Development of a pilot manufacturing cyberinfrastructure with an information rich mechanical cad 3D model repository

Abstract

Data driven advanced manufacturing research is dependenton access to large datasets made available from across theproduct lifecycle-from the concept design phase all the waydown to end use and disposal. Despite such data being generatedat a rapid pace, most product design data is archived ininaccessible silos. This is particularly acute in academic researchlaboratories and with data generated during product design andmanufacturing courses. This project seeks to create aninfrastructure that allow users (academia and the general public)to easily upload project data and related meta-data. Currentmanufacturing research must shift from siloed repositories ofproduct manufacturing data to a federated, decentralized, openand inter-operable approach. In this regard, we build 'FabWave'a cyber-infrastructure tool designed to capture manufacturingdata. In its first pilot implementation, we focused our attentionto gathering information rich 3D Mechanical CAD data andrelated meta-data associated with them, with the intent to makeit easier for users to upload and access product design data. Wedescribe workflows that we have initially tested out within thetwo academic universities and under two different coursestructures. We have also developed automated workflows togather license appropriate CAD assemblies from commercialrepositories. Our intent is to create the only known largestavailable CAD model set within academia for enabling researchin data-driven computational research in digital design,fabrication and quality control.