If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to define an approach to extract the liaison graph from a 3D CAD model and analyze a method to find at least a feasible assembly sequence for the product. The method could be useful to search the optimal sequence of assembling for a product, by comparing different sequences extracted in automatic mode from a 3D CAD model. Design/methodology/approach -The method proposed analyzes the liaison graph extracted, in order to obtain the possible assembly sequences for the product under study. The extraction of the sequences is based on some attributes and parameters of the graph. Findings -By means of the method proposed it is possible to obtain in automatic mode the liaison graph of an assembly 3D CAD model. Moreover, the study of the graph obtained allows the definition of all the assembly sequences for the product. Finally, it is possible to analyse the sequences found to select the optimal sequence. Research limitations/implications -The major limitation of the approach is, actually, the great number of impossible sequences that are extracted. For this, a little intervention by the user is required. Practical implications -The application of the method allows the manufacturer to analyze and study the optimal assembly sequence without the direct use of a CAD system. The approach could be used at the early stage of the design process and by means of the database of the PDM/PLM systems. Originality/value -The approach proposed in the paper is an original method to extract a liaison graph from a 3D CAD model. The approach to extract the assembly sequences was compared with other methods and good results have been obtained. Paper type Research paperCover Cover , ball , SA1 1 Cover , ball , seat , body , spring 2 Cover , ball , seat , spring , body 3 Cover , ball , body , spring , seat 4 Cover , ball , body , seat , spring Cover , SA1 , ball 5 Cover , seat , body , spring , ball 6 Cover , seat , spring , body , ball 7 Cover , body , spring , seat , ball 8 Cover ,

The use of Augmented Reality (AR) to support assembly tasks has been an area of interest from its origins in the 90s. Since then, the benefits that this technology could bring to assembly-related tasks have been shown. And, although several advances have been done in different areas such as software, hardware, and human interaction, there are still some problems that have not allowed AR to expand and reach its full potential. Thereby, authors propose a real-time vibrotactile guidance method based on the Gestalt continuity principle and developed a Haptic Augmented Reality application with a low-cost configuration to evaluate the support of the proposed method in assembly tasks. Thus, it potentially overcomes the existing visual issues of AR allowing the user to focus on the task and avoid over-reliance into the technology. The proposed system recognizes the different parts and sub-assemblies, generates the instructions to perform the assembly based on the target position and rotation of each part and verifies the assembly. Additionally, a test was conducted to guide the user in positioning a part, obtaining a high accuracy of rotation and location placement. Also, different functions of the application were tested and the results are suitable for supporting the user guidance.

Today the assembly sequence for the products is often carried out manually and its definition, typically, is very expensive, not guaranteeing optimal solutions. Coming up with an efficient assembly sequence is the essential step to improve process productivity and reduces the time and costs related to assembly machines and equipment. The issue related to the assembly sequence of a product depends on the total number of the its components. In particular, the number of the possible sequences can be obtained through the calculus of the factorial of the number of the product components. This work presents an automatic approach intended to define assembly sequences, based on the information regard the contacts and the interferences existing among the components, which is obtained by the assembly CAD model of the product. The level of the information required by this approach allows its implementation at early stages of design, as soon as the layout of the conceptual solution of the product is defined, independently by the method used to model the CAD assembly. The procedure proposed is focused to obtain a reduced number of assembly sequences, guaranteeing that there is at least one feasible assembly sequence among them. The procedure is oriented to iteratively identify independent and important subassemblies into the CAD assembly, then merge them to specific assembling nodes and generate sequences until the whole product is analyzed. After a brief review of current methodologies developed for assembly planning, in this paper, the automated procedure for assembly sequence R. Viganò (B)

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Knowledge transfer from biologists to engineers is one of the main obstacles to the diffusion of biomimetic. An approach to overcome this obstacle is presented and discussed. This approach is based on a construct to describe high-level engineering functions stored in a relational database together with a species grouping based on a functional classification, the corresponding biological solutions and the ‘official’ taxonomy.\ud Several relationships among the keys allow extracting and organising the stored knowledge both from the engineering and from the biological point of view. An engineer can extract from this database all the biological solutions of a function formulated in the ‘engineer’s language’, and then determine the more suitable solution for his/her specific problem