Management apparatus and non-transitory computer readable medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11460829-B2
Application number	US-202016985653-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 5, 2020
Priority date	Jan 31, 2020
Publication date	Oct 4, 2022
Grant date	Oct 4, 2022

Abstract

A management apparatus includes a processor configured to: autonomously collect, even without an instruction from a user, attribute data concerning attributes of a product defined by a three-dimensional shape, in accordance with a collection rule for collecting the attribute data concerning the product, the attribute data being generated in individual process stages before the product is manufactured; associate the collected attribute data with three-dimensional shape data indicating the three-dimensional shape of the product, as attributes of the three-dimensional shape data, in accordance with a superimposition rule which defines association between the three-dimensional shape data and the attribute data concerning the product; and manage the three-dimensional shape data and the attributes of the product.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A management apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to
autonomously collect, even without an instruction from a user, attribute data concerning attributes of a product defined by a three-dimensional shape, in accordance with a collection rule for collecting the attribute data concerning the product, the attribute data being generated in individual process stages before the product is manufactured,
associate the collected attribute data with three-dimensional shape data indicating the three-dimensional shape of the product, as the attributes of the three-dimensional shape data, in accordance with a superimposition rule which defines association between the three-dimensional shape data and the attribute data concerning the product, the superimposition rule indicating a manner in which the attribute data concerning the product is combined into the three-dimensional shape data using at least one of best-fit matching, bounding-box matching, center matching, and centroid matching, and
manage the three-dimensional shape data and the attributes of the product.

2. The management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, among the attributes to be associated with the three-dimensional shape data, if two or more items of attribute data are collected for an identical attribute type, the processor is configured to:
specify, for each attribute type for which two or more items of attribute data are collected, an item of attribute data which represents a corresponding attribute type, as representative attribute data concerning the product; and
manage the three-dimensional shape data and the attributes of the product as a result of associating at least the representative attribute data concerning each attribute type of the product with the three-dimensional shape data and integrating at least the representative attribute data and the three-dimensional shape data associated with each other as integrated data.

3. The management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the collection rule is set in accordance with a flow of work in each of the individual process stages.

4. The management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:
collect attribute data concerning the product, the attribute data having been generated when the product has been designed with an additional condition different from a condition considered by a user.

5. The management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:
for each attribute type for which two or more items of attribute data are collected, an item of attribute data which represents a corresponding attribute type is specified as representative attribute data concerning the product; and
the item of attribute data selected as the representative attribute data satisfies more specifications of the product than the other one or more items of attribute data.

6. The management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, if a portion of the product indicated by the three-dimensional shape data satisfies a predetermined specifying condition, the processor is configured to:
superimpose new attribute data concerning the product on the three-dimensional shape data at a position corresponding to the portion of the product.

7. The management apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to:
calculate a multi-dimensional feature quantity of the product from the three-dimensional shape data at the position corresponding to the portion of the product and from the new attribute data; and
associate the calculated multi-dimensional feature quantity with the three-dimensional shape data concerning the product.

8. The management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:
convert the three-dimensional shape data concerning the product into three-dimensional shape data represented by a combination of a plurality of three-dimensional regions divided from the three-dimensional shape data concerning the product.

9. The management apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to:
define the three-dimensional shape data concerning the product with a required level of precision by changing resolution of the plurality of three-dimensional regions divided from the data concerning the product.

10. The management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, if a portion of the product indicated by the three-dimensional shape data satisfies a predetermined specifying condition, the processor is configured to:
superimpose attribute data on the three-dimensional shape data concerning the product, the attribute data being generated as a result of making resolution of the portion of the product which satisfies the predetermined specifying condition be higher than a portion of the product which does not satisfy the predetermined specifying condition.

11. The management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:
collect items of three-dimensional shape data concerning the product expressed by a plurality of levels of resolution; and
associate multi-dimensional feature quantities of the product calculated based on the items of three-dimensional shape data expressed by the plurality of levels of resolution with the corresponding items of three-dimensional shape data.

12. The management apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the superimposition rule defines association between the three-dimensional shape data and the attribute data concerning the product in a three-dimensional space in which the product is disposed.

13. The management apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to:
associate the attribute data concerning the product with the three-dimensional shape data concerning the product in accordance with the superimposition rule after processing attribute values of the attribute data.

14. The management apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein, if the attribute data is expressed by a three- or greater multi-valued attribute value or a continuous attribute value, the processor is configured to:
convert the three- or greater-valued attribute value of the attribute data into a two-valued attribute value and then associates the attribute data with the three-dimensional shape data concerning the product.

15. The management apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to:
adjust resolution of the three-dimensional shape data to be associated with the attribute data concerning the product and adjust resolution of the attribute data generated based on the three-dimensional shape data from a first resolution level to a second resolution level.

16. The management apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein the processor is configured to:
manage the attribute data expressed by the first resolution level, together with attribute data expressed by the second resolution level, as a result of including the attribute data expressed by the first resolution level and the attribute data expressed by the second resolution level in integrated data, the integrated data integrating attribute data and the three-dimensional shape data concerning the product associated with each other.

17. The management apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to:
generate three-dimensional shape data and attribute data concerning the product, based on each of the additional conditions, until a total number of the conditions reaches a predetermined number, processing for generating the three-dimensional shape data and the attribute data being started in accordance with a load of th

Assignees

• Fujifilm Business Innovation Corp

Inventors

• Uemura Yasushi
• Higashikata Ryosuke
• Ogihara Atsushi
• Takahashi Tomonari
• Sakaki Shigeyuki

Classifications

• Y02P90/02

  Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] · CPC title

• G05B2219/35082

  Product, feature based modeling, geometric and engineering info · CPC title

• G05B19/4097 Primary

  characterised by using design data to control NC machines, e.g. CAD/CAM (G05B19/4093 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06T17/00

  Three-dimensional [3D] modelling for computer graphics · CPC title

• G06F30/12 Primary

  characterised by design entry means specially adapted for CAD, e.g. graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for CAD · CPC title