Engineering Commons^™

Analytical Methodology For Atm Control Panel Design, Donald C. Johnson

Theses

This thesis presents a methodology for control panel design and layout along with a case study of an automated teller machine (ATM). A predictive model of human endurance and fatigue is developed from anthropometric, biomechanical and kinematics research. The layout problem is formulated to assign controls to locations to minimize the fatigue imposed on an operator performing a known set of tasks. A family of optimal and near-optimal layouts are found using conventional algorithms. The final hardware design refinements are suggested by human factors concerns. Ergonomic guidelines are also proposed for software aspects of the design. The methods and guidelines …

Material Handling In A Flexible Manufacturing Systems Processing Part Families, Paul Savory, Gerald Mackulak, Jeff Cochran

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The objective of this simulation study is to analyze the system performance of a six machine flexible manufacturing system cell in which a material handling system is to be incorporated. The analysis focuses on determining the production potential of the cell by grouping common parts into "families". To accomplish this, computer simulation models are developed using the SIMAN simulation language.

Initially the manufacturing cell is modeled with no material handling system to get an upper bound estimate of production output. We next explore the impact that an automatic guided vehicle (AGV) has on system performance of the manufacturing system cell. …

Acuta Enews December 1991, Vol. 20, No. 12

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

10-XXX gives occasion for fraud

President's Message

YaleNET, a variety of services

Think ahead to prevent fraud

MOREnet links 12 campuses

Positions available

Acuta Enews November 1991, Vol. 20, No. 11

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

President's message

Distance learning in Maine

FCC backs phone-line video

Pooling purchasing power

Area code shortage

Positions available

Acuta Enews October 1991, Vol. 20, No. 10

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

President's message

Wireless alternative to cable

AT&T donates computers

ACUTA budget for 1991-92

Voice messaging is "hit"

Publications Editor profiled

Domain Limitations And Interface Requirements For Expert Developed Knowledge Based Systems, Bernard Lee Lewis

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The expanded use of graphical, case-based and object oriented techniques in expert systems creation has made it more practical for domain experts to develop their own applications. This thesis focuses on the elements necessary in an expert/developer interface and looks at various forms and techniques that exemplify such an approach. The spreadsheet metaphor is used for an interface or managed set of interfaces that a domain expert can use in building his own expert system or prototype. criteria are established for such interfaces and recent commercial offerings that make expert-created knowledge-bases more practical are reviewed for techniques that qualify. Approaches …

Optimizing Food And Pharmaceutical Process Design With Relational Databases, Elizabeth C. Scheyder

Elizabeth C Scheyder

When designing a new food or pharmaceutical facility, a relational database is an effective tool for engineers. A centralized database on personal computers inexpensively provides the structure and accessibility for a great quantity of detailed information about equipment, instrumentation, and process parameters, as well as the ability to share this information between engineers and between disciplines. Benefits of such a system include improved quality through streamlined data checking, project-wide access to the latest data, automation of calculations, and the ability to substitute clerical time for professional time in compiling reports.

Acuta Enews September 1991, Vol. 20, No. 9

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

0+ fraud alive and well

AOS rules don't move north

Call screening not mandated

Workshop in Atlanta

Five Ps paying off

Business Manager profile

Integrated Neural Network And Machine Vision Approach For Intelligent State Identification, Cihan H. Dagli, Timothy Andrew Bauer

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An interfacing of neural networks (NNs) and machine vision to provide the next state of a system given an image of the present state of the system is presented. This interfacing is applied to a loading operation. First, a NN is trained for part recognition under conditions of rotation, location, object distortion, and background noise given an image of the part. Then, a second NN, given the output of the first NN and an image of a pallet being loaded, is trained for optimal part loading onto the pallet under conditions of noise in the image. The paradigm used is …

Acuta Enews August 1991, Vol. 20, No. 8

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

President's column

Business meeting

Regional meetings

User groups

Director's column

Workshop in Atlanta

Computer Aided Process Planning System For Generating Alternative Process Plans, Rao T. Gali

Masters Theses

Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) has a key role in Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) as an interface between design and manufacturing. Current CAPP systems treat process planning as a static function, and always generate the same machine and process combinations. Thus, these CAPP systems are inadequate for advanced manufacturing facilities such as Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS). This thesis presents research conducted for the design and development of a CAPP system called Alternative Computer Aided Process Planning (A-CAPP) which generates alternative process plans by interacting with production planning and machine loading functions to satisfy system capacity constraints.

A-CAPP is a variant …

Tardiness Heuristic For Scheduling Flexible Manufacturing Systems, Ali S. Kiran, Sema E. Alptekin, A. Celal Kaplan

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This paper evaluates the tardiness performance of a sampling-based adaptive heuristic in a dynamic manufacturing environment. A test bed, following a real world manufacturing system, has been developed. The proposed algorithm has been implemented in this simulated environment. After fine tuning the algorithm, it has been tested in various shop conditions. The results of these simulation studies are summarized.

Acuta Enews July 1991, Vol. 20, No. 7

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

ACUTA Forum

Unblocking 1-0-XXX

President's farewell

Affordable fiber to the desk

Value of utility bill audits

$60 million math/science network

A Robust Approach To Human-Computer Interface Design Using The Taguchi Method, Billie Mitchell Reed

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The application of Dr. Genichi Taguchi's approach for design optimization, called Robust Design, to the design of human-computer interface software is investigated. The Taguchi Method is used to select a near optimum set of interface design alternatives to improve user acceptance of the resulting interface software product with minimum sensitivity to uncontrollable noise caused by human behavioral characteristics.

Design alternatives for interaction with personal micro-computers are identified. Several important and representative alternatives are chosen as design parameters for the Taguchi matrix experiment. A noise field with three human behavioral characteristics as noise factors were chosen as a representative noise array. …

Acuta Enews June 1991, Vol. 20, No. 6

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Panel to focus on fraud

Interactive video bandwidth

Aggregator requirements

Telex can still be useful

Penn State still pioneering

Positions availabe

Acuta Enews May 1991, Vol. 20, No. 5

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Golf outing set for St. Louis

Network ties islands together

Reorganization at Chicago

Recycling phone books

Party Line

Call for nominations

Acuta Enews April 1991, Vol. 20, No. 4

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

ACUTA Forum

Travel cards save money

Reorganization at Chicago

Regional Directors elected

Enchancing campus safety

Drew's Knowledge Initiative

Acuta Enews March 1991, Vol. 20, No. 3

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

Telecom graduate study

Greenville Tech outgrows PBX

World-calling discounts

Call for Presentations

Update on Hawaii

Listing of exhibitors

Acuta Enews February 1991, Vol. 20, No. 2

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

ACUTA gains new tax status

Stopping a runaway dialer

Just what is an engineer?

FCC ruling awaited

Party Line

In-house accounting

The Production Data-Based Similarity Coefficient Versus Jaccard's Similarity Coefficient, Hamid Seifoddini, Manocher Djassemi

Industrial Technology and Packaging

This paper compares the performance of Jaccard's similarity coefficient with the production data-based similarity coefficient. A number of machine-component charts taken from the literature or randomly generated are used to form machine-component groups. Then, the sum of intercellular and intracellular material handling costs for each machine-component group is calculated and used as a basis for performance evaluation of the two similarity coefficients.

Acuta Enews January 1991, Vol. 20, No. 1

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

ECCI founder honored

Pocket phone test at UGA

Giving pays off for Emory

Digitizing X-rays

Illicall lists rates

Party Line

A Technological Development Model For Strategy Formation, Halvard E. Nystrom

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Summary form only given, as follows. The author presents a technological development model for product and company development based on a distinction between explicit and implicit technologies. Implicit technologies are evolving technologies while explicit technologies are established technologies. Based on empirical data from Swedish companies, a number of strategic dimensions are discussed such as network interaction and combining knowledge from various sources. These concepts are then used to present an integrated model of strategy formation and product and company development. It is argued that this view of technological development facilitates the understanding and analysis of innovation and entrepreneurship in highly …

An Empirical Analysis Of Backpropagation Error Surface Initiation For Injection Molding Process Control, Alice E. Smith, Elaine R. Raterman, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Backpropagation neural networks are trained by adjusting initially random interconnecting weights according to the steepest local error surface gradient. The authors examine the practical implications of the arbitrary starting point on the error landscape of the ensuing trained network. The effects on network convergence and performance are tested empirically, varying parameters such as network size, training rate, transfer function and data representation. The data used are live process control data from an injection molding plant

Coordinated Strategic Planning Of Hydroelectric Energy Usage Using Stochastic Dynamic Programming With Decoupled Production Cost Simulation, Duane David Highley

Masters Theses

"The method of Stochastic Dynamic Programming is applied to the problem of Long-term hydrothermal coordination for a five-reservoir system in the Midwest. The model that has been developed will optimize the monthly reservoir elevations to produce the lowest expected energy production cost. The production cost calculations are decoupled from the Dynamic Programming loop, resulting in shorter execution times. Constraints are included for maximum and minimum reservoir elevations, maximum monthly reservoir rise and drop, and maximum and minimum monthly energy production. These constraints help to reduce the state space and shorten execution time. An additional constraint is modeled to control the …

Surface Mapping And Automatic Tool Path Generation, Labiche Ferreira

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

With the use of machine vision systems in the manufacturing cycle of a product, the lead time for producing the final product has been substantially reduced. Efforts in the past have aimed at automating the tasks right from the drawing board stage to final production of the product. Such technologies include CAD, CAM, and CAPP. However the task of tool path (NC code) generation has not yet been fully automated. In the current techniques, the user plays a crucial role in the NC code generation process. There is an increasing trend for using machine vision systems in the fabrication of …

An Unsolicited Sociotechnical Intervention In A Public System: A Participatory Action Research Approach, Ely Alfred Dorsey Jr.

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This research concerns itself with Participatory Action Research in a hostile setting. The thrust is a sociotechnical one, with the intent being to enhance the capacity of the Wallop Public School System, Wallop, USA, to address its problem of racial disparate treatment of Black children. The potential for Organizational Learning among the school system's senior staff is studied. Some new theory about such hostile interventions is proposed. Also discussed are questions about reliability and construct validity within the context of the multiple role playing that an interventionist has in this setting. The role of the press is reflected in the …

Information Technology And Wealth: Cybernetics, History And Economics, Elin Whitney-Smith

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Capitalism developed where and when it did because there was high information access. There was high information access because of a major advance in information technology--the press. Where the technology was not controlled by the "powers that be" there was economic growth and a shift in the entire social structure. Where it was controlled there was no structural change and there was economic ruin. The development of capitalism is a major step change in economic growth. It is also a major change in the way people organize themselves into groups.

Major step changes in the growth and in the organization …

Toward The Development Of Decision Support Tools To Manage The Catis Project Life Cycle, Steven Wayne Mccrary

Doctoral Dissertations

"The American Public Works Administration (1987) states that communities' infrastructures are in need of repair and better management and recommends CATIS (Computer-Assisted Terraspatial Information Systems) as an excellent tool to assist in that endeavor. Small communities have several voids that CATIS technology can fill. This research reports on a life-cycle approach to CATIS adoption that will help small communities to better manage their infrastructure.

It is important for small communities to become aware of the types of systems available and what each system can do. This study presents a straightforward, understandable discussion of CATIS technologies, features, and applications. Justifying the …