Sheet metal forming and assembly. Working with industrial collaborators within the automotive sector we are working on a number of projects looking at the formability of sheet metal and dimensional variation of assemblies. The focus of recent work has been on the characterization and analysis of dimensional variation using PCA, kernel and wavelet methods. Studies of clamping and welding sequence has shown that assembly variation can be significantly reduced by understanding the nature of the variation and amending the assembly process accordingly.

Knowledge management. Within a manufacturing operation much tacit knowledge can be lost through poor capture of lessons learned or loss of key experienced personnel. A number of projects have been carried out looking at the looking at knowledge capture in stamping operations. This led to the development and commercialization of a system, Simpress, (www.similesystems.com.au) to facilitate knowledge capture based on principles and approaches investigated.

Freeform surface feature searching. Within an engineering context much data is associated with geometric features. This project looked at methods and techniques to isolate features on free form surfaces (such as car bodies) and search a database of similar parts to match those features. Techniques based on curvature segmentation have been used to identify features and novel graph based search techniques used to match to a database of features. This work has application in areas related to knowledge management systems.

Technology road mapping and supplier improvement. In association with the AutoCRC a project is underway to develop a comprehensive technology road map for the automotive sector in Australia. This is linked with the Automotive Supplier Excellence Australia (ASEA www.asea.com.au) program which is improving supplier performance. Much work on the techniques and approaches adopted for this program have been developed within the group.

Systems Engineering. Systems Engineering approaches are being widely adopted for the design and implementation of new products and services. The key issue often is how such approaches are implemented within an organization. A project is being undertaken to investigate key parameters of the systems engineering approach and how effective implementation can be achived.