provide salary and living expenses for students while at Boeing. While at NCSU, the graduate students would be supported by traditional research assistantships through this grant. It is anticipated that the regular visits the PIs make to the other team's site would be short (on the order of two to three weeks per visit), but flexibility for longer visits exists. The NCSU students would stay at Boeing for longer periods so as to become fully integrated in the applications and research. Students could be at Boeing from anywhere between a few weeks to several months, depending on project needs and individual circumstances. Boeing will also grant a license for use of their nonlinear optimization software for the use of the team of principal investigators at North Carolina State University. It is currently estimated that developing a complete solution to the optimization of the path of tool trim problem could result in a substantial cost reduction of all Boeing machined tools and parts. It would also allow Boeing to achieve its targeted manufacturing rates while stabilizing employment oscillations and improve the quality of its manufactured parts. the savings are expected to be substantial by the year 2000 when it is hoped that a sizable percentage of the machining tools at Boeing will be using these methods. In the years to follow, the cost savings are expected to be truly dramatic. Moreover, this is a fundamental industrial need, used in manufacturing everything from components of your car's continuous velocity joint, the mold for your computer's cabinet, to the booster rockets on the Space Shuttle. The advances made on the machine path problem would have a very wide ranging impact. This GOALI project is jointly supported by the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS).