Intelligent assembly modeling and simulation

Because of the intense competition in the current global economy, a company must conceive, design, and manufacture new products quickly and inexpensively. The design cycle can be shortened through simulation. Rapid technical advances in many different areas of scientific computing provide the enabling technologies for creating a comprehensive simulation and visualization environment for assembly design and planning. An intelligent environment has been built in which simple simulation tools can be composed into complex simulations for detecting potential assembly problems. The goal in this research is to develop high fidelity assembly simulation and visualization tools that can detect assembly related problems without going through physical mock-ups. In addition, these tools can be used to create easy-to-visualize instructions for performing assembly and service operations.