Reverse engineering of mechanical parts: A template-based approach

Abstract

Template-Based reverse engineering approaches represent a relatively poorly explored strategy in the field of CAD reconstruction from polygonal models. Inspired by recent works suggesting the possibility/opportunity of exploiting a parametric description (i.e. CAD template) of the object to be reconstructed in order to retrieve a meaningful digital representation, a novel reverse engineering approach for the reconstruction of CAD models starting from 3D mesh data is proposed. The reconstruction process is performed relying on a CAD template, whose feature tree and geometric constraints are defined according to the a priori information on the physical object. The CAD template is fitted upon the mesh data, optimizing its dimensional parameters and positioning/orientation by means of a particle swarm optimization algorithm. As a result, a parametric CAD model that perfectly fulfils the imposed geometric relations is produced and a feature tree, defining an associative modelling history, is available to the reverse engineer. The proposed implementation exploits a cooperation between a CAD software package (Siemens NX) and a numerical software environment (MATLAB). Five reconstruction tests, covering both synthetic and real-scanned mesh data, are presented and discussed in the manuscript; the results are finally compared with models generated by state of the art reverse engineering software and key aspects to be addressed in future work are hinted at. Highlights A novel CAD reconstruction method fitting a CAD template model to mesh data. A feature-based parametric-associative modelling history is retrieved. Fitting process is controlled by a Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. Accuracy of reconstructed models is comparable/better than state of the art results. Computational costs and required time are at the moment considerable.

Application of Reverse Engineering Technology in Part Design for Shipbuilding Industry

“…The obtained 3D models are based on geometric features (featurebased) and comprise the geometry description which provides opportunities for easy introduction of constructional changes to new innovative applications. A similar approach proposed in [4,5] is additionally combined with virtual machining, which makes it possible to recognise technological features (feature recognition). In [11], the authors propose the reverse engineering-based approach to support regeneration of worn out parts.…”

Optimization Algorithm for Multiple Phases Sectionalized Modulation Jamming Based on Particle Swarm Optimization

“…Compared with other meta-heuristic algorithms, such as genetic algorithms (GAs), PSO has advantages, such as less steps of algorithm, less memory usage, shorter computation time, faster convergence speed and higher precision. PSO has attracted the attention of academia for its advantages [29]. Therefore, this paper chooses PSO to solve the problem.…”

“…Each particle adjusts its position and speed according to the best solution obtained by the whole particle swarm and the best solution found separately. Because of its high efficiency, PSO is widely used in acoustics [31], electronics [32], reverse engineering [29], and other fields [33,34].…”

An Integrated Approach for Design and Manufacture of Plastic Products

“…Reverse engineering (RE) is a kind of engineering, which takes advantage of an already created object. The reconstruction of digital geometric models of physical objects, usually indicated as RE in the CAD field, has been extensively studied in recent years, due to the development and spreading of 3D scanning technologies and the increase in number of appropriate applications [1][2][3][4][5][6]. RE in fact, exploit 3D data acquired on the physical object and describing its surfaces as starting point for the reconstruction framework [1,2,7].…”