Zero Defect Manufacturing of Complex Assemblies. The aim of this research project is to develop the tools required to design and implement zero defect manufacturing systems. It is intended that generic guidelines will be developed for achieving zero defect manufacturing of complex assemblies in a cost effective manner. Methodologies and techniques derived from these guidelines will be tested and validated on an existing door trim assembly production line. This project with its emphasis on utilis ....Zero Defect Manufacturing of Complex Assemblies. The aim of this research project is to develop the tools required to design and implement zero defect manufacturing systems. It is intended that generic guidelines will be developed for achieving zero defect manufacturing of complex assemblies in a cost effective manner. Methodologies and techniques derived from these guidelines will be tested and validated on an existing door trim assembly production line. This project with its emphasis on utilising manufacturing systems involving a mix of human and robot based operations and in process inspection techniques to achieve defect free manufacturing is particularly relevant to medium size component suppliers.Read moreRead less
Achieving higher availability of storage subsystems through application of a self learning expert system. In todays global business environment the management, storage and security of enterprise data (data unavailability, data loss and corruption, systems performance) has become the heart of so-called Enterprise computing. The storage subsystems increasingly have become the critical subcomponent and single point of failure. Discovering the cause of failure in complex environments involving mul ....Achieving higher availability of storage subsystems through application of a self learning expert system. In todays global business environment the management, storage and security of enterprise data (data unavailability, data loss and corruption, systems performance) has become the heart of so-called Enterprise computing. The storage subsystems increasingly have become the critical subcomponent and single point of failure. Discovering the cause of failure in complex environments involving multiple vendors, machines, software products, topologies and cultures (languages) is in many cases time consuming and difficult resulting in unacceptable systems downtime and high maintenance costs. A more sophisticated tool is needed allowing the accumulation of knowledge, the ability to deal with complexity and change, the ability to interface with unlike knowledge bases and predict solution probability based on experience and feedback. Multi-lingual support and capability through the development of a Natural Language interface would provide a functional capability suited to managing enterprise data in todays global businesses.Read moreRead less
Classification and Prediction Modelling for Financial Distress, Tax Debt and Insolvency for ATO Clients. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has clients who are not able to meet their taxation debts, resulting in revenue shortfalls for both the State and Federal Governments. Through this project, we will develop predictive models and techniques which identify client classes and clusters in the ATO client population and the defining attributes of these collections - especially those which are a ....Classification and Prediction Modelling for Financial Distress, Tax Debt and Insolvency for ATO Clients. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has clients who are not able to meet their taxation debts, resulting in revenue shortfalls for both the State and Federal Governments. Through this project, we will develop predictive models and techniques which identify client classes and clusters in the ATO client population and the defining attributes of these collections - especially those which are at high risk of incurring debt and defaulting on paying taxes. In turn, the early identification of clients in financial distress will allow the ATO to give them assistance so that they can reduce their debts and meet their financial obligations.Read moreRead less
Developing a Smart Monitoring System for Leakage Currents from Insulators on Wooden Poles. Numerous wooden poles are used for electricity power transmission in urban and rural areas of Australia. Insulators suspended on poles are subject to contamination and moisture that cause partial discharge currents to flow through the wooden poles, resulting in pole fires leading to loss of power to customers and possible bush fires. This project aims at studying the characteristics of leakage currents fr ....Developing a Smart Monitoring System for Leakage Currents from Insulators on Wooden Poles. Numerous wooden poles are used for electricity power transmission in urban and rural areas of Australia. Insulators suspended on poles are subject to contamination and moisture that cause partial discharge currents to flow through the wooden poles, resulting in pole fires leading to loss of power to customers and possible bush fires. This project aims at studying the characteristics of leakage currents from insulators on wooden poles in Australian conditions and developing a smart monitoring system to detect and prevent pole fires caused by leakage currents. The outcomes will reduce the risk of pole fires, hence improving public safety, reliability of power supply and sustainability of the Australian power industry.Read moreRead less
A generic decision-making design environment to enable end users in rural industries to develop expert systems. Successful decision support systems developed by end-users has been limited: our proposed approach advances this capability. Using natural representations of industry knowledge, this project will specify a generic design environment in which industry end-users can develop relevant decision support systems. It extends expert systems technologies to overcome known limitations, increasin ....A generic decision-making design environment to enable end users in rural industries to develop expert systems. Successful decision support systems developed by end-users has been limited: our proposed approach advances this capability. Using natural representations of industry knowledge, this project will specify a generic design environment in which industry end-users can develop relevant decision support systems. It extends expert systems technologies to overcome known limitations, increasing context and relevance and encouraging user uptake. Key industry stakeholders will select relevant problems to identify decision categories, leading to specification of the generic design environment. This promises improved decision quality for dairy farmers in the recently deregulated dairy industry; the design environment will be transferable to other rural industries.Read moreRead less
Optimizing steel industry supply chains through constraint and market-oriented programming. Supply chain optimization is a difficult problem, but of considerable significance to business enterprises. Constraint programming technology is a promising approach to solving such problems, but is inadequate in the context of dynamic supply chains. Market-oriented programming solves resource allocation problems by setting up artificial computational economies of trading software agents and holds promise ....Optimizing steel industry supply chains through constraint and market-oriented programming. Supply chain optimization is a difficult problem, but of considerable significance to business enterprises. Constraint programming technology is a promising approach to solving such problems, but is inadequate in the context of dynamic supply chains. Market-oriented programming solves resource allocation problems by setting up artificial computational economies of trading software agents and holds promise both as an optimization tool and as a tool that supports explicit market negotiation. This project seeks to address several open questions relating to the integrated deployment of these two classes of techniques, in the context of building a practical supply chain optimization system for BHP Steel.Read moreRead less
Intelligent Structured Knowledge Source Integration via Software Agents. This project aims to use flexible information agents to integrate the World Wide Web with a machine readable ontology, namely a large, consistent collection of common sense knowledge. The best developed ontology in the world is Cyc. Cyc's repository of general purpose knowledge is rich and stable, but has a major limitation in requiring its knowledge to be hand-entered by experts. The outcomes of the project will be increas ....Intelligent Structured Knowledge Source Integration via Software Agents. This project aims to use flexible information agents to integrate the World Wide Web with a machine readable ontology, namely a large, consistent collection of common sense knowledge. The best developed ontology in the world is Cyc. Cyc's repository of general purpose knowledge is rich and stable, but has a major limitation in requiring its knowledge to be hand-entered by experts. The outcomes of the project will be increased functionality for ontologies, to enable expert reasoning programs wishing to use a formal ontology such as Cyc to have access to the wealth of knowledge on the World Wide Web.Read moreRead less
Integrated constraint-based planning and scheduling. Constraint programming is a relatively new technology based on artificial intellgence techniques that is becoming a popular tool for developing industrial optimisation solutions. While constraint programming has been used extensively for solving industrial scheduling problems, very little has been done in developing constraint-based integrated producting planning and scheduling systems. The size and complexity of typical production planning a ....Integrated constraint-based planning and scheduling. Constraint programming is a relatively new technology based on artificial intellgence techniques that is becoming a popular tool for developing industrial optimisation solutions. While constraint programming has been used extensively for solving industrial scheduling problems, very little has been done in developing constraint-based integrated producting planning and scheduling systems. The size and complexity of typical production planning and scheduling problems requires the innovative use of the latest developments in constraint programming technology, together with a variety of other artificial intelligence techniques. This project seeks to develop and implement a new conceptual framework for integrated constraint-based planning and scheduling, using BHP Steel as a test - bed.Read moreRead less
Learning Medical Image Knowledge. We aim to develop Machine Learning and Knowledge Acquisition techniques for automated recognition of features in medical images, and to provide decision support for diagnosis from medical images. The project is innovative in its use of layered learning, where the computer first learns to recognise low-level image features that are then used to learn more complex features. The project is also innovative in combining a variety of automatic learning methods, includ ....Learning Medical Image Knowledge. We aim to develop Machine Learning and Knowledge Acquisition techniques for automated recognition of features in medical images, and to provide decision support for diagnosis from medical images. The project is innovative in its use of layered learning, where the computer first learns to recognise low-level image features that are then used to learn more complex features. The project is also innovative in combining a variety of automatic learning methods, including relational learning, with human-assisted knowledge acquisition methods. The expected outcomes will be new techniques for image understanding, particularly for our test domain, namely, High Resolution Computed Tomography scans of the lung.Read moreRead less
Thermo-mechanical interactive atlas of basin evolution. We propose to create a thermo-mechanical interactive atlas of basin evolution as a desktop geodynamic modelling resource for exploration geologists. The atlas will allow the user to iteratively run our 2D/3D basin modelling software ELLIPSIS to alter model parameters until they match observed basin geometries or thermal history. Model iteration will be based on interactive user evaluation of model outputs and genetic algorithms, which pr ....Thermo-mechanical interactive atlas of basin evolution. We propose to create a thermo-mechanical interactive atlas of basin evolution as a desktop geodynamic modelling resource for exploration geologists. The atlas will allow the user to iteratively run our 2D/3D basin modelling software ELLIPSIS to alter model parameters until they match observed basin geometries or thermal history. Model iteration will be based on interactive user evaluation of model outputs and genetic algorithms, which progressively modify the solution set by mimicking the evolutionary behavior of biological systems (selection, cross-over and mutation), until an acceptable result is achieved. The interactive atlas will be applied to Australian and international case studies.Read moreRead less