Patent Application: US-10819493-A

Abstract:
an efficient algorithm determines the blank shape necessary to manufacture a surface by press forming . the technique is independent of material properties and instead uses surface geometry and an area conservation constraint to generate a geometrically feasible blank shape . the algorithm is formulated as an approximate geometric interpretation of the reversal of the forming process . the primary applications for this technique are in preliminary surface design , assessment of manufacturability , and location of binder wrap . since the algorithm exhibits linear time complexity , it is amenable to implementation as an interactive design aid .

Description:
in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments , reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof , and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced . it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention . contemporary computer - based design tools provide several methods for generating parametric sculptured surface models . the most common representation scheme is the non - uniform rational b - splines ( nurbs ) surface . a b - spline surface can be represented as ## equ1 ## where s ( u , v ) is a three - dimensional vector function of control points p ij arranged in a topologically rectangular grid and n i , k ( u ) and n j , l ( v ) are the degree k and l b - spline basis functions , respectively ( piegl and tiller , 1987 ). a well - defined homogenous triangulation of the surface is required as the input to the algorithm . any surface s ( u , v ) can be approximated by a faceted polyhedron , defined by a ( m × n ) set of three - dimensional vertices v ij = s ( u i , v j ), i = 1 , . . . , m and j = 1 , . . . , n . the resulting polyhedron approximates the actual surface . such a polyhedral approximation can be constructed with a specific topological structure to algorithmically exploit vertex adjacency relationships . the nature of this topology depends on the method of surface discretization . in this application , the surface is triangulated in uniform parametric intervals to form a topologically rectangular mesh , which , after mapping through s ( u , v ) generates a uniform network . the topology of the network is constructed such that any internal vertex has exactly eight surrounding vertices as shown in fig1 . the polyhedral surface model is stored in a data structure which distinguishes the topological and geometric information . in particular , a vertex adjacency list is created to establish connectivity between each vertex and its neighbors . one useful characteristic of an underlying parametric surface representation is the inherent separation of the topological and geometric information . any surface vertex in euclidean space has a dual in the parametric domain ( i . e ., the uv - space ). since the topology of the discrete surface approximation is defined in the parameter space , operations which require adjacency information are simplified . the corresponding geometric information is thus referenced primarily for the area calculations . this separation leads to simple and efficient algorithmic implementation . the information content for the method of the present invention is reduced to a vertex basis . the topological information for each vertex is stored in the form of a linked list containing pointers to the addresses of its neighbors . the data structure storage requirements are as follows : ______________________________________topological informationvertex to vertex adjacency list 8 recordsgeometric informationthree - dimensional coords of each vertex 3 recordstwo - dimensional coords ( to be generated ) 2 recordsvisit flagvertex transformation status indicator 1 recordtotal ( for each vertex ) = 14 records______________________________________ any triangle in three dimensions encloses an area on a plane . the constant area transformation is formulated such that both the topology and the area of a triangle are conserved when it is mapped from a three - dimensional euclidean space ( e 3 ) to a two dimensional planar space ( e 2 ). in particular , let v . sup . 3 ={ v . sub . 1 , v . sub . 2 , v . sub . 3 | v . sub . i εe . sup . 3 , v . sub . 1 ≠ v . sub . 2 ≠ v . sub . 3 } ( 2 ) be a set of 3 - tuples which define unique triangles in e 3 , and p . sup . 2 ={ v &# 39 ;. sub . 1 , v &# 39 ;. sub . 2 , v &# 39 ;. sub . 3 | v &# 39 ;. sub . i εe . sup . 2 , v &# 39 ;. sub . 1 ≠ v &# 39 ;. sub . 2 ≠ v &# 39 ;. sub . 3 } ( 3 ) be a set of 2 - tuples which define triangles on a plane in e 2 . or right . e 3 . the constant area transformation is defined as a mapping : ## equ2 ## where area () and top () represent the area and topological state , respectively , of any triangle . a geometric interpretation of the constant area transformation can be summarized by the following principles : given the location of two vertices v &# 39 ; i and v &# 39 ; j , a family of triangles t ( v &# 39 ; i , v &# 39 ; j , v &# 39 ; k ) of area a is defined by the area locus l of the point v k which is a line parallel to v &# 39 ; i v &# 39 ; j at a distance h = 2a /. linevert split . v &# 39 ; i v &# 39 ; j . linevert split . from v &# 39 ; i v &# 39 ; j . ( see fig2 .) given two adjacent triangles t a ( v i , v j , v l ) and t b ( v k , v i , v l ) and corresponding projected locations of any three of these vertices in a plane in e 2 , say , as shown in fig3 if the unknown common vertex v l ε e 2 is located at the intersection of area loci l a ← t a ( v &# 39 ; i , v &# 39 ; j , v &# 39 ; l ) and l b ← t b ( v &# 39 ; k , v &# 39 ; i , v &# 39 ; l ), then ## equ3 ## these principles , although similar in spirit to those developed by chu ( 1983 ), provide for several enhancements with respect to practical application and computational accuracy . for example , as illustrated in fig4 a , 4b and 4c , chu &# 39 ; s constant area transformation provides an approximate solution for the location of the fourth point of a mapped quadrilateral . given the location of three vertices v i , v j and v k on adjacent triangles and their images v &# 39 ; i , v &# 39 ; j and v &# 39 ; k on a plane , chu &# 39 ; s method assumes that thus the area change due to the mapping of the quadrilateral ( v i , v j , v l , v k ) is assumed to be accounted for completely in the image of the triangle ( v k , v j , v l ). the effect is approximated by constructing the three loci : ## equ4 ## as shown in fig4 b . vertex v &# 39 ; l is taken as the centroid of the area enclosed by l 1 , l 2 and l 3 as shown in fig4 c . this solution is obviously approximate due to the assumptions used to construct l 1 and l 2 , and the fact that l 3 completely neglects any actual area change in the triangle ( v i , v j , v k ). since this formulation is this basis of the algorithm to map an entire surface , the error induced by this approximate solution is compounded because , in general , v i , v j and v k are themselves calculated via the same procedure . another limiting aspect of chu &# 39 ; s formulation is the requirement of imposed boundary conditions necessary to initialize the algorithm . an orthogonal frame of reference along approximate planes of part symmetry must be established on the surface prior to the mapping . this frame is chosen such that the image of the vertices which lie on them can move only along axes formed from the intersection of the blank plane and the symmetry planes , as shown in fig5 . boundary conditions are user - defined , such that the boundary vertices of any two sides of the surface are fixed and identified along the reference frame . both the symmetry reference frame and the boundary conditions impose restrictions on the material flow which , in general , do not reflect an accurate model of the forming process . the present work , however , derives its methodology from the forming process directly . the surface is assumed to be constrained equally along all edges to provide a restricted inflow of material . in the geometric context , this equates to a &# 34 ; boundary - less &# 34 ; or free - form deformation , since forces ( equal along all edges ) are not interpreted geometrically . this characteristic of the algorithm is described in detail in the following two sections . the following terminology is used in the remainder of this section to facilitate the description of the constant area transformation algorithm : v ij address of a specific vertex , i and j correspond to surface parametric direction u and v . primary neighbors vertices in adj ( v ij ) which are topologically adjacent to v ij in parameter space , i . e ., v i - l , j , v i + l , j , v i , j - l , v i , j + l without lack of generality , the algorithm assumes that the blank plane is the global xy - plane and the punch travels parallel to the z axis . since thinning is assumed negligible in an ideal forming process , the point of initial punch contact on the blank will most likely lie in the vicinity of the formed surface point which is furthest from the blank plane . thus , the vertex with the largest z - value , v max , on the interior of the surface is taken as the reasonable starting point for the mapping . to reverse the forming process , &# 34 ; un - forming &# 34 ; of the surface from this initial point creates the effect of reversing the flow of material from the final state to the initial state . ( in actual formed products distinct point peaks on the formed surface may not exist , instead a plateau of surface points at the maximum height can be found .) to mimic the uniform inflow of material to form a final surface , a uniform reverse outflow of area is formulated . this flow is achieved by allowing the triangular elements to transform in a concentric manner starting with the vertices immediately surrounding v max as shown in fig6 a and 6b . the transformation is initiated by projecting v max parallel to the z - axis , onto the blank plane . to seed the algorithm , the location of at least two additional vertices ( adjacent to v max ) on the blank plane are required . however , the boundary - less deformation assumption implies a uniform flow of area toward all surface edges . thus , the locations of the four primary neighbors of v max on the blank plane are required . to map the primary neighbors , area preservation techniques cannot be applied , since v max is the only vertex identified on the plane . therefore , a length of line preservation procedure is adopted as shown in fig6 a and 6b . unit vectors , formed between v max and each of its primary neighbors are projected on the blank plane parallel to the z - axis . the locations for the primary neighbors on the blank plane are approximated by scaling the two - dimensional vectors to their original three - dimensional length . ______________________________________algorithm . transform initial primary neighbor verticesinput : v . sub . maxoutput : primary neighbor vert2d images of v . sub . ijcalculate the primary neighbor vectorscalculate the lengths of the vectorsnormalize the vectors and project on the blank planescale 2d vectors to 3d lengthscalculate primary neighbor vert2d point imagesreturn point images } ______________________________________ the remaining vertices of the surface are then transformed by visiting each vertex and inspecting its neighbors . each vertex is initially checked for mapping status . if the vertex has not been mapped , the algorithm searches the vertex adjacency list to determine whether at least three adjacent vertices have already been mapped . if the criterion is met , the routine returns that the vertex can be mapped . otherwise , the function returns that the vertex cannot be mapped . ______________________________________algorithm . vertex map feasibilityinput : v . sub . ijoutput : vertex map feasibilitymapped . sub .-- neighbors = 0for all v . sub . k ε adj ( v . sub . ij ){ if ( flag ( v . sub . k ) = visited ){ add v . sub . k to mapped . sub .-- list ( v . sub . ij ) increment mapped . sub .-- neighbors }} if ( mapped . sub .-- neighbors ≧ 3 ){ if at least three consecutive vertices v . sub . k , v . sub . k ε mapped . sub .-- list ( v . sub . ij ) are visitedreturn vertex can be mappedelse return vertex cannot be mapped } else return vertex cannot be mapped } ______________________________________ a vertex which meets the criterion for mapping is mapped according the area conserving hypothesis . depending upon the number of starting peaks , there may be more than three mapped neighbors surrounding the vertex which is queried . the solution methodology for the various cases are discussed in the following section . in the general multi - peak implementation , cases will arise in which more than the minimum of three mapped neighboring vertices exist for mapping . in other words , the vertex to be mapped is part of one or more moving fronts and its position is affected by its mapped neighbors due to the area constraint . extra vertices are eliminated to reduce the problem to a three - vertex case by viewing the vertex and its neighborhood in topological space . the solution procedure for the specific cases are discussed here . consider the case as shown in fig7 . for vertex p , neighbors 7 , 0 , 1 and 2 are already mapped . overhanging neighbor vertex 7 is eliminated from the area loci calculations since it is not part of any area enclosing triangle in the topological neighborhood of p . an alternative approach is to consider the area contribution of triangle t ( 7 , 2 , 0 ) in addition to t ( 0 , 2 , 1 ). however , the experimentation with such a formulation revealed that it can induce an undesirable imbalance in the overall map due to the non - uniform attractive and repulsive area components . the elimination of the overhanging neighbor prevents this imbalance . the problem is thus reduced to the three - vertex case ( by neglecting the overhanging vertex ) and is solved using the principles explained in the preceding sections . two types of neighborhood arrangements are possible as shown in fig8 and fig9 . in both cases , all the surrounding mapped neighbors are involved in the area calculation since they constitute area enclosing triangles in the topological neighborhood of p . as shown in fig8 the five - vertex case reduces to a three vertex case with adjacent triangles tl ( 6 , 0 , p ) and t2 ( 0 , 2 , p ). the nominal area loci formulation is modified to account for the change in total area due to the projection of triangles t ( 6 , 7 , 0 ) and t ( 0 , 1 , 2 ). for example , the area used to determine area locus l 2 is taken as , the formulation for area locus 1l 1 is modified in a similar manner . this modification ensures that constant area is maintained between p and its mapped neighbors . the second type of five - neighbor case is shown in fig9 . this case is more complicated since it involves included areas in different planes . in this case , a pseudo vertex ( v p ) is calculated to reduce this case to a similar variation of the standard three - vertex problem ( nair , 1993 ). this situation is reduced to a five - vertex case by eliminating one overhanging neighbor for the same reason as the four adjacent neighbors case . then the five - vertex technique is employed as shown in fig1 . this is similar to type a of the five - vertex case shown in fig1 . the case is easily reduced to a three - vertex case by considering two adjacent triangles enclosed by vertices 5 , 0 , 3 and sharing p as shown in fig1 . to preserve area , the net area components of the triangles indicated by the shaded areas are added to the area loci calculation for determining vertex p . this is the kernel of the algorithm . prior to this step , all the vertex manipulations are done in the topological space . in this segment of the algorithm , the geometric data is accessed and the area calculations are performed . ______________________________________algorithm . map vertexinput : v . sub . ij and three neighboring mapped vertices . output : vert2d image of v . sub . ijcalculate the area enclosed by the vertices in three - dimensional spacecalculate 2d triangle base lengthscalculate area locus of v . sub . ij from each of the two adjacenttrianglescalculate vert2d ( v . sub . ij ) = intersection of the two locireturn vert2d ( v . sub . ij ) coordinates } ______________________________________ after the first vertex and its primary neighbors are mapped , the remaining vertices are scanned by generating a visit list which is initialized with the addresses of the primary neighbors . primary neighbors of each element of the visit list are queried for mapping via the vertex map feasibility algorithm . those which can be mapped , are mapped and appended to the visit list . the algorithm proceeds in this manner until the visit list is exhausted . the algorithm structure follows . ______________________________________algorithm . map remaining verticesinput : initialized visit . sub .-- list with primary neighbors of v . sub . maxoutput : vert2d coordinates of all vertices of the surface for all v . sub . k ε visit . sub .-- listfor all primary neighbors of v . sub . k { query = vertex map feasibility ( adj ( v . sub . k )) if query = can . sub .-- be - mapped { map . sub .-- the . sub .-- vertex ( adj ( v . sub . k )) add adj ( v . sub . k ) to the visit . sub .-- list }}} ______________________________________ two example applications are presented which demonstrate constant area transformation of surfaces with single peak vertices . computation times reported reflect implementation on a silicon graphics indigo workstation with 48 mb of ram . example 1 : bezier surface . the fan shaped bicubic bezier surface shown in fig1 was represented by a 40 by 40 parametric subdivision to yield 1600 vertices on the tessellated surface . the mapping was performed and the result is shown in fig1 . the mapping of the surface was well defined and showed fairly uniform material flow over the entire surface . an increase of the parametric sampling produced the same result in slightly greater detail . the computation times for two surface discretization densities are shown in table 1 . as expected , the computation time grew in linear proportion to the number of vertices used to represent the surface . example 2 : b - spline surface . this example is a more complicated b - spline surface of a toy model sports car body . this surface is characterized by a single peak , flanged edges and multiple peaks at local maxima as shown in fig1 . this surface was chosen to study the behavior of the algorithm in the regions of flanges which the previous geometric method developed by chu ( 1983 ), could not handle . a 40 × 40 grid of surface points was generated and the algorithm was applied to this surface definition . the result is shown in fig1 . the algorithm produced very interesting results for the surface . on visual inspection , the material outflow correlated with the probable material inflow during actual forming operation . the mapping showed a slight bunching of the grid elements in the lower - most edge of the surface near the front of the car body . this corresponds to a region of complex curvature on the original surface , thereby signifying that the edge will have severe compressive forces acting on it , resulting in possible wrinkles . the remaining portion of the surface showed no severe area distortion . the computational results for the surface are summarized in table 1 . numerical degeneracy arises during computation of an intersection point when the generated area loci are nearly parallel to each other . since the basic methodology of the constant area transformation algorithm is propagation of areas from the center , any numerical error propagates , resulting in the failure of the algorithm . although , this is not a deficiency of the algorithm , the resulting blank can be influenced considerably by the ability to detect and accommodate this computational error ( nair , 1993 ). from these and other tests , it is apparent that the algorithm &# 39 ; s results are accurate for increased discretization of the design surface . since the algorithm is linear time , the technique is computationally inexpensive . this is a very attractive feature for the algorithm &# 39 ; s implementation as a general design aid . table 1______________________________________surface mapping results example 1 : example 2 : discreti - bezier surface b - spline surfacezation 40 × 40 60 × 60 40 × 40 60 × 60______________________________________area computa - 1 . 22 1 . 90 1 . 35 1 . 60calcula - tion timetion ( sec ) 3d area 8 . 52 8 . 52 17 . 66 17 . 70 2d area 8 . 52 8 . 52 17 . 66 17 . 70 change 0 . 0012 0 . 0005 0 . 0140 0 . 0072 (%) ______________________________________ the hardware system of the present invention and a software implementation of the blank development system of the present invention are illustrated in fig9 - 12 . as shown in fig1 , the system includes a workstation 10 ( for example a silicon graphics indigo / elan workstation with a unix operating system ) including a monitor 12 , keyboard 14 , mouse 16 , black and white printer 18 , color printer 20 , and printer / plotter 22 . housed in chassis 24 are various other system components including the cpu and other supporting processors , mass storage and random access memory ( ram ). to create and / or modify designs of objects for which surfaces are to be configured , the workstation 10 may be programmed with cad or solid or geometric modelling software ( hereinafter referred to as &# 34 ; cad software &# 34 ;) 30 , as illustrated in simplified block diagram form in fig1 a and 17b . cad software 30 includes routines and modules 32 for creating and modifying design data representing a design object ( 32a ), creating a desired shape of a formed blank ( 32b ), and for unforming the blank ( 32c ). software 32 receives input from the keyboard 14 and mouse 16 for this purpose . software 32 can also import object design data from another source 34 , such as a file developed on another system . software 32 , operating on the workstation , produces design data 36 ( preferably in a nurbs format ), which can be rendered graphically by software routines and modules 38 , which produce crt or printed output 40 and 42 respectively . referring now to fig1 , there is shown in simplified form the software 32c of the present invention . formed blank surface data 52 is provided and a starting vertex vmax is identified ( 54 ). vmax is projected on the blank plane ( 56 ). four neighboring vertices are identified and mapped onto the blank plane ( 58 ). a remaining vertex is identified for mapping ( 60 ), and mapped ( 62 ). if all vertices have been mapped ( 64 ), the process produces data representing the shape of the unformed blank ( 66 ), and there is a graphical display of the unformed blank ( 68 ). otherwise , the process continues mapping until all vertices are mapped . a computer program , written in the c language , for carrying out the functions of software 32c , is listed in the microfiche appendix herewith . referring now to fig1 , the method of blank design and forming is outlined in simplified block diagram form . a formed blank design is created ( 70 ), representing a desired shape of formed blank . the blank is unformed using software 32c , and displayed ( 72 ). the unformed blank shape is inspected ( 74 ), and the parameters of the starting blank and forming process are adjusted ( 76 ). finally , the actual formed blank is created ( 78 ). the results obtained from the present invention indicate that it provides a robust and computationally efficient technique for press forming blank development . the efficiency of the technique is due to the fact that geometric feasibility is independent of material property . it is interesting to note that other researchers have reached similar conclusions in considering the manufacturability of parts comprised of layered composite materials ( tam and gutowski , 1990 ; gutowski et al ., 1991 ). thus , the simplicity of the underlying algorithm and its corresponding linear time complexity make this constant area technique quite suitable for implementation as an interactive design aide . the technique of the present invention was initially conceived as an ancillary function for sculptured surface model synthesis ( oliver et al ., 1993 ), as disclosed in u . s . patent application ser . no . 08 / 106 , 403 , filed on even date herewith , and entitled &# 34 ; sculptured surface synthesis based on functional design constraints .&# 34 ; although the constant area transformation technique has emerged as a useful tool by itself , a major focus has been to develop a general formability constraint to be incorporated into the sculptured surface model synthesis technique ( oliver and theruvakattil , 1993 ). as a stand alone design aide , it is believed that the constant area transformation algorithm can be enhanced in several ways . for example , the method can be extended to accommodate more general surface models to handle merging of multiple fronts from several peaks and stages simultaneously . in addition , other mapping strategies , such as volume conservation and / or minimum energy path , can be investigated . the method can also be extended to provide a qualitative measure of surface strains . it is hoped that these additional capabilities will provide a more accurate assessment of formability for complex surfaces . chu , e ., 1983 , &# 34 ; new horizons in computer - aided design of sheet metal srampings ,&# 34 ; ph . d . dissertation , mcmaster university , montreal . chu , e ., soper , d ., gloekl , h ., and gerdeen , j . c ., 1985 , &# 34 ; computer - aided geometric simulation of sheet metal forming processes ,&# 34 ; proceedings of the symposium on computer modeling of sheet metal forming processes , sponsored by the metallurgical society , held at the 12th annual automotive material symposium , ann arbor , mich ., pp . 65 - 76 . clements , j . c ., 1981 , &# 34 ; a computer system to derive developable hull surfaces and tables of offsets ,&# 34 ; marine technology , vol . 18 , no . 3 , pp . 227 - 233 . clements , j . c ., and leon , l . j ., 1987 , &# 34 ; a fast , accurate algorithm for 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., and gutowski , t . g ., 1990 , &# 34 ; the kinematics for forming ideal aligned fibre composites into complex shapes ,&# 34 ; composites manufacturing , vol . 1 , no . 4 , pp . 219 - 228 . gutowski , t . g ., hoult , d ., dillon , g ., and gonzalez - zugasti , j ., 1991 , &# 34 ; differential geometry and the forming of aligned fibre composites ,&# 34 ; composites manufacturing , vol . 2 , no . 3 , pp . 147 - 152 .