Using Gaming Technology to Digitise Complex Manufacturing Process Knowledge

This proposal seeks to leverage commercial gaming interface technology (Microsoft Kinect™) to capture and re-use human knowledge of complex manufacturing processes that use deformable materials. Kinect™ will non-intrusively engage with highly skilled workers, extracting motion data of actions that shape the raw product material to achieve design intent. Captured data will be mined to classify and link design intent/features and associated manufacturing challenges with purposeful worker actions and heuristics to address these challenges. This will result in a radical enabling technology that can automatically (i) recognise, simulate and assess manufacturing challenges in deformable materials which have previously evaded detection and (ii) suggest mitigating heuristics. A novel app-space dissemination approach will be used for commercialisation of user-generated knowledge. The project focuses on laminate lay-up processes in aerospace composites manufacturing.