EAGER/Collaborative Research/Cybermanufacturing: Just Make It: Integrating Cybermanufacturing into Design Studios to Enable Innovation

增材制造是一种以一层一层的方式制造实体产品的技术，它正在重新引起人们对制造业的兴趣。与传统制造工艺（如机械加工、铸造和锻造）相比，增材制造具有许多优势，但它并不总是制造零件的最具成本效益的方法。在许多情况下，减法制造技术（即，像机械加工这样的制造过程，通过去除材料来制造成品部件）更具成本效益，但与许多增材制造系统上可用的“按钮”技术相比，它们需要额外的专业知识和设置。为了进一步提高所有数字制造技术的可访问性，并更好地告知“制造商”他们的设计的可制造性，这个早期概念探索性研究（EAGER）项目的团队将创建一套设计工具和软件应用程序，在几何形状、材料、质量、交货时间和制造成本方面提供快速的制造反馈。网络制造系统将被整合到三个合作机构（佐治亚理工学院、宾夕法尼亚州立大学和弗吉尼亚理工学院）的本科机械工程设计工作室中，并将进行正式评估，以回答研究问题，“这个网络制造系统和由此产生的设计评估能力如何实现创新？”这项工作将为未来更大规模的网络制造工作奠定基础，将工程专业学生和更广泛的制造商社区与更广泛的制造能力和专业知识联系起来，使他们为未来的工程和创业劳动力做好更好的准备。该项目的基于云的网络制造系统将由增材制造和减材制造应用程序组成，这些应用程序将提供评估零件设计可制造性所需的语义信息的集成视图。网络制造系统利用了多轴机床的刀具路径规划方面的最新进展，该系统基于新颖的基于体素的产品几何形状的灵活数据表示，这将进一步提高减法制造的灵活性和可访问性。最终的系统将部署在合作院校充满活力而又独特的设计工作室环境中，每年为数百名工程本科学生提供动手设计/建造经验。系统对设计过程的影响将使用新的评估工具直接测量，旨在探索产品设计创新的突出方面及其对学生参与的影响。该项目的方法将为绘制未来网络制造服务系统中更广泛的网络和制造能力的需求提供信息。

Additive manufacturing, in which physical products are fabricated in a layer-by-layer fashion, is creating renewed interest in manufacturing. Additive manufacturing offers numerous advantages over traditional manufacturing processes, such as machining, casting, and forging, but it is not always the most cost effective method for fabricating parts. In many cases, subtractive manufacturing techniques (i.e., fabrication processes like machining that remove material to create a finished part) are more cost-effective, but they require additional expertise and set-up compared to the "push button" technology available on many additive manufacturing systems. In order to further improve accessibility to all digital fabrication technologies, and to better inform "makers" of the manufacturability of their designs, the team of this EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project will create a set of design tools and software applications that provide rapid manufacturing feedback in terms of geometry, material, quality, lead time, and cost to fabricate a component. The cybermanufacturing system will be integrated into undergraduate mechanical engineering design studios at three partner institutions (Georgia Tech, Penn State University, and Virginia Tech) and will be formally assessed in order to answer the research question, "How does this cybermanufacturing system and resulting design assessment capability enable innovation?" This work will lay the foundation for future, larger-scale cybermanufacturing efforts that will connect engineering students and the broader maker community with a larger array of manufacturing capabilities and know-how, making them better prepared for the engineering and entrepreneurial workforce of tomorrow. The project's cloud-based cybermanufacturing system will be comprised of applications (apps) for additive and subtractive manufacturing that will provide an integrated view of the semantic information needed to assess manufacturability of part designs. The cybermanufacturing system leverages state-of-the-art advances in tool path planning for multi-axis machine tools based on novel voxel-based flexible data representations for product geometry, which will further the flexibility and accessibility of subtractive manufacturing. The resulting system will be deployed in the partner institutions' vibrant, yet distinct, design studio environments that offer hands-on design/build experiences to several hundred undergraduate engineering students each year. The impact of the system on the design process will be measured directly using novel assessment instruments designed to probe salient aspects of innovation in product design and their impact on the students engaged. This project's approach will inform requirements for mapping more expansive networks and manufacturing capabilities in future cybermanufacturing service systems.