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Reverse Engineering: Introduction
Radha Raman Mishra, Ph. D.
Course Instructor & Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Engineering
Process of designing, manufacturing, assembling, and maintaining products and
systems.
Engineering
Forward Engineering (FE) Reverse Engineering (RE)
It is the traditional process of The process of duplicating an existing
moving from high-level abstractions part, subassembly, or product,
and logical designs to the physical without drawings, documentation, or
implementation of a system. a computer model
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Wego Wang, Reverse Engineering Technology of Reinvention, CRC Press, 2011.
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Generic product development process
The sequence of steps or activities that an enterprise employs to
• Conceive,
• Design, and
• Commercialize a product.
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K T Ulrich and S D Eppinger, “Product Design and Development”, 5th edition, MaGraw-Hill Companies, 2012.
Characteristics of successful product development
Five specific dimensions –
• Product quality
• Product cost
• Development time
• Development cost
• Development capability
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K T Ulrich and S D Eppinger, “Product Design and Development”, 5th edition, MaGraw-Hill Companies, 2012.
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Economy of successful product
Minimum C and t
values are desirable
t
Typical cash flow for new successful product
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K T Ulrich and S D Eppinger, “Product Design and Development”, 5th edition, MaGraw-Hill Companies, 2012.
Market competition of products
?? Challenging
Maturity (A)
Maturity (B)
Product A
Decline (A) Decline (B)
Sales Volume
Growth (A) Growth (B)
Product B
RE helps to
Introduction
(A) overcome
Introduction (B) challenges
O
Time
Life cycle of the successful products
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K T Ulrich and S D Eppinger, “Product Design and Development”, 5th edition, MaGraw-Hill Companies, 2012.
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RE (Definitions)
The practice of reverse engineering “The process of duplicating an item
“Starting with a finished product or functionally and dimensionally by
process and working backward in physically examining and measuring
logical fashion to discover the existing parts to develop the
underlying new technology” technical data (physical and material
characteristics) required for
competitive procurement”
The Society of Manufacturing Engineers The Military Handbook MILHDBK-115A
(SME) (2006)
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Wego Wang, Reverse Engineering Technology of Reinvention, CRC Press, 2011.
Abstractions levels in FE & RE
Software program development
Fig. Relationship between different terms
E J Chikofsky and J. H. Cross II, “Reverse Engineering and Design Recovery: A Taxonomy”, IEEE Sofwares, 1990. 8
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FE vs RE
Parameters Forward Engineering Reverse Engineering
Based on product improvement
Basic Based on customer requirements
in existing product
Ideas about requirements from
Certainty Product to cater the needs
the product
Nature Prescriptive Adaptive
Needed skills High Proficiency Low level of expertise
Time required More Less
Accuracy Model must be precise and Incomplete models also provide
complete some information
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Brief history of RE
The first model airplane developed by wright brothers in 1903 is one of the most
noticeable examples -
Movement of flying birds
The model plane of the Wright brothers
Reinvented a manmade “bird” by imitating the functionality of a flying creature in
nature using the concepts of reverse engineering concepts
Historical first flight on December 17, 1903.
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Wego Wang, Reverse Engineering Technology of Reinvention, CRC Press, 2011.
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Brief history of RE
World War II: B-29 Superfortress bomber Tupolev Tu-4 bomber (Soviet Union)
RE of Military Equipment
• US
• Soviet union
• Japan
The reverse-engineering effort involved –
• 900 factories & research institutes (1 year, design)
• 105,000 drawings were made
• 20 copies of the aircraft: by the end of 2nd year
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Wego Wang, Reverse Engineering Technology of Reinvention, CRC Press, 2011.
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Brief history of RE
Korean War: F-86 fighter MiG-15 fighter
RE of Military
Equipment
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Wego Wang, Reverse Engineering Technology of Reinvention, CRC Press, 2011.
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Brief history of RE
RE of human body parts
Artificial toes from Iron prosthetic, Gotz von
Ancient Egypt Berlichingen (1480-1562) Artificial Arm (1906)
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20151030-the-geniuses-who-invented-prosthetic-limbs 13
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Brief history of RE
The aviation industry:
An unpaved airport in early A typical modern open-
days. (From the Henry Ford field, paved-runway airport. An early radial reciprocal aircraft engine
Museum)
• The maturity of the aviation industry (a technology-driven to an economic-driven
business)
• The market demands the least expensive certificated spare parts
This shift provided a potential market for reverse engineering
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Primary functions of RE
1) To duplicate or produce original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
parts whose design data are not available
2) To repair or replace worn-out parts without knowledge of the
original design data, and
3) To generate a model or prototype based on an existing part for
analysis
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RE process
Develop new design
Modifications in
existing design
Geometric Segmentation
Processing of CAD model
information and surface
point cloud generation
Collection fitting
Cloning /
reproduction
Inspection /
verification
Transformation from
physical to digital world Interface with other manufacturing process Major applications
Zhaohui Geng & Bopaya Bidanda (2017) Review of reverse engineering systems – current state of the art, Virtual and Physical Prototyping, 12:2, 161-172. 16
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RE: product development cycle
Product development cycle
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V Raja, KJ Fernandes, “Reverse Engineering: An Industrial Perspective”, Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing, Springer-Verlag London Limited, UK, 2008.
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RE: Product development cycle
In Reverse engineering –
• Physical model is the
source of information for
the CAD model (physical-
to-digital process)
• Compresses product
development cycle time to
Physical-to-digital process
shorten lead time to
market a new product
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V Raja, KJ Fernandes, “Reverse Engineering: An Industrial Perspective”, Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing, Springer-Verlag London Limited, UK, 2008.
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Need
Following are some of the reasons for using reverse engineering:
• The original manufacturer no longer exists, but a customer needs the product
• The original manufacturer of a product no longer produces the product
• The original product design documentation has been lost or never existed
• Creating data to refurbish or manufacture a part for which –
there are no CAD data, or
the data have become obsolete or lost
• Inspection and/or Quality Control–Comparing a fabricated part to its CAD
description or to a standard item
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V Raja, KJ Fernandes, “Reverse Engineering: An Industrial Perspective”, Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing, Springer-Verlag London Limited, UK, 2008.
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Need
• Some bad features of a product need to be eliminated e.g., excessive wear might
indicate where a product should be improved
• Strengthening the good features of a product based on long-term usage
• Analyzing the good and bad features of competitors’ products
• Exploring new avenues to improve product performance and features
• Creating 3-D data from a model or sculpture for animation in games and movies
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V Raja, KJ Fernandes, “Reverse Engineering: An Industrial Perspective”, Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing, Springer-Verlag London Limited, UK, 2008.
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Need
• Creating 3-D data from an individual, model or sculpture to create, scale, or
reproduce artwork
• Architectural and construction documentation and measurement
• Fitting clothing or footwear to individuals and determining the anthropometry of a
population
• Generating data to create dental or surgical prosthetics, tissue engineered body
parts, or for surgical planning.
• Documentation and reproduction of crime scenes
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V Raja, KJ Fernandes, “Reverse Engineering: An Industrial Perspective”, Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing, Springer-Verlag London Limited, UK, 2008.
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Advantages
• Provides enormous opportunities to improve –
quality,
materials properties,
efficiency of re-design,
manufacture and
Analysis
• Applied to re-create either the high-value commercial parts for business profits or
the valueless legacy parts for historical restoration
• Proactive maintenance
• Lead time reduction
• Promotes innovation activities
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Limitations
• Legal ramifications if don’t follow copyright and patent laws
• Selection of component or product for RE
• Knowledge of software to develop CAD model
• Sophisticated equipment for digitization
• Need of advanced computer-based manufacturing processes
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Applications
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Software and information technology
BIOS (basic input/output system)
Product and process improvement
• To improve their own code or
• To improve interoperability between
programs Microprocessor chips
Intel Corp Advanced Micro Cyrix Corp
Devices Inc
Cyber security
• Viruses and other malware Intelligence and Espionage
• Flows in software • Spying
• Protection against hackers • Information for security of country
• Save systems from cyber attacks 25
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Forensic science
• Identification of reasons for damage in the products
• Data recovery from the electronic devices
• Malware identification and safety
• Investigations of crime
A loaded 33-foot-long container
A split in the end panel was observed.
Mechanical Engineer: the riveted seam between the two end panels in the side of the
container had split open from bottom to top.
Forensic reverse engineers: microscopic examination: no internal fault, wear, or
corrosion, investigators found.
Reason: overloading on neighboring rivets if one rivet near the end of a seam failed
Hardness test: rivets were well below the strength indicated on the drawing.
Manufacturing defect: rivets were set without being first solution treated
Lewis, Peter Rhys; Reynolds, Ken; Gagg, Colin, Forensic Materials Engineering: Case Studies, CRC Press, 2003. 26
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Medical systems
Design / Re-creation of Parts
High Resolution & Detailed Scans
Rapid Capture of Complex Shaped Components
Digital Assembly Analysis
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Architecture and civil engineering
Livio De Lucaa, Philippe Veronb,, Michel Florenzanoa, Reverse engineering of architectural buildings based on a hybrid modeling approach, Computers & Graphics
30 (2006) 160–176. 28
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Shipbuilding
Symmetry analysis of a towing tank ship Nave Argo and its screws shapes of a sailing boat.
model
F. Menna, E. Nocerino, A. Scamardella, Reverse Engineering And 3d Modelling For Digital Documentation Of Maritime Heritage, Volume XXXVIII-5/W16, 2011 ISPRS
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Trento 2011 Workshop, 2-4 March 2011, Trento, Italy
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Aviation industry
• Outside contour development
• Parts reproduction lacking dimensional drawings
• Quality control
• Damage assessment Mode development
• Aircraft dimensional tolerance and straightness
• Part reproduction
• Propeller blade inspection
• Corrosion inspection
CFD/FEA Analysis
Wing Analysis 30
https://www.capture3d.com/
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Automobile industry
Digital Model
Clay Model Iterations Competitive Benchmarking
CFD Analysis Accident Investigation
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Thank you
[email protected]
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