Research Frontiers of Modeling and Simulation in Design and Manufacturing

The main problems in the computerization of discrete goods production lie in the sheer complexity of developing scientific principles for formalizing their design and manufacture. This paper first summarizes a broad framework for understanding the current state of technology using a (function, form, fabrication) triad. Geometric modeling of form plays a central role within this framework, and recent research results are presented in five related topics: 1) virtual design and manufacturing, 2) massively parallel processing, 3) multi-representation free-form modeling, 4) Numerical Control (NC) machining simulation and verification, and 5) enterprise-wide integration. The paper concludes with evolving trends in network-centric computing, and its impact on manufacturing in the 21st century.