Theoretical Foundations and Algorithms for Geometric Interfaceability in Virtual Product Development

虚拟产品开发中几何接口性的理论基础和算法

• 批准号: 1462759
• 负责人: Horea Ilies
• 金额: $ 44万
• 依托单位: University of Connecticut
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1462759&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Theoretical; Foundations; Algorithms; Geometric; Interfaceability

The ability to measure how well objects "fit together" is a key task in engineering design and manufacturing as well as in the broad scientific arena whenever the behavior and function of a system is dependent on proper geometric alignment. For example, assembly planning from macro to nanoscale, layout optimization and packaging, design for human variability, synthesis and self-assembly of nano-machines, novel drug design, comparative shape analysis (shape similarity), as well as personalized medicine and medical devices are all applications in which the system's behavior and function depends on the proper geometric alignment of individual components. Unfortunately, the existing approaches that attempt to measure the quality of fit between geometric interfaces are based on application-specific heuristics and are restricted to simple geometric entities. This research will develop a generic framework for geometric interfaceability in virtual product development aimed at quantifying and interpreting how well objects of arbitrary geometric complexity fit together. This new framework will stimulate critical new avenues of interdisciplinary research involving engineering, computer science, and human computer interaction with far reaching implications, and will provide an ideal vehicle for developing novel and attractive educational, recruiting, and outreach activities based on the connection of this research with popular puzzle games. This research will develop theoretical foundations and algorithms for geometric interfaceability that would: (1) quantify and interpret shape complementarity and similarity of the geometric interfaces of arbitrary geometric complexity in terms of a novel implicit and space-continuous complex function, called the Skeletal Density Function (SDF); (2) provide the framework for automatically detecting key "features" that contribute to proper alignment or assembly as well as geometric constraints, and (3) provide algorithmic infrastructure for supporting major application domains in engineering design and manufacturing. Specifically, this research will generate the first generic and mathematically robust metric aimed at producing a qualitative and quantitative description of complementarity of geometric interfaces. Importantly, this approach completely avoids the heuristic recipes and manual intervention common in existing methods.

当系统的行为和功能依赖于适当的几何对齐时，测量物体“配合”的能力是工程设计和制造以及广泛的科学竞技场中的关键任务。例如，从宏观到纳米级的装配规划、布局优化和包装、针对人类可变性的设计、纳米机器的合成和自组装、新型药物设计、比较形状分析（形状相似性）以及个性化医疗和医疗设备都是系统的行为和功能取决于各个组件的正确几何对齐的应用。不幸的是，现有的方法，试图衡量几何接口之间的配合质量是基于应用程序特定的几何学，并限于简单的几何实体。本研究将开发一个通用的框架几何接口在虚拟产品开发的目的是量化和解释如何以及任意几何复杂的对象适合在一起。 这个新的框架将刺激跨学科研究的重要新途径，涉及工程，计算机科学和人机交互，具有深远的影响，并将提供一个理想的工具，开发新的和有吸引力的教育，招聘和推广活动的基础上，这项研究与流行的益智游戏的连接。 本研究将发展几何界面的理论基础和算法，包括：（1）用一种新的空间连续的隐式复变函数--Skeleton密度函数（SDF）来量化和解释任意几何复杂度的几何界面的形状互补性和相似性;（2）提供用于自动检测有助于正确对准或组装的关键“特征”以及几何约束的框架，以及（3）提供算法基础设施以支持工程设计和制造中的主要应用领域。具体来说，这项研究将产生第一个通用的和数学上强大的度量，旨在产生一个定性和定量的描述几何接口的互补性。重要的是，这种方法完全避免了现有方法中常见的启发式配方和手动干预。