Implementation of 3D Scanning Technology and Pointools Software in Production Development at Volvo Car Corporation. Design of Driving Unit Station in Gent Plant

Abstract

3D laser scanning has been widely implemented during the last years in many areas. One of its applications is building documentation which allows creating accurate point-based 3D models of any construction as-built. The purpose of this master thesis is to implement this innovative technology in the production development at Volvo Car Corporation (VCC) in Torslanda to create a virtual factory. More specifically, designing different 3D scanned data scenarios of the driving unit station in Gent plant with Pointools, which is software to edit and modify scanned data. In this master thesis two work cases applied in two different project phases have been carried out. The first one consists of using Pointools to evaluate and verify a detailed design of a robot cell in an advanced phase of the project. Whereas the case two is based on the creation of scenarios for the conceptual design of the backup area, so it corresponds to an earlier stage. Firstly, a framework for the production development and technologies used on it is presented for a general approach and for the Volvo particular case. This theoretical foundation gives a basis to later understand where scanning technology is better to be applied and the available alternatives. For obtaining the 3D scanned data, a scanning process in Gent plant was done as part of this thesis with the ATS AB collaboration, and it is here explained considering all the steps we carried out. After this, the work cases are explained separately with their methodologies, results and discussions. The methods are based on the relation and communication between different VCC departments and the Pointools specific work. Using this software is a way of providing models of all equipment and facilities of the station as libraries which can be used in any project to design different scenarios. On the other hand, the results of the first case show that Pointools is not a good tool when the design is advanced and robots are involved. It is because precise virtual simulation is required for defining and verifying the final scenario. However, in an early stage, Pointools give the opportunity to rapidly create complete and detailed scenarios with as-built models like the result of the second case show. In this case, three different scenarios were designed of which one was selected after evaluation to be analyzed with simulation tools in the future. This technology brings the main advantage of easy visualization and interaction with the factory, which leads to increased efficiency for evaluation and verification, and consequently gives time, costs, and quality benefits in the development process.