Special Session on Industry 4.0

No abstract available

Feasibility of Warehouse Drone Adoption and Implementation

While aerial delivery drones capture headlines, the pace of adoption of drones in warehouses has shown the greatest acceleration. Warehousing constitutes 30% of the cost of logistics in the US. The rise of e-commerce, greater customer service demands of retail stores, and a shortage of skilled labor have intensified competition for efficient warehouse operations. This takes place during an era of shortening technology life cycles. This paper integrates several theoretical perspectives on technology diffusion and adoption to propose a framework to inform supply chain decision-makers on when to invest in new robotics technology

Smart grid architecture for rural distribution networks: application to a Spanish pilot network

This paper presents a novel architecture for rural distribution grids. This architecture is designed to modernize traditional rural networks into new Smart Grid ones. The architecture tackles innovation actions on both the power plane and the management plane of the system. In the power plane, the architecture focuses on exploiting the synergies between telecommunications and innovative technologies based on power electronics managing low scale electrical storage. In the management plane, a decentralized management system is proposed based on the addition of two new agents assisting the typical Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system of distribution system operators. Altogether, the proposed architecture enables operators to use more effectively—in an automated and decentralized way—weak rural distribution systems, increasing the capability to integrate new distributed energy resources. This architecture is being implemented in a real Pilot Network located in Spain, in the frame of the European Smart Rural Grid project. The paper also includes a study case showing one of the potentialities of one of the principal technologies developed in the project and underpinning the realization of the new architecture: the so-called Intelligent Distribution Power Router.Postprint (published version

New Shop Floor Control Approaches for Virtual Enterprises

The virtual enterprise paradigm seems a fit response to face market instability and the volatile nature of business opportunities increasing enterprise’s interest in similar forms of networked organisations. The dynamic environment of a virtual enterprise requires that partners in the consortium own reconfigurable shop floors. This paper presents new approaches to shop floor control that meet the requirements of the new industrial paradigms and argues on work re-organization at shop floor level.virtual enterprise; networked organisations

A PLC Variable Identification Method by Manual Declaration of Time-Stamped Events

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Influence of geometric shape on the deformation performance of natural jute/epoxy specimens under axial quasi-static compression

The interest in the using of natural composite has been increased significantly in recent years in many application of life due to their distinctive characteristics these like low density, high-energy dissipation ability, and fatigue resistance. Indeed, a seemingly good alternative candidate to metals.This work displays the deformation performance of two different types of geometrical natural composite shapes when subjected to uniaxial quasi-static loading. The purpose is to study the effect of geometrical on the progressive collapse of composite specimens. Two geometrical composite tubes have been fabricated by combination technique of manual lay-up and vacuum bladder moulding. The two types of the proposed tubes, which are the circular and corrugated shape. The experimental work was performed by using bidirectional jute fabric (with 3 layers and 100mm in length) and epoxy resin. Six patterns (three for each one) were tested and evaluated in the same conditions to provide a proper means of comparison between different geometric shapes. The result exhibited both kinds of samples demonstrated stable and progressive deformation with acceptable repeatability during the test process. It also showed the ability to absorb the higher energy of the corrugated samples configuration than the circular samples. Overall, the corrugated pattern configuration can be considered the optimal for crashworthiness structure application compared to a circular composite sample