Application of Ubiquitous computing Technology to the SteelPlate Piling Process of Ship Construction

1
Application of Ubiquitous computing Technology to
the Steel-Plate Piling Process of Ship
Construction

• University of Ulsan
• Hoon Oh
• Ubiquitous Computing Lab.

2
Outline

• Research Background
• Ship Building Process
• Steel-Plate Piling Process and Problems
• Ubiquitous Steel-Plate Process System (u-SPPS)
• Ubiquitous Computing Space for Steel-Plate Piling
  Process
• Context-Aware System Model
• Compilation, Management, and Use of Context
  Information
• Evaluation
• Conclusion

3
Ship Building Process

Moving to T-Pile Space



Piling
Preprocessing
Unloading


Assembly of Blocks into Ship
Moving blocks to Dock
Manufacturing Ship Block


Cutting
4
Ship Building Process

• Place an order with the steel companies such as
  POSCO, Nippon Steel, etc for the steel-plates to
  be used for manufacturing ship blocks.
• Upon ordering the steel-plates, the information
  for the steel-plates is stored in the database in
  company.
• Product number,
• Ship number,
• Pile space number to be piled upon acquisition,
• etc
• The steel-plates unloaded from cargo ship are
  moved to the temporary pile spaces (t-space) by
  forklift, waiting for being sorted into the pile
  spaces.
• Sort the steel-plates according to their piling
  place number
• The sorted pile-plates in a particular pile space
  are moved out for manufacturing a specific ship
  block

5
View of Still-Plate Piling Process Bay
6
MARKER STENCIL On Steel-Plate
Marker
Steel plate
Weight About up to 3000kg Size Up to 20m x 5m
7
Old Steel-Plate Piling Process and Problems
Piling
Pile-In
Pile-Out

• Pile-In (by Pile-In manager)
• Enter PN in PDA
• Receives Pile-Space No and SN
• Write them on Steel-Plate
• Problems
• Old-age workers may not be comfortable with
  entering PN
• Input Error or Low work efficiency
• Writing error of Pile-Space No and SN
• Result in lost steel-plate

PN 2A2348JF1330
1
WLAN
2
DB Server
3
411-125
8
Old Steel-Plate Piling Process and Problems
Piling
Pile-in
Pile-Out

• Piling (by crane driver)
• Lift steel-plate after identifying it by eyes
• Piling after carrying to the pile space
• Problems
• Difficulty of identification by eyes
• Piling error/Low efficiency
• Safety weakness of workers by the movement of the
  crane that carries a huge and heavy steel-plate

9
Old Steel-Plate Piling Process (3)
Piling
Pile-In
Pile-Out

• Pile-Out (by Pile-Out Manager)
• Send pile-space list to crane driver
• Crane driver moves the steel-plates in the
  selected space to conveyor belt one by one
• Pile-Out manager input the pile space no and SN
  into PDA to finish the delivery of every
  steel-plate
• Problems
• Waste of manpower

10
Simulator for Steel-Plate Piling Process
11
Ubiquitous Computing Space on Simulator
Tag for pile space addressing
PDA
12
Context-Aware System Model
U-Service
Service Knowledge
Service Provider
Context Library
Service knowledge
Context Manager
Situation-aware Engine
Operation-aware Engine
Operation knowledge
Situation knowledge
Context Integrator
Context Information
U-Space
RTLS
LoadCell Sensor
Wireless Camera
PDA
13
Context Information Compilation

• PDA or tag
• Get information of the steel-plates that are
  ready to be piled into pile space
• RTLS Exciters and Tags
• Track the locations of workers
• Get the pile space addresses of moving cranes
• Get the moving direction of a crane
• Loadcell Sensor
• Get the status of crane (lift, put-down, weight)
• Wireless Camera
• Get the image of the steel-plate that is being
  carried

14
Key Contexts
15
Context Library Operation Knowledge

• Define some knowledge that causes a particular
  operation
• We infer Why out of 5W1H from this operation
  knowledge user context
• ex) If a pile-in manager have entered steel-plate
  information (103-1, ), we can infer that he
  wants to pile-in the corresponding steel-plate.

Why
How
What
Where
When
Who
Operation Knowledge
Pile-in

ObjectNum
T-Pile_No

Pile-In Mgr
Piling
Lift
ObjectNum
T-Pile_No

Crane
Piled
Put-down
ObjectNum
Pile_No

crane
Delivery
Lift
ObjectNum
Pile_No

crane
Pile-out
put-down
ObjectNum
Conv_Belt

crane
??
Any Value
16
Context Library Situation Knowledge

• Define situations subject to relationship between
  objects
• We infer current situation from this situation
  knowledge object context
• ex) If a worker enters the zone of cranes 2m
  diameter, he is in a dangerous situation.

Why
How
What
Where
When
Who
Situation Knowledge



(x, y) within (a2, b2)

worker
Alert
(x, y) Workers Location (a, b) Cranes
Location Any Value
17
Context Library Service Knowledge

• Define services according to the integrated
  context information
• We get the related services from this service
  knowledge user context
• ex) If a pile-in manager has entered a
  steel-plate information, guide a crane driver to
  take the following action by 3-D graphic and
  sound
• Move the steel-plate in t-pile space 3 into
  the pile space 104

Why
How
What
Where
When
Who
Service Knowledge
Pile-In

ObjectNum
T-pile No

Pile-in mgr
InputGuideSound(ObjectNum), DisplayUpdate(T-pile_N
o, ObjectNum)
??
Any Value
18
Context Manager Context Integrator

• Integrate contexts from various sensors or tags
  into 5WIH format
• Deliver the integrated contexts to operation or
  situation-aware engine

RTLS
LoadCell
DBServer
Integrated Context
19
Context Manager Operation-Aware Engine

• If Who context is pile-in manager or crane,
  this engine is used.
• Create the complete context by inferring Why
  context The Why context is obtained from the
  mapping of input context and operation knowledge
• The complete context of 5W1H is delivered to the
  Service Provider

Operation Knowledge
Integrated Context
search

searched
20
Context Manager Situation-Aware Engine

• If the Who context of the complete context is
  worker, this engine is used
• Aware the situation by comparing the integrated
  context and Situation Knowledge
• Deliver the recognized situation information to
  Service Provider

Situation Knowledge
Integrated Context
search

searched
21
Service Provider

• Invoke service functions by comparing the
  complete context made from Operation-Aware Engine
  and the contexts of Service Knowledge
• Invoke service function corresponding to the
  situation information (Exgt ALERT) from
  Situation-Aware Engine

Service Knowledge
Integrated Context
search

searched
22
Context Process Example
U-Space Information
Crane
1
RTLS Tag ID
SYSTEMTIME
1631
System Timer
T-Pile space No.1
(12, 15)
RTLS Location Info
Steel-Plate Info
103-1
ObjectNum
Steel-Plate Weight
25.23
LoadCell
Context Integrator
lift
103-1
(12, 15)
1631
Crane
Operation Knowledge
Operation-aware Engine
Service Knowledge
lift
piling
103-1
(12, 15)
1631
Crane
Service Provider
PilingGuideSound(ObjectNum), DisplayUpdate(T-pile
_No, ObjectNum))
U-Service
3D-Graphic Guidance
Voice Guidance
Integrated information management
23
Key Improvements

• Real-time information tracking for steel-plates
  which are being piled
• Prevent erroneous piling of steel-plates by using
  the address tracking of pile spaces
• Safety management using real-time tracking of
  moving objects in the bay
• Intelligent steel-plate piling guidance using 3D
  graphics and voice
• As a result, we provide pleasant working
  environment as well as improve productivity

24
Conclusion

• Key accomplishments
• Reduction of human resources
• Reduce the delay of steel-plate piling process by
  removing erroneous piling and intelligent work
  guidance
• Improve work environment by relieving the mental
  overhead of long-time field workers
• Improve productivity
• Others
• We made a case study for the application of the
  ubiquitous computing technology to production
  field
• We suggested development process in applying IT
  technologies to a busy production field
• Problem analysis -gt simulator construction -gt
  system building -gt system refinement -gt
  application to real field -gt adaptation of the
  system to the field

25
Further Researches
Field Application
Remote Control Unmanned System

• The application of this system to field
• Analyze the effect for the application of the
  system

• Development of unmanned system
• Remote monitoring system that monitors and
  operates the works in the pile space remotely

26

• Thank you!