land-vehicle production tools


We are producing tools for designing and producing micro-mobility vehicles. An MCAD tool called The Specifier is being produced for the specification of structural-assemblies for vehicle design. A low-cost unit production facility called the Unit-construction-hub is being produced for designs specified using The Specifier. These tools will be licensed to small and medium scale micro-mobility vehicle producers to help them reduce time-to-market.

The Specifier
A structural-assembly for a land-vehicle is specified using The Specifier. The construction processes specified are implemented in a Unit-construction-hub to prototype the unit.

The Specifier

The Unit-construction-hub
A space, an installation, and a process repository for the production of a single land-vehicle unit. We are prototyping a unit-construction-hub for lightweight, micro-mobility vehicles.

The Unit-construction-hub

Literature survey
Smart manufacturing by Siemens

MCAD domain review The domain of MCAD has evolved since the first tools for 3D modeling and visualisation were introduced about 30 years ago. 2D CAD had been around for a long time. MCAD started with 3D.

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3D-object visualisation on a PC display (review) Mechanical CAD tools require a mechanism for visualising 3D objects on a 2D display. We present a brief review of the underlying technology involved and how major MCAD tools use that technology.

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Design and design-specification We focus on structural design and the design of metal-based structures. The link below is a description of our design specification process for a structural-assembly.

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The Hexagonal-grid as a CAD tool development aid A Hexagonal grid is like an extended virtual protractor (the instrument used to measure angles). It can be used to choose or specify angles and curves in a mechanical CAD process.

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What is design-specification? There are 2 aspects to the specification of a land-vehicle design.

1. A structural specification.
   A static description of the built up structure of a design.
   It includes a specification of each part in a design,
   how the parts connect with each other,
   and a structural model of the user (if applicable).
   
2. A construction-process specification.
   Specifies the construction-process of a design.
   How each component in the design is contructed
   and how the components are put together to produce the design.
   This is useful for an assembler or a fabricator.
   

What is specification visualisation? A (design-specification) Visualiser implements perspective-correct display-screen mapping of modelled 3D objects.
Our visualiser models a camera with a location and orientation,
and a single light source, at the same orientation and location as the camera.

We represent a 3D object as its outer surface,
a lattice of 3D planar segments.
We map these 3D planar segments onto a 2D screen using 4-point plane-mapping.
A curved plane (in 3D) is modelled as a lattice of flat planes.
Our visualiser uses only the device's (2D) drawing engine,
and targets a visualisation time of 100ms/frame
for a bicycle-model at 4K resolution on an Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 SOC class device.

Construction-process specification in the Specifier (planned) We plan to produce a construction-processes specification component
after the structural specification component.
The designer will identify several construction states in the construction process.
Each construction state will be a physical model of the relative placement of the components and tools in the process.
The designer will indicate transitions between construction states.
The construction-process specifier will use these construction states and transitions between them
to create an interpolated sequence of models to be visualised.
This sequence will be visualised using the Visualiser with some animation controls.

Photograph assisted specification in the Specifier (planned) After the mouse and keyboard specification interface,
we plan to produce an additional interface to improve structural specification input efficiency.
This interface will work as follows:

1. A designer loads photographs of a real object into the app
   (with a description of the approximate camera parameters used in taking those photographs).
2. Identifies (in terms of 2D point descriptions) the components in the structure of the object in the photograph.
3. For each component, they describe its 3D orientation and size, based on physical measurements.

The Specifier uses these estimated descriptions to form a model of the object.

Structural overview of a bicycle A bicycle is specified as a primary frame and components,
attachment mechanisms between them,
and additional braking and gear-ratio control systems.

A. The primary frame and components.

1. A frame consisting of:
   A head-tube, top-tube, down-tube and seat-tube.
   A seat-stay and a chain-stay at the back.
   A bottom bracket at the base of the frame.
   Connectors that connect the parts in the frame.
2. The front fork and handle-bar
3. The chain-drive consisting of:
   a chain crank and pedals
   a freewheel
   a chain
4. The front-wheel, front-wheel spindle and tire
5. The rear-wheel, rear-wheel spindle and freewheel attachment, and tire.

B. Attachment specifications between the primary frame and components.

C. The braking system and optional gear-ratio control systems.

1. A braking system and its attachment mechanism
2. A gear-ratio control system and its attachment machanism