Visualization Concept for Representing Capability Matchmaking Results in a Virtual Environment

Abstract

The traditional production system design and reconfiguration planning are manual processes. The lately developed capability matchmaking system aims to improve the production system design with a more intelligent design approach that auto-mates the search for feasible resource combinations to specific product require-ments. Virtual reality concepts and virtual manufacturing can bring more immer-sivity, perceptual intuition and interaction to the design process, and thus speed it up. 3D graphical visualizations of a production system and its resources can help in identifying problems in the reconfiguration of industrial equipment. The result from existing capability matchmaking system in XML format is not intuitive for the designer. Additionally, it is very difficult to analyze the proposed resources based on the textual description. To enhance the efficiency and performance of the existing capability matchmaking system, especially how to present and visual-ize the possible resource combinations inside the result is seen as an essential step towards virtual and smart manufacturing. This research provides an approach to visualize the result of capability matchmaking system in a virtual simulation envi-ronment with a use case example.