
NSF Org: |
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation |
Recipient: |
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Initial Amendment Date: | August 22, 2019 |
Latest Amendment Date: | May 19, 2021 |
Award Number: | 1932264 |
Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
Program Manager: |
Bruce Kramer
CMMI Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation ENG Directorate for Engineering |
Start Date: | September 1, 2019 |
End Date: | June 30, 2022 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $242,697.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $274,697.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2020 = $16,000.00 FY 2021 = $16,000.00 |
History of Investigator: |
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Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
70 WASHINGTON SQ S NEW YORK NY US 10012-1019 (212)998-2121 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
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Primary Place of Performance: |
NY US 10012-1019 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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Parent UEI: |
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NSF Program(s): |
AM-Advanced Manufacturing, CPS-Cyber-Physical Systems |
Primary Program Source: |
01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
Program Reference Code(s): |
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Program Element Code(s): |
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Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
The additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing market has developed exponentially from $1.1B in 2009 to $7.3B in 2018 and experts estimate this to grow double in the next four years. Despite the strategic role that computer-aided design (CAD) files play in AM, designers develop, store, and use the CAD models as they do in any other manufacturing method. This study will research a novel method of imparting new functionalities in CAD models by converting them to the frequency domain using lossless algorithms. The frequency domain representation allows searching the files for specific design features of interest, which is not feasible in the current CAD file formats. Transformation to the frequency domain opens up possibilities for developing new compression and encryption methods.
Analysis will be conducted to determine the fundamental principles that lead to lossless conversion of CAD files to the frequency domain and develop compression and encryption methods for the files. Wavelet transform and dynamic time warping will be among the methods used for implementing search functionalities. Dynamic window selection and scaling methods will be used to perform feature search with and without scaling of the object size. These algorithms are based on an exact match procedure and do not rely on tuning or learning the algorithm. The project will help industries that are using AM methods, for example, the aerospace, automotive, medical and military equipment industries. Development of these unique capabilities will by provide new capabilities for design, search, and security. The project will involve post-doctoral fellows and graduate students in the research. The dissemination plan will include publishing the results in journals, conference presentations and press releases for public awareness using the news media.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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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.
Computer aided design (CAD) models play an important role in numerous design and manufacturing industry sectors. Recent advances in CAD modeling, resulting in generating design methods, have allowed creating numerous variations of a part design based on the applied load constraints. Despite such advancements in the design capabilities, the CAD programs lack the capability of searching the design files based on the model geometry. The available search algorithms mostly work on using the metadata, which, sometimes, is inserted manually. Such manual tasks are not practical with generative design methods that can create thousands of geometric variations of a design in a short time frame. The objective of this project was to develop a search algorithm that works purely on the model geometry and does not make use of metadata. The preliminary results that showed that the CAD files can be converted to frequency domain using lossless transforms and the frequency domain spectrograms can be used for developing new search methods. The major goals of this project were: (a) Development of fundamental principles for converting CAD models to audio and then back to CAD model without any loss of information. Development of algorithms based on these principles and testing of their robustness for lossless conversion and (b) Development of search functionality and authentication methods in audio format and evaluation of robustness of these methods. The availability of CAD model search capability will help industries that are using design and additive manufacturing AM methods, for example, the aerospace, automotive, and consumer hardware parts industries. The work resulted in development of algorithms for several use cases, for example, conducting the search on models oriented on different axes, the same models built by different CAD workflows, and the same model geometries of different sizes. A similarity index was developed to numerically display the similarity of two models and conduct a broader search. A higher score indicated a better match. This scheme allowed showing many different models on the screen as potential matrches with various degrees of similarities for the user to pick additional options if the top score is not the one most appropriate. The work resulted in six journal articles, seven conference presentations and a web-based system for search of CAD models based on geometry. The web interface front and back end are designed for intuitive and efficient search function while each search saves the model in the database for continuous growth and sustainability.
Last Modified: 11/14/2022
Modified by: Nikhil Gupta
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