Abstract
The principal aim of this thesis is to create and expound a distributed-telemanufacturing model (“DTMF” model, for short) that can be used for final-product realization, with “telemanufacturing” being the remote application of a layered-manufacturing machine and its software to create a model or product. It is envisaged (at no distant date) that machines will be made to be exponentially more accurate and that they will even be able to “create” models or products from a host of different materials and elements. The model to be expounded in the present thesis will, therefore, serve to address problems and issues relevant to such service, which service will, ultimately, be rendered mutually by businesses and − in the e-commerce scenario − by businesses to their customers. The DTMF model comprises an interface, a processing server, a locating agent and a manufacturing resource, with the interface being the overview that the user will have of the telemanufacturing process and the extent to which he/she will be able interactively to submit and glean information on and from a submission. The processing server, in its turn, prepares the submission in such a way as to allow its direct submission to a manufacturing resource, which resource consists of either a layered-manufacturing machine or any digital-input machine. The processing server, therefore, ensures that the submitted design be in the correct format to be interpreted by the manufacturing machine. The locating agent then takes the processed design and locates an appropriate manufacturing resource that matches the user’s specifications and meets the requirements of the processed design. On having received the processed design, the locating agent submits it to a queue at the manufacturing resource. The manufacturing resource is, therefore, controlled by the locating agent in that the locating agent calls up the available manufacturing methods through a web service at each machine. Next, the DTMF model is extended also to allow the use of a design repository, where a design can be searched for and retrieved. This enables a user to produce products on demand by retrieving a stored design and by applying customization, if necessary. The DTMF model, therefore, makes possible not only on-demand manufacturing for current machines but also music of the future, such as final-product realization.
Ehlers, E.M., Prof.