National Academy of Science and Engineering
The National Academy of Science and Engineering provides a platform for knowledge transfer and networking between science and industry. In addition to the promotion of young professions in the technical jobs it represents the interests of science and engineering in Germany and abroad. The acatech advises politics and publicity in technology-related issues of the future.
The Academy of Science and Literature is an association of personalities from science, literature, and music. It is dedicated to the cultivation of the sciences, literature, and music.
With long-term fundamental researches in fields that are not usually funded by other institutions (German Research Foundation, Max-Planck Society, or major research institutes and universities), the Academy preserves and promotes cultural heritages.
Since 2011 Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reiner Anderl was the Vice President for the Mathematics and Natural Science of the of the Academy of Science and Literature in Mainz. Since 2017 he is President of the Academy.
The Berliner Kreis – Wissenschaftliches Forum für Produktentwicklung e.V. (Scientific forum for product development e.V.) is an association of 25 university professors. Its aim is to regularly coordinate research and teaching according to the challenges of the industry as well as to assist companies in the development of products and markets of tomorrow.
The Department of Computer Integrated Design is a member of the new profile area CYSEC focusing on cyber security research.
The profile area CYSEC focuses on cyber security research. Some of the priorities of the profile area include interdisciplinary research approaches, technology transfer and consulting expertise in the IT security. More information on CYSEC see the news report of the TU Darmstadt.
Profile Area Internet und Digitalisierung
The research association „Forschungsvereinigung Smart Engineering e.V.” is an association for the support of science, research and education in the field of smart engineering.
The association supports the development of smart products and processes throughout the entire product life cycle to enable a continuous digital added value.
The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) is a global non-profit partnership of industry, government and academia.
The IIC was founded in March 2014 by the companies AT & T Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., General Electric, Intel Cooperation and IBM Corporation, to bring together the technologies and organizations for the growth of the Industrial Internet. Its members include small and large technology innovators, researchers, universities and governments.
This goal of the IIC is to:
- Drive innovation through the creation of new industry use cases and testbeds for real-world applications
- Define and develop the reference architecture and frameworks necessary for interoperability
- Influence the global development standards process for internet and industrial systems
- Facilitate open forums to share and exchange real-world ideas, practices, lessons, and insights
- Build confidence around new and innovative approaches to security.
In the framework of the IIC membership of the Technische Universität Darmstadt the DiK participates in the regular meetings of the members and leads discussions on new approaches in the context of Industrial Internet. Currently (as of March 2015) the IIC represents 141 members from industry, government and academia.
Jupiter Tesselation Data Format
Technische Universität Darmstadt is a member of the JT Open Program since 2003.
JT Open is a globally operating community of different stakeholders, like industrial enterprises, software vendors, users and universities. Main objective is the provision of 3D product data through the entire product life cycle based on an open and standardized data format, resulting in an open distribution of JT technology.
Besides the cooperation in various work groups and surveys, the Department of Computer Integrated Design has released several publications for the application of JT in engineering processes and business areas. Current research focuses on JT as FEA process format, a use case for JT in ship building, Collaborative Engineering based on JT models and the integration of JT in Additive Manufacturing.
The data format JT (ISO 14306:2012) enables the creation and utilization of performant 3D visualization models for all phases of the product life cycle. The compressible binary format contains a CAD neutral description of product data and serves as key enabler for the integration of multiple CAD and PDM systems. JT allows the integration of different geometry representations, from rough to fine tessellated representations (Levels of Detail, LOD) to exact geometry as boundary representation (B-Rep) and ultra lightweight representations (ULP) for small file data volumes with high visualization accuracy. Product structures, Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) and other meta data can be integrated.
The fields of application for JT can be divided into three groups:
3D visualization,
Data exchange, and
Collaborative Engineering.
The integration of different geometry representations enables the efficient visualization of 3D product data. Viewer allow the application on mobile devices. Due to the CAD neutral description JT functions as key enabler for multi CAD and design in context applications. 3D product data and meta can be formalized, managed and made available for engineering processes. The combination with other data formats like STEP AP 242 is possible and represents an important approach in automotive and aerospace industry. Data exchange based on small file sizes enables the application of JT in Collaborative Engineering. Hence, JT offers huge potentials for the application as standardized, neutral process format in product development and nearly all downstream processes.
The PACE Initiative (Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education), launched by EDS, General Motors and Sun Microsystems, is providing advanced CAD/CAM/CAE- and PLM software to selected universities internationally. This will open up new research and teaching practical ways to technologically sophisticated level.
The number of partners of the PACE program has changed in recent years. Meanwhile, PACE is supported by General Motors, Autodesk, Hewlett Packard, Siemens and Sun Oracle.
Institutes in America, Asia, Australia and Europe have been supported with hard- and software through the PACE program. For this purpose are renowned universities such as Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, University of Missouri-Rolla, Tuskegee University, Virginia Tech, University of Toronto, Queen's University, Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Mexico and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Currently about 60 universities are the world's PACE initiative.
Since February 2003, the TU Darmstadt participates in the PACE program as the first German university.
In 2016, the “PACE Gold Level Certification” was awarded to TU Darmstadt.
The TU Darmstadt realized, e.g. in cooperation with Virginia Tech, innovative scientific projects on the PACE platform. PACE also is the basis for the training of students, for example:
- Introduction to computer aided design
NX, Teamcenter UA - Principles of CAE/CAD
NX, Nastran - Advanced Design Project – Collaborative Engineering
NX, Teamcenter Community - CAD/CAM process chain in process learning factory CiP
NX - Advanced Design Project – Reconfigurable Shared-Use Mobility Systems (RSMS)
NX, Nastran, Teamcenter Community
Resulting from the cooperation of industry associations BITKOM, VDMA and ZVEI, the “Platform Industrie 4.0” seeks to strengthen the business location Germany by developing technologies, standards, business and organizational models as well as by promoting cross-industry exchange and practical implementation.
Thus, the high competitive strength, flexible manufacturing, custom manufacturing, innovative business models and a new working is to be reinforced at the business location Germany.
As Speaker of the Scientific Advisory Board Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reiner Anderl is represented in the steering group of the platform Industrie 4.0.
ProSTEP iViP is an association that provides pioneering solutions and standards for product data management and virtual product development. In cooperation with science and research the interests of manufacturers and suppliers in the manufacturing industry as well as of IT vendors are exchanged, so that more efficient processes, methods and systems are developed.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reiner Anderl is an honorary member of the ProSTEP iViP Association.
Standard for the exchange of product model data
The DiK has supported the development of the application protocol (AP) 214 significantly, which describes the development process for the automotive industry.
From the beginning the development of STEP was one of the main topics. STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product model data) describes the international standards being published in the series of standards ISO 10303. In 1984 the STEP activities began with the goal to develop an international standard being able to detect all the neutral information for the whole product life cycle which a computerised product modell contains, without loosing integrity.
The architecture of STEP is aimed at supporting the development of standards for the exchange and the common use of product data. The separate components of this architecture are refelected in the segmentation of standards in seperate documents (parts), which are combined to groups. Basically the STEP document architecture consists of 'description methods' (e.g.. specification of the data modelling language EXPRESS), 'Implementation Methods' (e.g.. physical file), 'Integrated Resources' describing the integrated product modell and the application protocol specifying data models in a certain apllication context.
The methodology of the development for all application protocols (AP) follows a standardised methodic proceeding, devided in four phases:
process analyse,
modelling of requirements
interpretation and
implementation.
The development of an application protocol always beginns with the analysis of processes. The required processes in an application context have to be identified and analyzed. By describing the processes, AAM (Application Activity Model) is achieved. In the phase of modelling requirements, experts specify the ARM (Application Reference Modell) in EXPRESS und EXPRESS-G for process and data modelling.
The next step of the AP development process is the so-called 'mapping'. This means that the reference modell is mapped on the integrated data modell of STEP. The result of the 'mapping' is the AIM (Application Interpreted Model).
Originally only implementations of the 'neutral' AIM modell were resolved. Due to the tremendous effort of the 'mapping'. more and more implementations of the ARM are resolved.
STEP@DiK
Several research assistants took over the role of the 'part editors' for the AP document and supported the development process as experts for data modelling. In 2001 the first version of AP 214 was released by ISO as an international standard. After a revision, in which about 200 reported complaints were dealt with, a second version was released in 2003. Both versions are offered together with a HTML document, which is completely linked and includes the entire content of the standard.
Next to the standardisation on ISO level in the STEP environment, the 'MechaSTEP' project was funded in the framework of 'production 2000' by the German government department for education and research. (BMBF). The result of this project was the specification of a neutral data format for data exchange between application software for the development of mechatronical products. Data from the fields of electronics, hydraulics, pneumatics, automation und mechanics are being considered. The MechaSTEP data modell consists of data being specified in the seperate fields and was released as DIN PAS 1013 in 2002.
The Scientific Society for Product Development WiGeP – Berliner Kreis & WGMK – is made up of a competence network that promotes product innovations in mechanical engineering and in related industries by acting as a link between academia and industry.
The focus is set on the joint communication and cooperation in matters of research and teaching in the field of integrated product development.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reiner Anderl is a full member of the group of professors for product innovation in engineering and related industries.
