EAGER: Critical Assessment of Shape Retrieval Tools

这个早期概念探索性研究（EAGER）项目将研究用于比较和评估形状检索工具（SRT）性能的定量指标，这在3D搜索中有潜在的应用。3D搜索使设计师能够搜索已经制造的零件的现有存储，以找到具有相似形状的零件。该商店整合了所有设计师和制造工程师的累积专业知识，每个零件都有详细的3D几何描述，相关制造商和经过验证的工艺计划，可以可靠地依赖执行，因此大大简化了制造所需零件的过程。开发的措施将用于评估可用的工具，并试图确定其潜在的优势和劣势，包括其检索准确性和稳健性。许多行业已经被复杂的搜索工具所改变，这些工具让用户可以轻松访问服务，但制造业服务仍然无法访问，而且过于频繁地依赖于专家干预和设计师与制造商之间的谈判。实现制造即服务的最关键工具是用户友好的“搜索引擎”，用于定位已经制造的几何形状相似的零件及其相关制造商。由于这些制造商拥有生产零件所需的所有能力和知识，因此它们对供应商来说是潜在的高利润零件，对客户来说是低成本零件。有趣的是，这种进化模式已经成功地改变了除制造业以外的大多数服务，包括零售、出版、税务准备等。研究者将在ASME制造科学与工程会议和适当的计算机械协会会议上组织和组织特别小组会议，突出他的发现。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project will research quantitative metrics for comparing and assessing the performance of shape retrieval tools (SRT), which have potential application in 3D search. 3D search enables a designer to search the existing store of parts that have already been manufactured to find parts with similar shapes. That store incorporates the cumulative expertise of all the designers and manufacturing engineers who worked on them and each part has a detailed 3D geometrical description, an associated manufacturer and a proven process plan that can be depended on to execute reliably, therefore greatly simplifying to process of making the needed parts. The developed measures will be used to evaluate available tools and attempt to identify their underlying strengths and weaknesses, including their retrieval accuracy and robustness. Many industries have been transformed by sophisticated search utilities that give users easy access to services, but manufacturing services remain inaccessible and too frequently depend on expert intervention and designer-to-fabricator negotiations. The most critical tool for implementing manufacturing as a service is a user-friendly 'search engine' for locating geometrically similar parts that already have been manufactured, along with their associated manufacturers. Since those manufacturers have all the capability and knowhow needed to produce the parts, they are potentially high profit parts for suppliers and low-cost parts for customers. Interestingly, this evolutionary model has been successful in transforming most services other than manufacturing, including retailing, publishing, tax preparation, and etc. The investigator will organize and conduct special panel sessions highlighting his findings at the ASME Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference and an appropriate Association for Computing Machinery conference.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.