Organizational alternatives for flexible manufacturing systems

There is an increasing importance of different productive architectures related to worker involvement in the decision making, where is given due attention to the intuitive capabilities and the human knowledge in the optimization and flexibilization of manufacturing processes. Thus having reference point architecture of a flexible manufacturing and assembling system existent at UNINOVA-CRI, we will present some exploratory hypothesis about applicability of the concept of hybridization and its repercussions on the definition of jobs, in those organizations and in the formation of working teams.flexibility; robotics; work organization; manufacturing industry

Special Session on Industry 4.0

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Simulation and Control of a Cyber-Physical System under IEC 61499 Standard

IEC 61499 standard provides an architecture for control systems using function blocks (FB), languages, and semantics. These devices can be interconnected and communicate with each other. Each device contains several resources and algorithms with a communication FB at the end, which can be created, configured, and deleted without affecting other resources. Physical element can be represented by a FB that encapsulates the functionality (data/events, process, return data/events) in a single module that can be reused and combined. This work presents a simplified implementation of a modular control system using a low-cost device. In the prototyping of the application, we use 4diac to control, model and validate the implementation of the system on a programmable logic controller. It is proved that this approach can be used to model and simulate a cyber-physical system as a single element or in a networked combination. The control models provide a reusable FB design.We acknowledge the financial support of CIDEM, R&D unit funded by FCT – Portuguese Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, under the Project UID/EMS/0615/2019, and it was supported by FCT, through INEGI and LAETA, under project UIDB/50022/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards a holistic methodology of efficient virtual preparation and commissioning for production systems

The industry elaborates on the possibilities of applying virtual engineering work to excel in production system development. For example, Virtual Commissioning as a concept for testing and validating system performance in advance of on-site commissioning has proven beneficial in multiple areas of development. Some areas include reducing on-site commissioning time, guaranteeing functional behavior, and removing potential errors, resulting in a smoother integration of new and upgraded systems.Nevertheless, it has been hard to prove the financial benefits and actual gain from VC compared to the more trusted traditional methods. The lack of standards mixed with the increasing complexity of systems and experience from prior attempts is one of many reasons.This thesis has identified different vital areas crucial for adopting virtual elements into the value chain of the development process within the automotive industry. It is of the highest importance to understand the prerequisites of a project’s ability to integrate virtual preparation for efficient commissioning and further break down the technical requirements of modeling and simulation in a multidisciplinary digital architecture.With more quantified data and insight from Virtual Commissioning attempts, it is possible to adopt knowledge to future projects and find ways to increase the utilization of the invested virtual engineering work.The thesis investigates the challenges of implementing virtual preparational methods for efficient commissioning to achieve flawless launches for all implementation projects of production systems. In addition, the research aims to find ways to increase the utilization of the constructed models, decrease the cost of virtual development and testing, and verify functionality and accuracy for optimal levels of simulation

Assessing and augmenting SCADA cyber security: a survey of techniques

SCADA systems monitor and control critical infrastructures of national importance such as power generation and distribution, water supply, transportation networks, and manufacturing facilities. The pervasiveness, miniaturisations and declining costs of internet connectivity have transformed these systems from strictly isolated to highly interconnected networks. The connectivity provides immense benefits such as reliability, scalability and remote connectivity, but at the same time exposes an otherwise isolated and secure system, to global cyber security threats. This inevitable transformation to highly connected systems thus necessitates effective security safeguards to be in place as any compromise or downtime of SCADA systems can have severe economic, safety and security ramifications. One way to ensure vital asset protection is to adopt a viewpoint similar to an attacker to determine weaknesses and loopholes in defences. Such mind sets help to identify and fix potential breaches before their exploitation. This paper surveys tools and techniques to uncover SCADA system vulnerabilities. A comprehensive review of the selected approaches is provided along with their applicability

An environment for object-oriented real-time system design

A concise object-oriented method for the development of real-time systems has been composed. Hardware components are modelled by (software) base objects; base objects are controlled by a hierarchy of coordinator objects, expressed in an organizational diagram. The behaviour of objects is specified by state transition diagrams. This approach considerably promotes requirements analysis and communication with the customer. A CASE tool has been constructed with diagram editors for graphical specifications of real-time systems. The tool can generate executable code for PLCs from these graphical specifications; reuse of previous results is supported by the repository function of the tool. Experiences attained in practice with method and tool show that time spent in system testing and installation is reduced considerabl

Model-Driven Design and Development of Flexible Automated Production Control Configurations for Industry 4.0

The continuous changes of the market and customer demands have forced modern automation systems to provide stricter Quality of service (QoS) requirements. This work is centered in automation production system flexibility, understood as the ability to shift from one controller configuration to a different one, in the most quick and cost-effective way, without disrupting its normal operation. In the manufacturing field, this allows to deal with non-functional requirements such as assuring control system availability or workload balancing, even in the case of failure of a machine, components, network or controllers. Concretely, this work focuses on flexible applications at production level, using Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) as primary controllers. The reconfiguration of the control system is not always possible as it depends on the process state. Thus, an analysis of the system state is necessary to make a decision. In this sense, architectures based on industrial Multi Agent Systems (MAS) have been used to provide this support at runtime. Additionally, the introduction of these mechanisms makes the design and the implementation of the control system more complex. This work aims at supporting the design and development of such flexible automation production systems, through the proposed model-based framework. The framework consists of a set of tools that, based on models, automate the generation of control code extensions that add flexibility to the automation production system, according to industry 4.0 paradigm.This work was financed by MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE (grant number RTI2018-096116-B-I00) and by GV/EJ (grant number IT1324-19)

Ageneric predictive information system for resource planning and optimisation

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityThe purpose of this research work is to demonstrate the feasibility of creating a quick response decision platform for middle management in industry. It utilises the strengths of current, but more importantly creates a leap forward in the theory and practice of Supervisory and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and Discrete Event Simulation and Modelling (DESM). The proposed research platform uses real-time data and creates an automatic platform for real-time and predictive system analysis, giving current and ahead of time information on the performance of the system in an efficient manner. Data acquisition as the backend connection of data integration system to the shop floor faces both hardware and software challenges for coping with large scale real-time data collection. Limited scope of SCADA systems does not make them suitable candidates for this. Cost effectiveness, complexity, and efficiency-orientation of proprietary solutions leave space for more challenge. A Flexible Data Input Layer Architecture (FDILA) is proposed to address generic data integration platform so a multitude of data sources can be connected to the data processing unit. The efficiency of the proposed integration architecture lies in decentralising and distributing services between different layers. A novel Sensitivity Analysis (SA) method called EvenTracker is proposed as an effective tool to measure the importance and priority of inputs to the system. The EvenTracker method is introduced to deal with the complexity systems in real-time. The approach takes advantage of event-based definition of data involved in process flow. The underpinning logic behind EvenTracker SA method is capturing the cause-effect relationships between triggers (input variables) and events (output variables) at a specified period of time determined by an expert. The approach does not require estimating data distribution of any kind. Neither the performance model requires execution beyond the real-time. The proposed EvenTracker sensitivity analysis method has the lowest computational complexity compared with other popular sensitivity analysis methods. For proof of concept, a three tier data integration system was designed and developed by using National Instruments’ LabVIEW programming language, Rockwell Automation’s Arena simulation and modelling software, and OPC data communication software. A laboratory-based conveyor system with 29 sensors was installed to simulate a typical shop floor production line. In addition, EvenTracker SA method has been implemented on the data extracted from 28 sensors of one manufacturing line in a real factory. The experiment has resulted 14% of the input variables to be unimportant for evaluation of model outputs. The method proved a time efficiency gain of 52% on the analysis of filtered system when unimportant input variables were not sampled anymore. The EvenTracker SA method compared to Entropy-based SA technique, as the only other method that can be used for real-time purposes, is quicker, more accurate and less computationally burdensome. Additionally, theoretic estimation of computational complexity of SA methods based on both structural complexity and energy-time analysis resulted in favour of the efficiency of the proposed EvenTracker SA method. Both laboratory and factory-based experiments demonstrated flexibility and efficiency of the proposed solution.The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Engineering Method and Tool for the Complete Virtual Commissioning of Robotic Cells

Intelligent robotic manufacturing cells must adapt to ever-varying operating conditions, developing autonomously optimal manufacturing strategies to achieve the best quality and overall productivity. Intelligent and cognitive behaviors are realized by using distributed controllers, in which complex control logics must interact and process a wide variety of input/output signals. In particular, programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and robot controllers must be coordinated and integrated. Then, there is the need to simulate the robotic cells’ behavior for performance verification and optimization by evaluating the effects of both PLC and robot control codes. In this context, this work proposes a method, and its implementation into an integrated tool, to exploit the potential of ABB RobotStudio software as a virtual prototyping platform for robotic cells, in which real robots control codes are executed on a virtual controller and integrated with Beckhoff PLC environment. For this purpose, a PLC Smart Component was conceived as an extension of RobotStudio functionalities to exchange signals with a TwinCAT instance. The new module allows the virtual commissioning of a complete robotic cell to be performed, assessing the control logics effects on the overall productivity. The solution is demonstrated on a robotic assembly cell, showing its feasibility and effectiveness in optimizing the final performance