|
In This Issue:
NIST, Partners on an Intelligence (in Manufacturing) MISSION
[Credits] [NIST Update Archives] [Media Contacts] [Subscription Information]
International Research
NIST, Partners on an Intelligence (in Manufacturing) MISSION
NIST will coordinate U.S. participation in a new international research effort approved by the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Program. Called MISSION, the IMS project aims to develop and test "modeling and simulation environments for design, planning, and operation of globally distributed enterprises."
Partners from the United States, Japan, European Union and Australia will build the software equivalent of a docking station, a generic modeling platform with interfaces that link and integrate data and user-selected simulation tools, such as those for evaluating production scenarios. The platform will support simulations over a range of vantage points, from individual factories to entire supply chains.
A kick-off meeting is planned for July 7-11, 1998, in Berlin, Germany. Technical activities will begin soon afterward. Chuck McLean, leader of NIST's Manufacturing Systems Engineering Group, is serving as the U.S. regional coordinator for MISSION. The group has established a simulation technology testbed to support two NIST-led research efforts on computer-aided manufacturing engineering.
U.S. companies interested in participating in MISSION should contact NIST. Once the project gets under way, McLean advises, opportunities to join will be limited.
The IMS Program was initiated by Japan to foster international cooperation on manufacturing research and development. Fourteen projects are currently under way, involving five nations and the European Union. U.S. organizations involved in planning MISSION include Raytheon Co. Electronic Systems, Deneb Robotics Inc., Pritsker Corp., Systems Modeling Corp. and three universities.
For information on the MISSION project, contact NIST's Swee Leong at (301) 975-5426. The terms of reference for participating in IMS projects are available at the IMS site on the World Wide Web at http://www.ims.org/.
Media Contact:
Mark Bello (301) 975-3776
MEP
Centers Provide Educational Vaccines for 'Millennium Bug'
NIST's Manufacturing Extension Partnership and its nationwide network of centers are stepping up efforts to help smaller manufacturers avoid being bitten by the "millennium bug." The bug, also known as the Year 2000 date problem, refers to a flaw in the way dates traditionally have been entered into computer systems. Many computers that use two digits to keep track of the date will, on Jan. 1, 2000, recognize the double zero not as 2000, but as 1900. Since computers use dates to make calculations, this glitch could cause them to shut down or generate erroneous information.
MEP centers will be conducting seminars and workshops to raise smaller manufacturers' awareness and understanding of the problem and helping client manufacturers assess their systems and resolve Year 2000 problems. The Stamford, Conn.-based GartnerGroup, a leading authority on information technology issues, has reported that as of 1997, 88 percent of all smaller companies had not yet started Year 2000 remediation projects.
Year 2000 overview information and a self-assessment questionnaire are available on the MEP World Wide Web site at http://www.mep.nist.gov.
Media Contact:
Jan Kosko (301) 975-2767
Distributed Manufacturing
Toolkit Streamlines Testing of CORBA Software
Software developers can try out a testing tool designed by NIST to speed evaluations of how well programs work together in distributed manufacturing systems based on CORBA--the Common Object Request Broker Architecture advanced by an 800-member consortium.
In support of a project co-funded by the NIST Advanced Technology Program, the new Manufacturer's CORBA Interface Testing Toolkit, or MCITT, was developed initially to test components of a modular software framework that will enable integrated control of semiconductor manufacturing systems. It is now a stand-alone tool that can further other CORBA-based approaches to distributed manufacturing. Issued by the Massachusetts-based Object Management Group, CORBA is a publicly available specification for software integration. Its object-oriented approach to distributed computing systems promotes reuse of computer code and interoperability among software products. With MCITT, a developer can evaluate the behavior of software components in a more controlled environment, without presuming correct operation of all the other components of the distributed manufacturing system, explains NIST computer scientist David Flater. MCITT creates emulated test servers that substitute for the real thing. The user defines a scenario of operations and interactions--such as between scheduling and ordering--and MCITT automatically attends to supporting programming jobs, such as memory management or generating "boilerplate" code.
A "pre-beta" release of MCITT can be downloaded over the Internet at ftp://ftp.cme.nist.gov/ pub/mcitt/.
For more information, contact David Flater, (301) 975-3350. A MCITT overview can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.mel.nist.gov/msidstaff/flater/mcitt.
Media Contact:
Mark Bello (301) 975-3776
Inventions
DoE Now Evaluates Energy Technologies as ERIP Ends 22-Year Service
NIST announced in the May 6, 1998, Federal Register notice that it has ended its long-standing Energy Related Inventions Program. ERIP assessed new technologies and ideas submitted by businesses and individual inventors for possible financial and other support by the U.S. Department of Energy. DOE now has complete responsibility for these evaluations as part of its new Inventions and Innovations Program.
During its 22 years of service, the NIST ERIP's multistage evaluation process recommended an average of two to three inventions per month to DOE. In all, the ERIP processed 33,430 requests for evaluations before it stopped taking them on Aug. 2, 1997. Of these, 17,482 were not accepted for evaluation, largely due to inadequate documentation, obvious technical flaws or insufficient relevance to energy. Of the 15,948 evaluated, 14,239 were rejected most often in a first-stage review as lacking competitive advantage. Of the 1,709 remaining proposals, 741 received ERIP endorsement for possible DOE support.
DOE estimates that the over 500 ERIP-recommended inventions that actually received support and reached the marketplace have totaled more than $1 billion in cumulative sales and resulted in energy savings in excess of 1 quad (enough energy to light 10 million homes for a year). DOE's Inventions and Innovations Program issued a solicitation for the funding of new inventions on May 1, 1998. Information on this solicitation may be obtained by contacting the Office of Industrial Technologies, Information Resource Center, DOE, Mail Stop EE-24, 1000 Independence Ave. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20585, (202) 586- 2090.
Additionally, inventors may wish to access the World Wide Web site at http://www.oit.doe.gov/ and click on "Innovations and Inventions" under the heading "Technology Access."
Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman (301) 975-3776
Education
New Specs Released to Enhance Online Learning
To facilitate exchange of educational materials over electronic networks, Educom announced recently the release of technical specifications for its Instructional Management Systems project. The IMS was developed in collaboration with NIST and dozens of information technology firms, universities, content providers and other organizations. Educom also made freely available an example implementation of an instructional management system that illustrates many of the specifications.
The availability of standard, public specifications will promote development of open, interoperable, distributed learning systems and the reuse of instructional materials. Making educational materials available in the public domain is an important step in promoting the commerce of digital objects and related searches over the Internet.
NIST assisted the project by specifying metadata ("data about data" that describes how, when and by whom a particular set of data was collected, and how the data are formatted) and services for metadata, security, and role-based access control, and in developing and testing selected prototype services. NIST researchers also are helping the IMS project to develop a conformance testing and certification program for IMS specifications as well as an accreditation program for testing laboratories.
Should the IMS project opt to use an accreditation program, NIST will help establish it where the IMS specification warrants a formal test and certification system. Conformance testing and certification are recognized as necessary prerequisites to achieving interoperability.
More information on the IMS project is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.imsproject.org.
Media Contact:
Anne Enright Shepherd (301) 975-4858
Materials
Ultrasound Method Diagnoses Stress Before Bridges Crack
NIST scientists are using ultrasound to measure the change in stresses on pin and hanger assemblies found on bridges. Their goal is to develop a method for assessing the status of these connections.
In a typical situation, a pin and hanger connection is used to suspend an inner span from an outer support span; it also accommodates thermal expansion. But because the connection is located at the expansion joint, road deicing salts may wash down through the joint and cause corrosion at the pins. If the corrosion is sufficient to lock up the pins, it can cause additional forces on the connection, leading to fatigue cracking and eventual failure.
NIST is experimenting with an ultrasound technique, which has the potential to determine connection stress prior to development of fatigue cracks. To evaluate its method, NIST designed and constructed a pin and hanger simulation facility at its Boulder, Colo., laboratories. Strain gauges were mounted on the hangers, and the strains were measured as load was applied. At the same time, ultrasonic measurements were made at the gauge locations. Strains were predicted from the ultrasonic data and compared with values measured by the strain gauges. "Overall good agreement was obtained between ultrasonic and strain gauge results," the scientists report.
For technical paper no. 13-98, which describes the work, contact Sarabeth Harris, MS104, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3328, (303) 497-3237.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder) (303) 497-3246
U.S. Department of Commerce
Technology Administration
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Editor: Michael Newman
HTML conversion: Crissy Wines
Last updated: May 13, 1998
Go back to NIST News Page