Concurrent Engineering and Robot Prototyping

  Mohamed Dekhil, Tarek M. Sobh, Thomas C. Henderson, and Robert Mecklenburg


 
                                UUCS-93-023

                               September, 1993


                       Department of Computer Science
                              University of Utah
                       Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA



                                  Abstract


This report addresses the theoretical basis for building a prototyping
environment for electro-mechanical systems using concurrent engineering
approach. 
In Designing a robot manipulator, as an example of electro-mechanical systems,
the interaction between several modules (S/W, VLSI, CAD, CAM, Robotics, and
Control) illustrates an interdisciplinary prototyping environment that includes
different types of information that are radically different but combined in a
coordinated way.
We propose an interface layer that facilitates the communication between the
different systems involved in the design and manufacturing process, and
set the protocols that enable the interaction between these
heterogeneous systems to take place.






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This work was supported in part by DARPA grant N00014-91-J-4123, NSF
grant CDA 9024721, and a University of Utah Research Committee grant.  All
opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this document
are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
sponsoring agencies.