Monthly Highlights 2000

November 2000

In developing standards for closely related activities, it is inevitable that separate standards groups will rework the same turf. To make interoperable standards, when turf overlaps the groups involved must harmonize their efforts. At a meeting hosted by Brown & Sharpe in Wixom, Michigan, November 14 - 16, representatives of three MEL divisions (ISD, MSID, and PED) participated in an effort to harmonize a developing ISO standard (ISO 10303, AP 219, Dimensional Inspection) with an existing CAM-I/ANSI standard undergoing revision (Dimensional Measuring Interface Standard Version 4.0). Other attendees included vendors, users, and federal laboratories representing both standards committees. Good progress was made in achieving mutual understanding. The goal of achieving semantic equivalence in areas common to the two standards was adopted, and a model was developed providing semantic equivalence of inspection features. A January 2001 meeting is planned to address other areas of overlap. NIST is playing a proactive role, having initially proposed this harmonization effort and having committed to providing an EXPRESS schema for DMIS 4.0 and a DMIS to STEP converter to enable interoperability.

Contact: John Evans, john.evans@nist.gov

October 2000

The Intelligent Systems Division worked closely with the Army Demo III contractor (General Dynamics Robotic Systems) to implement and demonstrate autonomous vehicle technology for military scout reconnaissance applications. This demonstration set a new benchmark as the highest level of autonomy ever achieved, with the vehicle running for miles off-road completely autonomously. NIST provided the control system architecture and helped GDRS with integration and testing prior to the final demonstration (Demo Bravo) in mid October.

The past year was the second phase to a three-year development, integration and testing program for the Army. The basic architecture for the control system and much of the autonomous mobility technology has been developed at NIST - obstacle detection and avoidance with Ladar, path planning, mapping and vehicle control. Other major participants include NASA's JPL, SAIC, and Sarnoff Labs.

The vehicle was able to drive autonomously over very difficult terrain at the Ft. Knox test range and is beginning to show intelligence in path selection/path planning - being able to select the safest but shortest path to an assigned destination point. The vehicle encountered ditches, heavy ruts and slopes, trees, bushes and deep grass, but was able to navigate effectively and safely.

Michael Toscano, the Joint Robotics Program Coordinator at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, praised the good teamwork that went into the development effort and stated that they consider this to be the most advanced robotics work in the world.

Contact: Maris Juberts, maris.juberts@nist.gov

August 2000

On August 14 - 16, NIST hosted a workshop aimed at defining the critical technical directions and challenges in measuring the performance of intelligent systems. Although the terms "intelligent systems" and "intelligent control" are frequently used, there is no consensus on their definition and scope. This lack of formalism hinders progress in domains that anticipate benefits from these advanced control technologies. Examples of benefits include those cited by the Integrated Technologies Roadmapping Initiative (IMTI) and the Association for Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) roadmaps. They list intelligent control as a key enabling technology to achieve increases in productivity and quality through capabilities such as machine tool self-diagnostics, tool wear and breakage monitoring, and thermal compensation. Without measures of performance, it is difficult to evaluate progress and make comparisons between different approaches to solving the same problem. Industry and government programs are asking NIST to organize efforts in defining metrics and methods for measurements to help them make decisions.

Over ninety participants from industry, academia, and government shared their multidisciplinary perspectives on how to measure intelligence of machine systems. Among the sixty plus presentations were plenary talks by notable researchers Steven Grossberg, Walter Freeman, Lotfi Zadeh, Jim Albus, Alexander Meystel, and Harold Hzu. The workshop proceedings will provide a foundational reference document for continuing work. Further focussed workshops are being planned. John Evans, Chief of MEL's Intelligent Systems division, was the Executive Chair, Alexander Meystel of Drexel University was the Program Chair, and Elena Messina, a MEL scientist, was the General Chair. The workshop was co-sponsored by DARPA, NASA, and the IEEE Intelligent Controls Society, and was held in collaboration with the IEEE Neural Net Council.

Contact: Elena Messina, elena.messina@nist.gov

June 2000

NIST and the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) hosted a one-day workshop on Near-term Objectives for Open Architecture Control in Robotics on June 28, 2000. Approximately 45 attendees listened to presentations from end users and vendors of robotics, that centered on short-term gains that can be made from adopting existing communication standards such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, XML, NTP, and SNMP for robot controllers. A group of vendors including Fanuc, Motoman, Kuka, and Adept presented a view of external interfaces divided into three areas: factory network integration, peripheral device networking, and human-machine interface, with factory integration the subject of most of the workshop. Parallel discussions during the latter part of the workshop led to a prioritization of communication standards and agreement to embark on validation testing of candidate standards.

Contact: Fred Proctor, frederick.proctor@nist.gov

May 2000

The Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory co-hosted, with the Integrated Manufacturing Technology Initiative, an industry workshop on the topic of "First Part Correct" on April 4-6. First Part Correct is the ability to design and manufacture a product correctly, the first time and every time. As companies get "leaner", and as the consciousness of the necessity of productivity improvement is raised, First Part Correct is emerging as a critical success discriminator. A select group of manufacturing experts representing various industry segments, industry associations, and government programs came together to explore what First Part Correct encompasses, share todayÕs best practices, and define a vision and steps to achieve that vision. A standing room only crowd, including representatives from all of the MEL divisions, prioritized technical nuggets that were developed during focussed breakout sessions and created action plans for the key technical issues. The main technical issues that are being addressed by action teams are business case for First Part Correct, development of an advanced controller testbed, study of "automagic" product development (the automatic translation of customer requirements into a finished product), and development of an emerging technologies database. A roadmap synthesizing the workshopÕs results will be issued this summer, with follow-on workshops being planned.

Contact: Elena Messina, elena.messina@nist.gov

April 2000

Keith Stouffer of ISD helped Tower Automotive acquire, adapt and demonstrate NAMT and SIMA remote access technology to General Motors on March 28, 29, 30. The event was a General Motors Technology Expo held for upper management and engineering staff. Tower gave a total of 36 demos in 3 days, connecting a pan/tilt/zoom camera in a welding cell in Milwaukee to the General Motors expo site in Detroit. The demonstration also harnessed through-arc weld monitoring instrumentation supplied by IMPACT Engineering, a NIST partner in the NAMT welding testbed and SIMA Collaboration projects. Tower reports that the response was very promising and that they intend to continue development, with NIST assistance. A similar demonstration was held last month for Johnson Controls, a First Tier supplier to GM, by IMPACT Engineering.

Contact:Keith Stouffer, keith.stouffer@nist.gov or Bill Rippey, william.rippey@nist.gov

Febuary 2000

An industrial partner in the AWMS project has incorporated NAMT testbed technology into their own demonstration to a major supplier of automotive components. Impact Engineering, of Jackson, MI, adopted and demonstrated some of the testbed's remote videoconferencing technology at a Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI) manufacturing plant in Kentucky. JCI is a major international Tier 1 automotive component supplier.

Impact originally began working with NIST strictly in the area of through-the-arc monitoring. A NIST on-line demo at the April 1999 Annual Welding Convention in St. Louis was well received, and Impact began to consider the remote videoconferencing capabilities as well. Impact believes that JCI and other companies will be purchasing the capabilities from them for use in regular production operations. The NIST testbed infrastructure and its use of remote technology was developed by Keith Stouffer, Jim Gilsinn, Bob Russell, and Joe Falco.

Monthly Highlights for 2003

Monthly Highlights for 2002

Monthly Highlights for 2001

Monthly Highlights for 1999

Date created: 4/16/2003
Last updated: 4/16/2003