CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
13 October 2004
Product News
Tecnomatix, Kineo Partner to Solve Critical Production Simulation Challenges for Large-Scale Manufacturers
Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. announced that breakthrough motion planning and control technology from Kineo Computer Aided Motion has been incorporated into the eMPowerT suite of MPM solutions.
Kineo C.A.M. specializes in collision-free automatic path planning, and its technology was used to simulate the transportation of massive components for the Airbus A380-the world's largest jumbo jet-from initial manufacturing sites across Europe to the company's final assembly site in Toulouse, France.
This new technology complements the Tecnomatix eM-Workplace and eM-Assembler products, allowing for improved assembly feasibility studies and more effective, faster and easier design of complicated robotic tasks.
The combination of eMPower's powerful MPM tools with Kineo C.A.M.'s motion planning and control technology allows for automatic collision-free trajectory creation, significantly reducing the time required for design studies. One customer already using this new technology reported a 25 to 50 percent time savings on various projects. Process design time to create a collision-free assembly path for dashboard in another project was reduced from two hours down to less than two minutes. Based on inputs from several auto manufacturers, the combined solution can cut several man-months of manufacturing engineering time in robotic paths creation per vehicle program.
The combined solution enables manufacturers to explore more scenarios before production and final assembly begin, reducing uncertainty and risk. Because the new solution is highly automated and easy to use, it requires less time and training than regular solutions to perform similarly complicated tasks.
The new Kineo-based application helps make eM-Workplace an ideal tool for automatically planning complicated robotized tasks such as spot welding, which requires complex motion and trajectory planning to avoid collisions and minimize production engineering time and allow for fast reaction to design changes. Meanwhile, eM-Assembler users will benefit from improved and faster feasibility and serviceability studies.
"Final assembly can often be compared to trying to solve some of the most challenging metalsmith's puzzles, except you're putting pieces together rather than trying to separate them," said Laurent Maniscalco, general manager of Kineo. "Our technology solves some of the toughest motion planning and control issues facing manufacturers. Partnering with Tecnomatix, which offers an industry-leading suite of manufacturing planning and simulation tools, was a perfect opportunity for us to apply our expertise to a broader range of manufacturing process design challenges."
"The results so far of our collaboration have been impressive," said Jaron Lotan, president and chief executive officer, Tecnomatix Technologies. "By significantly reducing the time required to simulate the production environment, our combined solution helps manufacturers better manage risk, streamline operations and accurately determine the feasibility of cost-saving alternatives and new production processes."
Kineo Computer Aided Motion was set up in December 2000 by four senior researchers from the LAAS working in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence together with a CAD software specialist with long experience in process technology markets.
Become a member of the CIMdata PLM Community to receive your daily PLM news and much more.
Tell us what you think of the CIMdata Newsletter. Send your feedback.
CIMdata is committed to your privacy. Your personal information will never be sold or shared outside of CIMdata without your express permission.