New Product Development Cycle Improvement Using Virtual Reality in Manufacturing Sector

Abstract

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In today’s world the customer demand is changing each day. It is very difficult to come up with new products now and then. Prototyping in all industries is very expensive and time consuming except in the software industry. To reduce this, it is necessary to come up with an economically viable alternative for developing new products rapidly and continually.

The current demand to reduce the time and cost involved in taking a product from conceptualization to production has forced companies to turn to new and emerging technologies in the area of new product development. One such technology is virtual reality (VR). Virtual reality allows a user to step through the computer screen into a three-dimensional (3D) world. The user can look at, move around, and interact with these worlds as if they were real. The primary concept behind VR is that of illusion. Virtual Prototyping (VP) is application of VR to simulate physical prototypes using product and process data, trying to emulate all characteristics of the physical prototype relevant to the application area as closely as possible (Zachmann, 2010). VR is used in various sectors like Architecture, Entertainment, Education & Training, Art, Medicine etc. VR is in initial stage of its use in India and especially in new product development.

This research is to study the viability of VR and its application in Indian manufacturing sector. In this research 3 products of sub industries are targeted. The products are Thresher from agricultural industry, Air conditioner (AC) from the home appliances industry and Parts manufactured using CNC from industrial product (parts) industry are studied. To do the research, questionnaire is used as instrument as research is exploratory. The questionnaire has been filled by 90 respondents from various groups like product designers, engineers and manufacturers. The approach to the study was administering a questionnaire to product designers, engineers and manufacturers of AC, thresher and parts manufactured using CNC machine via telephone, mail and face to face meeting.

Conclusion that can be drawn is virtual reality has good potential in Indian manufacturing sector. Virtual reality tool can be used for error identification and is also a reliable tool. The use of virtual reality can lead for a better understanding of process and mechanism for the engineers, help in designing to designer and manufacturers will be benefited as the process can be developed virtually. Virtual reality can lead to reduction in number of engineers, product designers and market analysts. The testing under difficult condition can be done quickly and economically. Product designers feel that usability can be tested. The important conclusion is that reduction in time and cost can be attained by use of virtual reality.

Rice Thresher

Background of the Invention

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The invention relates to a threshing machine, in particular a threshing machine to be used in the production of rice.

Threshing machines are machines designed to separate individual grains husks and stalks. The basic concept shared by threshing machines used for threshing rice is to insert the unmilled rice (known as rice paddy) into a machine having a spinning drum which has protrusions on its outer surface and a concave disposed around a substantial part of the drum. The concave is also arranged to have protrusions, or is made of a structure of parallel bars. When the machine is operating, the drum spinning in the concave pulls the material through the machine, and the grains pass between the protrusions on the drum and the concave, which separates the grains from the stalks by the contact of the drum and concave on the rice panicles. The clearance between the concave and the drum must be set correctly for the specific grain type being used, so as not to damage, crush, or split the grains.

The protrusions on the drum may take the form of radial pegteeth, rasp bars or wire loops. Each of these elements has its own advantages and disadvantages, notably the problems encountered with wet straw, which often clogs the concave element of the threshing machine. Wire loops, while they damage the grain less than pegteeth or rasp bars, degrade much faster and therefore require more frequent maintenance.

Currently, tangential flow threshers pass the crop tangentially between the drum and the concave, and require a system of sieves to separate the grains from the chaff after threshing. The rice paddy is fed from the front of the thresher, either by hand or by conveyor.This method of threshing is known to be damaging to the grains, especially in the case of basmati rice.

The International Rice Research Institute manufactures an axial flow thresher, in which the whole crop moves around the drum periphery due to the spinning of the drum in the concave, with a pegtooth threshing element arrangement. this performs well with wet crop and does not require straw separators, but has a higher power requirement than many threshers. The power requirements of this type of thresher can be too large for some small-scale agricultural practices.

These threshing devices all use a drum and concave arrangement in which the drum has an axis horizontal to the ground. A low power, convenient method of threshing rice which improves on the efficiency currently achieved by standard mechanised threshers, which does not significantly damage grains which are passed through it, and that can take wet crop is required.

Collaborators

Industrial Robotic Arm

Summary

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The aim of this project was to develop a robotic arm meant for commercial purpose. The robot was used to pick and place objects, and in painting and other applications. The microcontroller was used to control the DC servo motors. It was a multipurpose device where the two arms could work in different directions.

Collaborators

SOS Cellphone for Oldage Assitance

Abstract

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Seeing back a few months ago in February we got a great opportunity to meet Dr Anil Gupta sir in IIMA and he proposed us a very simple yet elegant project of making a one push button cell phone for the necessitarianism. We started working on it immediately and within the next day we had a prototype ready. we had used an arduino UNO micro controller and a GSM shield interfaced together with a simple push button. On seeing the prototype he was more than happy and immediately motivated us to continue on the project betterment as it was pretty bulky and heavy too. We replaced UNO with Arduino NANO but this micro controller didn’t had enough functional pins for the interacting of both A GSM shield and button. We sought for another replacement of NANO. It was Arduino MINI PRO 2. But this had the same demerit as the NANO. Choosing Arduino was necessary because it has great functions, a readymade Atmega onboard, ease of programming and most important of all it was an open source C platform. Size was a big constraint and we are still working on its reduction as well as efficiency.Thanks to shristi foundation we were generously granted 13000 INR before we started working on the project. We at first attempt wasted the GSM shield due to over voltage of battery. This happened because both the Shield as well as UNO required a min of 4.5 volt to work. This in turn forced us to use a 12 volt battery and to reduce its voltage which was not an easy task at all. In our second attempt we wasted an Arduino. Now we have an alternate for the GSM shield, a GSM sim 900A chip. this reduced the size of the module remarkably. We have also fabricated an Acrylic box as the casing of this chip and micro controller. Yet another constraint we are still facing is the optimum battery for it and its charging. Thus after this many months of R&D and testing we have reached unto 50% of the actual work. We sure hope to complete is as soon as possible.

Collaborators

Security Door Lock

Abstract

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In this project we want to make a security system in which our I-card’s barcode will be scanned by a camera using image processing technology. We will scan and decode the barcode, from which it will be decided by program to open the door for registered barcode.

Surveillance System with Intimation of Unauthorized Person via Email and SMS

Abstract

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In surveillance, CCTV camera is costly because of the use of computer. It reserves too much space for continuous recording and also require manpower to detect the unauthorized Activity. But compared to the existing system Raspberry pi system is much cheaper with better resolution and low power consumption feature. Here pyroelectric infrared (PIR) sensors are used as a simple but powerful people presence triggers. This system is suitable for small personal area surveillance. i.e. personal office cabin, bank locker room, parking entrance. Whenever the motion is detected through PIR sensor inside the room the image is captured through camera and temporarily stored in the raspberry pi module. Internet of things based application can be used remotely to view the activity and get notifications when motion is detected. System works standalone without the PC once programmed.

Collaborators

Cloud Computing based Home Automation

Abstract

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Increasing demand in the face of aging infrastructure has presented its cities with the opportunity to transform energy generation, storage, and distribution (as well as demand management). Energy systems involve a broad range of technologies including conversion systems (e.g., power plants, distributed renewables), transmission systems (e.g., power transmission lines, gas pipelines), and enduse systems (e.g., furnaces, boilers, air conditioners, heat pumps, lighting). Understanding the problem faced by world, it has become necessary to save energy in whichever form possible. We would like to setup a network of sensors which consumes less power and saves more electrical energy by controlling lights which are unnecessarily ON.

Collaborators

Euro Cheaper Assembling

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Involved in assembling shop floor machinery along with a team of engineers from offshore machine manufacturer.

Installation of Destoner Machine in Live plant

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Installed Destoner machine to filter stones from raw material in well-designed plant. After calculating flow rate and evaluating infrastructure planet planned place to install.

Smart ATM with High Security features

Abstract

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Data Logger System for smart ATM use case where logging in done using face recognition leveraging services of Microsoft Azure

Smart Lightening Lamp

Summary

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“Knowledge removes ignorance, just as light removes darkness”, as it is wisely said. In India, the ancient tradition of lighting oil lamps has a special significance. Almost all auspicious ceremonies are commenced by lighting a lamp. Hence came the idea to merge our traditional culture with the digital world using this DIY Arduino Lamp. We did this by lighting a series of LEDs wirelessly on an oil lamp by using a smartphone app. By doing so, we believe that we are upholding our tradition as well as trying to do something fun and innovative.

DIY Hacking Link

Collaborators

Smart Ticketing System

Summary

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Coming Soon...........

Collaborators

Arm Gesture Controlled Fire Extinguisher Robot

Summary

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As we already know, lives are at stake while unfortunate occurrences of a fire breakout happen with the advent of electrical era this phenomenon have increased even further in houses and factories. The main objective behind this project will be to help fire department by sending a simple robot sketch to detect, see and extinguish fire in a building or a single floor thus lessening the need of men to risk their lives. The basic idea is to make a prototype of a kind of robot that can be sent to buildings on fire, as the name suggests this robot is to be controlled by a human arm making use of both the fields i.e. embedded and communication field we intend to create a robot which is able to broadcast live footage inside the building and at the same time, will be operated by the user outside the building. This could be achieved by placing one microcontroller/processor at the transmitter side (at robot) and one microcontroller/processor at the receiver side (human arm). The microcontroller/processor at the transmitter side will give the signal to the receiving microcontroller/processor and the robot will act accordingly

Collaborators

Quadcopter

Summary

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Our group is developing a QUADCOPTER using basic microcontrollers like arduino,UNO,arduino mini etc. We are also focusing on controlling it with laptop or mobile phones.

The main application of this Qudcopter is Survelliance of our campus, So that we can get the current situation of whole campus without roaming around. It can be used for photography of several events too.

Collaborators

Mammoth

Summary

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A mammoth is a smart material transporter robot which eases the material handling and transporting capabilities inside any production facility. It weights around 27 kg. It is made up of iron metal and composite material. With smart cameras onboard this robot does not need any navigation stripes or guiding sensors as well. Other than camera the mountings include a programmable microcontroller, an LED display, RF modem etc. Mammoth can automatically localize itself and can run in wide range of environments. The pay load capacity of mammoth ranges between 100Kg-500Kg.As for manual controlling a Radio frequency remote of 2.4 GHz can be used to move it. The remote control modem has a 20 meter range. In outdoor condition Mammoth can work without any manual control hence battery must be charged. It can work for 2 hours after a single charge. As the main application of robot is to carry a very heavy payload, the speed will considerably decrease. Its average speed is about 0 m/s-1 m/s which is adjustable

Robo Arm

Summary

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Coming Soon.....

Hexapod Robot

Summary

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As the name suggests its a six legged hexapod robot. All the six legs are controlled by 3 servo motors which are fitted below. The body is made up of very high quality acrylic. It is a programmable robot which is capable of walking forward, backward, and can turn left and right. It can store multiple sequences. Driven with high torque servo motors it provides precise mechanism of walking. It has 3 degree of freedom (DOF) in total.

Line follower Robot

Summary

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A Line follower Robot is basically a robot designed to follow a 'line' or path already predetermined by the user. This line maybe as simple as physical white line on the floor or as complex path marking schemes e.g. Embedded lines, magnetic markers and laser guide markers. To detect these markers, various sensing themes are employed. These schemes may vary from simple low cost line sending circuit to expansive vision systems. The choice of these schemes would be dependent upon the sensing accuracy and flexibility required. Apart from line following capabilities, these robots should also have the capability to navigate junctions and decide on which junction to ignore. Thus the robot requires to have 90 degree turn and also junction counting capabilities. They are robots with pick-and-place capabilities, which means picking components from specified locations and placing them onto desired locations.

Motion Detector

Summary

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It detects motion with the use of an ultrasonic sensor connected to an arduino uno microcontroller. The sensor is capable of measuring the distance of the object in front on it, and when motion is detected in front of it a bulb is lit up, which itself is connected by a relay. This has multiple applications, such as tracker robot.

Collaborators

Bi-pedal Robot

Summary

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A two legged robot, which looks like a human leg. It has 4 servo motors, which can be controlled independently for movement. It has two degrees of freedom (DOF). We control it by an arduino microcontroller.