| NSF Org: |
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | August 25, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 14, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 1462759 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Kathryn Jablokow
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $440,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $440,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
438 WHITNEY RD EXTENSION UNIT 1133 STORRS CT US 06269-9018 (860)486-3622 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
191 Auditorium Rd Storrs CT US 06269-1133 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): | ESD-Eng & Systems Design |
| Primary Program Source: |
|
| Program Reference Code(s): |
|
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
The ability to measure how well objects "fit together" is a key task in engineering design and manufacturing as well as in the broad scientific arena whenever the behavior and function of a system is dependent on proper geometric alignment. For example, assembly planning from macro to nanoscale, layout optimization and packaging, design for human variability, synthesis and self-assembly of nano-machines, novel drug design, comparative shape analysis (shape similarity), as well as personalized medicine and medical devices are all applications in which the system's behavior and function depends on the proper geometric alignment of individual components. Unfortunately, the existing approaches that attempt to measure the quality of fit between geometric interfaces are based on application-specific heuristics and are restricted to simple geometric entities. This research will develop a generic framework for geometric interfaceability in virtual product development aimed at quantifying and interpreting how well objects of arbitrary geometric complexity fit together. This new framework will stimulate critical new avenues of interdisciplinary research involving engineering, computer science, and human computer interaction with far reaching implications, and will provide an ideal vehicle for developing novel and attractive educational, recruiting, and outreach activities based on the connection of this research with popular puzzle games.
This research will develop theoretical foundations and algorithms for geometric interfaceability that would: (1) quantify and interpret shape complementarity and similarity of the geometric interfaces of arbitrary geometric complexity in terms of a novel implicit and space-continuous complex function, called the Skeletal Density Function (SDF); (2) provide the framework for automatically detecting key "features" that contribute to proper alignment or assembly as well as geometric constraints, and (3) provide algorithmic infrastructure for supporting major application domains in engineering design and manufacturing. Specifically, this research will generate the first generic and mathematically robust metric aimed at producing a qualitative and quantitative description of complementarity of geometric interfaces. Importantly, this approach completely avoids the heuristic recipes and manual intervention common in existing methods.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
Note:
When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external
site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a
charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from
this site.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The major goal of this project was to develop a theoretical and computational framework to support effective interaction mechanisms via haptic feedback for proper virtual assembly of arbitrarily complex shapes for interactive human-computer or human-robot systems.
This research resulted in new theoretical foundations and systems that are capable of quantifying and interpreting the “goodness of fit” for 3D models of arbitrary geometric complexity. The main idea is to recast the task of measuring the goodness of fit between 3D geometric models into one that processes corresponding 3D signals with tools from functional convolutions and signal processing. The techniques developed in this research led to a capable framework for automatically detecting key ‘features’ that contribute to proper alignment or assembly as well as geometric constraints in engineering design and manufacturing. We have applied these findings to the field of interactive haptic-assisted assembly simulations and showed that we can unify for the first time the traditional two haptic interaction phases of free motion and precision assembly into a single interaction mode.
Moreover, we have discovered and formulated a novel geometric representation applicable to 3D models using any valid geometric representation. Our representation relies on a unique spherical decomposition of a given 3D shape, whose computation only requires the ability of a geometric representation to compute distance. We have shown that this decomposition fully supports novel metrics for shape similarity and goodness of fit needed in haptic interactions between complex 3D models, as well as feature recognition and model decomposition of models using any valid geometric representation.
The project has also provided invaluable professional development opportunities for a number of graduate and undergraduate student researchers participating in this project and led to a number of journal and conference publications as well as patent applications.
Last Modified: 09/01/2021
Modified by: Horea T Ilies
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
