The Experts below are selected from a list of 87 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Qi Gao - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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A Novel Imperialist Competitive Algorithm for Scheme Configuration Rules Mining of Product Service System
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 2020Co-Authors: Zhen Yin, Qi GaoAbstract:When designing a product service system scheme, the most critical issue is how to quickly and accurately translate customer value requirements into scheme technical characteristics. It is difficult to solve this problem by only the experience and knowledge of engineers. Effective Configuration Rule is necessary to assist engineers in scheme design. Therefore, a method of scheme Configuration Rules mining of product service system based on objective data rather than subjective data is proposed, and a new imperialist competition algorithm is introduced as an alternative method to solve multi-objective optimization problems. On the basis of the traditional imperialist competition algorithm, the empire initialization is carried out by adopting the progressive Latin hypercube sampling method, which improves the uneven distribution of the empire in the search space and expands the search range of the algorithm. This algorithm introduces imperialism splitting mechanism into the revolution process, so that it can quickly jump out of the local optimum and effectively avoid premature convergence. Besides, it introduces clonal evolution operator in competition process to reproduce the countries with strong influence. The clonal populations are randomly crossed and high-efficiency mutated to guide the algorithm forward in the optimal solution direction. Furthermore, the support–confidence framework is extended to form a Rule evaluation system consisting of support, confidence, interest, comprehensible and Kulczynski metric. The Rule evaluation system significantly improves the quality of Rules and obtains more meaningful Rules. Finally, the proposed method is used to mine the data in the historical case database of NC machine tool enterprises. The method has fast solving speed and can obtain high-quality Rules.
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A Novel Imperialist Competitive Algorithm for Scheme Configuration Rules Extraction of Product Service System
Procedia CIRP, 2019Co-Authors: Zhen Yin, Qi GaoAbstract:Abstract When designing a product service system scheme, the most critical issue is how to quickly and accurately translate customer value requirements into scheme technical characteristics. It is difficult to solve this problem by only the experience and knowledge of engineers. Effective Configuration Rules are necessary to assist engineers in scheme design. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel Configuration Rule extraction method based on a new imperialist competitive algorithm. Compared to traditional algorithms, the progressive Latin Hypercube Sampling method is introduced to improve the uneven distribution of empires in the search space caused by random, so as to expand the search scope of the algorithm. This algorithm introduces clonal evolution operator in competition process to reproduce the countries with strong influence. The clonal populations are randomly crossed and high-efficiency mutated to guide the algorithm forward in the optimal solution direction. Finally, the method is applied to the mining process of scheme Configuration Rules of NC machine tool product service system. The method has fast solving speed and can obtain high-quality Rules.
Anna Tidstam - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Formulating constraint satisfaction problems for the inspection of Configuration Rules
Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design Analysis and Manufacturing, 2015Co-Authors: Anna Tidstam, Johan Malmqvist, Alexey Voronov, Knut Åkesson, Martin FabianAbstract:Product Configuration is when an artifact from a product family is assembled from a set of predefined components that can only be combined in certain ways. These ways are defined by Configuration Rules. The product developers inspect the Configuration Rules when they develop new Configuration Rules or modify the Configuration Rules set. The inspection of Configuration Rules is thereby an important activity to avoid errors in the Configuration Rules set. Several formulations of constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) are proposed that facilitate the inspection of Configuration Rules in propositional logic (IF-THEN, AND, NOT, OR, etc.). Many of the Configuration Rules are so called production Rules; that is, a Configuration Rule is an IF-THEN expression that fires when the IF condition is met. Several Configuration Rules build chains that fire during the product Configuration. It is therefore important not only to inspect single Configuration Rules but also to analyze the effect of multiple Configuration Rules. Formulating the tasks as variations of the CSP can support the inspection activity. More specifically, we address the reformulation of Configuration Rules, testing of feature variant combinations, and counting of item quantities from an item set. The suggested CSPs are tested on industrial vehicle Configuration Rules for computational performance. The results show that the time for achieving results from the solving of the CSP is within seconds. Our future work will be to implement the various CSPs into a demonstrator that could be tested by product developers.
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Efficient Development of Vehicle Configuration Rules
2014Co-Authors: Anna TidstamAbstract:The aim of this PhD thesis is to describe an efficient and user-friendly development process for vehicle Configuration Rules. The development of vehicle Configuration Rules precedes the sales Configuration, and is the process of authoring, evaluating and releasing Configuration Rules sets. The vehicle Configuration Rules are logic expressions using IF, AND, NOT, OR etc. An example of a vehicle Configuration Rule is IF(seat heating ventilation) THEN(comfort seats). The research method used was analysing the development of vehicle Configuration Rules by focusing on 1) Configuration information models, 2) Configuration Rules development process and 3) Configuration Rules visualisation methods. The result from the first research paper was a vehicle Configuration information model, on which all the following research papers were subsequently based. The development process was modelled and analysed for evaluating how the time-efficiency could be improved with fewer iterations. The aim of a more efficient and user-friendly development process for vehicle Configuration Rules was then fulfilled by developing a new Configuration Rules visualisation method. This new matrix-based Configuration Rules visualisation method uses an inference engine. The inference engine draws conclusions based on computations of the vehicle Configuration Rules. The conclusions are then shown in the matrix-based vehicle Configuration Rules visualisation. The computations were previously done manually by the product developer, and hence some training and time were required to undertake the Configuration Rules analysis. The usability and time-efficiency were evaluated with formative usability tests. These tests were conducted with product developers from the automotive industry. With the demonstrator, the product developers answered the test questions within minutes instead of hours/days/weeks. The conclusion is that development processes for vehicle Configuration Rules could become more time-efficient and user-friendly by developing the Configuration Rule visualisation tools. More research is, however, needed on the development of vehicle Configuration Rules, in particular, research is needed on complexity management and product rationalisation.
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Comparison of Configuration Rule Visualizations Methods
2013Co-Authors: Anna Tidstam, Johan MalmqvistAbstract:The aim of this paper is to compare matrix- and list-based Configuration Rule visualization methods in order to find the effects of using a certain visualization method. Especially, the visualizations’ impact on readability and how the Configuration Rules are authored are studied. A case study was conducted at two automotive manufacturing companies. The research method included to observe users as they were authoring Configuration Rules, to study the visualization methods, and to interviews users of the PDM system visualizing the Configuration Rules. It was found that common aim for the users is to author easy to read Configuration Rules, which this paper shows is highly dependent on the visualization method. The conclusion is thereby that the choice of visualization method influence how the Configuration Rules are authored.
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PLM - Comparison of Configuration Rule Visualizations Methods
Product Lifecycle Management for Society, 2013Co-Authors: Anna Tidstam, Johan MalmqvistAbstract:The aim of this paper is to compare matrix- and list-based Configuration Rule visualization methods in order to find the effects of using a certain visualization method. Especially, the visualizations’ impact on readability and how the Configuration Rules are authored are studied. A case study was conducted at two automotive manufacturing companies. The research method included to observe users as they were authoring Configuration Rules, to study the visualization methods, and to interviews users of the PDM system visualizing the Configuration Rules. It was found that common aim for the users is to author easy to read Configuration Rules, which this paper shows is highly dependent on the visualization method. The conclusion is thereby that the choice of visualization method influence how the Configuration Rules are authored.
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Obstacles and development of support for translation of Configuration Rules
2013Co-Authors: Anna Tidstam, Johan MalmqvistAbstract:Collaborative product development is a method for reducing costs, but there is a risk of severe obstacles during the product documentation exchange. Product documentation for configurable products describes how parts can be combined with so-called ‘Configuration Rules’. This paper is based on a case study of the Configuration Rule exchange in a collaboration project between two automotive firms. The research approach was to create information and process models for the Configuration Rule exchange, and then to discuss obstacles and improvements. The results showed that the main obstacles were the difference in authoring methods, causing difficulties in detecting changes as well as a time-consuming reformulation of Configuration Rules. An implemented algorithm addressing the change detection serves its purpose to demonstrate the effort required to overcome this obstacle during a Configuration Rule exchange. The identified obstacles, and the effort to overcome them, are crucial to understand in order to motivate and direct further research of improved Configuration Rule exchange support.
Zhen Yin - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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A Novel Imperialist Competitive Algorithm for Scheme Configuration Rules Mining of Product Service System
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 2020Co-Authors: Zhen Yin, Qi GaoAbstract:When designing a product service system scheme, the most critical issue is how to quickly and accurately translate customer value requirements into scheme technical characteristics. It is difficult to solve this problem by only the experience and knowledge of engineers. Effective Configuration Rule is necessary to assist engineers in scheme design. Therefore, a method of scheme Configuration Rules mining of product service system based on objective data rather than subjective data is proposed, and a new imperialist competition algorithm is introduced as an alternative method to solve multi-objective optimization problems. On the basis of the traditional imperialist competition algorithm, the empire initialization is carried out by adopting the progressive Latin hypercube sampling method, which improves the uneven distribution of the empire in the search space and expands the search range of the algorithm. This algorithm introduces imperialism splitting mechanism into the revolution process, so that it can quickly jump out of the local optimum and effectively avoid premature convergence. Besides, it introduces clonal evolution operator in competition process to reproduce the countries with strong influence. The clonal populations are randomly crossed and high-efficiency mutated to guide the algorithm forward in the optimal solution direction. Furthermore, the support–confidence framework is extended to form a Rule evaluation system consisting of support, confidence, interest, comprehensible and Kulczynski metric. The Rule evaluation system significantly improves the quality of Rules and obtains more meaningful Rules. Finally, the proposed method is used to mine the data in the historical case database of NC machine tool enterprises. The method has fast solving speed and can obtain high-quality Rules.
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A Novel Imperialist Competitive Algorithm for Scheme Configuration Rules Extraction of Product Service System
Procedia CIRP, 2019Co-Authors: Zhen Yin, Qi GaoAbstract:Abstract When designing a product service system scheme, the most critical issue is how to quickly and accurately translate customer value requirements into scheme technical characteristics. It is difficult to solve this problem by only the experience and knowledge of engineers. Effective Configuration Rules are necessary to assist engineers in scheme design. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel Configuration Rule extraction method based on a new imperialist competitive algorithm. Compared to traditional algorithms, the progressive Latin Hypercube Sampling method is introduced to improve the uneven distribution of empires in the search space caused by random, so as to expand the search scope of the algorithm. This algorithm introduces clonal evolution operator in competition process to reproduce the countries with strong influence. The clonal populations are randomly crossed and high-efficiency mutated to guide the algorithm forward in the optimal solution direction. Finally, the method is applied to the mining process of scheme Configuration Rules of NC machine tool product service system. The method has fast solving speed and can obtain high-quality Rules.
Johan Malmqvist - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Formulating constraint satisfaction problems for the inspection of Configuration Rules
Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design Analysis and Manufacturing, 2015Co-Authors: Anna Tidstam, Johan Malmqvist, Alexey Voronov, Knut Åkesson, Martin FabianAbstract:Product Configuration is when an artifact from a product family is assembled from a set of predefined components that can only be combined in certain ways. These ways are defined by Configuration Rules. The product developers inspect the Configuration Rules when they develop new Configuration Rules or modify the Configuration Rules set. The inspection of Configuration Rules is thereby an important activity to avoid errors in the Configuration Rules set. Several formulations of constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) are proposed that facilitate the inspection of Configuration Rules in propositional logic (IF-THEN, AND, NOT, OR, etc.). Many of the Configuration Rules are so called production Rules; that is, a Configuration Rule is an IF-THEN expression that fires when the IF condition is met. Several Configuration Rules build chains that fire during the product Configuration. It is therefore important not only to inspect single Configuration Rules but also to analyze the effect of multiple Configuration Rules. Formulating the tasks as variations of the CSP can support the inspection activity. More specifically, we address the reformulation of Configuration Rules, testing of feature variant combinations, and counting of item quantities from an item set. The suggested CSPs are tested on industrial vehicle Configuration Rules for computational performance. The results show that the time for achieving results from the solving of the CSP is within seconds. Our future work will be to implement the various CSPs into a demonstrator that could be tested by product developers.
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Comparison of Configuration Rule Visualizations Methods
2013Co-Authors: Anna Tidstam, Johan MalmqvistAbstract:The aim of this paper is to compare matrix- and list-based Configuration Rule visualization methods in order to find the effects of using a certain visualization method. Especially, the visualizations’ impact on readability and how the Configuration Rules are authored are studied. A case study was conducted at two automotive manufacturing companies. The research method included to observe users as they were authoring Configuration Rules, to study the visualization methods, and to interviews users of the PDM system visualizing the Configuration Rules. It was found that common aim for the users is to author easy to read Configuration Rules, which this paper shows is highly dependent on the visualization method. The conclusion is thereby that the choice of visualization method influence how the Configuration Rules are authored.
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PLM - Comparison of Configuration Rule Visualizations Methods
Product Lifecycle Management for Society, 2013Co-Authors: Anna Tidstam, Johan MalmqvistAbstract:The aim of this paper is to compare matrix- and list-based Configuration Rule visualization methods in order to find the effects of using a certain visualization method. Especially, the visualizations’ impact on readability and how the Configuration Rules are authored are studied. A case study was conducted at two automotive manufacturing companies. The research method included to observe users as they were authoring Configuration Rules, to study the visualization methods, and to interviews users of the PDM system visualizing the Configuration Rules. It was found that common aim for the users is to author easy to read Configuration Rules, which this paper shows is highly dependent on the visualization method. The conclusion is thereby that the choice of visualization method influence how the Configuration Rules are authored.
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Obstacles and development of support for translation of Configuration Rules
2013Co-Authors: Anna Tidstam, Johan MalmqvistAbstract:Collaborative product development is a method for reducing costs, but there is a risk of severe obstacles during the product documentation exchange. Product documentation for configurable products describes how parts can be combined with so-called ‘Configuration Rules’. This paper is based on a case study of the Configuration Rule exchange in a collaboration project between two automotive firms. The research approach was to create information and process models for the Configuration Rule exchange, and then to discuss obstacles and improvements. The results showed that the main obstacles were the difference in authoring methods, causing difficulties in detecting changes as well as a time-consuming reformulation of Configuration Rules. An implemented algorithm addressing the change detection serves its purpose to demonstrate the effort required to overcome this obstacle during a Configuration Rule exchange. The identified obstacles, and the effort to overcome them, are crucial to understand in order to motivate and direct further research of improved Configuration Rule exchange support.
Wu Hong-gan - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Construction of Forestry Map Symbol Library and Symbolization Execution Based on MapGIS K9
2010Co-Authors: Wu Hong-ganAbstract:In order to improve the cartography efficiency and the intelligent level of forestry map,we put forward the symbolization scheme of forestry map based on MapGIS K9 platform.Firstly,the symbol library of forestry map was constructed according to The Graphic Representation of Forestry Map which was issued by the National Forestry Bureau in October,2010.Then,the symbol Configuration Rule database was established to realize the expression of symbol Configuration Rule in the digital environment.Finally,the symbolization module was realized with the support of MapGIS Objects component development technology,and the thematic data of forestry were visualized according to the symbol Configuration Rule.The practice proved that the scheme could basically satisfy the cartography requirements of common forestry maps which included the forest management inventory map.