Final submissions due: 1 July 2014
Publication date: March 2015

Visual computing, which combines computer graphics and computer vision, will be a key enabling technology for smart and cognitive behavior in product engineering and manufacturing as envisioned by the Advanced Manufacturing Initiative. Advanced manufacturing—often called “the fourth industrial revolution” or “Industry 4.0” in Europe and the “Industrial Internet” by US companies such as GE—is considered the next big game changer for industrial engineering and manufacturing. Propelled by the convergence of machines, intelligent data, 3D printing, robotics, and advances in materials science, advanced manufacturing is creating new challenges as it drives computer graphics and modeling research forward while taking graphics back to its CAD and Sketchpad roots.

The (r)evolution in advanced manufacturing is accelerating as traditional industries such as manufacturing shop floors embrace networking and Internet technology to create cyberphysical production systems (CPPSs). Advances in additive manufacturing, modeling systems, physics-based simulation, and the computational representation of materials have created a framework for intelligent factories characterized by adaptability, resource efficiency, and ergonomics. Product designers soon will be able to exploit a changing environment in which clients increasingly ask for custom products that require highly flexible production involving both traditional materials and materials based on new metallurgic and biological processes. Computer graphics, modeling, and machine vision will play a key role.

The March/April 2015 IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications will focus on challenges for visual computing in manufacturing. We’re soliciting papers that present important contributions of visual computing to advanced manufacturing. We seek contributions from both commercial and academic sources and from both researchers and practitioners.

We welcome papers on a variety of topics, including
• end-user UIs (multimodal, immersive, Web-based, and so on) for designing and customizing products (for instance, end-user tools);
• interactive geometric 3D design and functional modeling for CPPS, including new representation schemes facilitating self-aware virtual product and production definition (for instance, virtual-engineering tools);
• virtual environments for testing self-configuration (for instance, production planning and adaptation tools);
• representation of (and design with) advanced materials, including biomaterials, metals, composites, and polymers;
• scene analysis and intention recognition, including semantics extraction for worker–machine collaboration;
• computer vision approaches for 3D reconstruction of dynamic processes on the shop floor to keep physical and virtual representations in sync;
• simulation approaches for supporting local decision making, including approaches to general-purpose computing on GPUs, in situ simulation at the machine level, and simulation of process physics and material properties;
• visualization techniques to communicate intention from machines to humans;
• the role of big data from CPPS, for visual analytics, design reuse, archiving, and long-term retention; and
• evaluations of such technologies in advanced-manufacturing setups and the creation of new foundries and manufacturing facilities.

Submission Guidelines

Articles should be no more than eight magazine pages, where a page is 800 words and a quarter — page image counts as 200 words. References are not restricted, but please limit your citations to the most relevant ones. Also consider providing technical background in sidebars for nonexpert readers. Color images are preferable and should be limited to 10. Visit the CG&A style and length guidelines at www.computer.org/portal/web/peerreviewmagazines/cga. We also strongly encourage you to submit multimedia (videos, podcasts, and so on) to enhance your article. Visit CG&A supplemental guidelines at www.computer.org/portal/web/peerreviewmagazines/accga#supplemental.

Please submit your paper using the online manuscript submission service at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cs-ieee.

When uploading your paper, select the appropriate special-issue title under the category “Manuscript Type.” Also, include complete contact information for all authors. If you have any questions about submitting your article, contact the peer review coordinator at cga-ma@computer.org.

Questions?

Direct any correspondence before submission to the guest editors:
• Andre Stork, andre.stork@igd.fraunhofer.de
• William Regli, regli@drexel.edu