Intelligent systems in manufacturing: current developments and future prospects

Global competition and rapidly changing customer requirements are demanding increasing changes in manufacturing environments. Enterprises are required to constantly redesign their products and continuously reconfigure their manufacturing systems. Traditional approaches to manufacturing systems do not fully satisfy this new situation. Many authors have proposed that artificial intelligence will bring the flexibility and efficiency needed by manufacturing systems. This paper is a review of artificial intelligence techniques used in manufacturing systems. The paper first defines the components of a simplified intelligent manufacturing systems (IMS), the different Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to be considered and then shows how these AI techniques are used for the components of IMS

Research in complex materials handling and assembly systems, 1981

"August 1981"Bibliography: leaf [5]"National Science Foundation Grant DAR78-17826"S.B. Gershwin, J.G. Kimemia, E.R. Ducot

Crew aiding and automation: A system concept for terminal area operations, and guidelines for automation design

This research and development program comprised two efforts: the development of guidelines for the design of automated systems, with particular emphasis on automation design that takes advantage of contextual information, and the concept-level design of a crew aiding system, the Terminal Area Navigation Decision Aiding Mediator (TANDAM). This concept outlines a system capable of organizing navigation and communication information and assisting the crew in executing the operations required in descent and approach. In service of this endeavor, problem definition activities were conducted that identified terminal area navigation and operational familiarization exercises addressing the terminal area navigation problem. Both airborne and ground-based (ATC) elements of aircraft control were extensively researched. The TANDAM system concept was then specified, and the crew interface and associated systems described. Additionally, three descent and approach scenarios were devised in order to illustrate the principal functions of the TANDAM system concept in relation to the crew, the aircraft, and ATC. A plan for the evaluation of the TANDAM system was established. The guidelines were developed based on reviews of relevant literature, and on experience gained in the design effort

Ecological Interface Design for Flexible Manufacturing Systems: An Empirical Assessment of Direct Perception and Direct Manipulation in the Interface

Four interfaces were developed to factorially apply two principles of ecological interface design (EID; direct perception and direct manipulation) to a flexible manufacturing system (FMS). The theoretical foundation and concepts employed during their development, with findings related to more significant issues regarding interface design for complex socio-technical systems, are discussed. Key aspects of cognitive systems engineering (CSE) and EID are also discussed. An FMS synthetic task environment was developed, and an experiment was conducted to evaluate real-time decision support during supervisory operations. Participants used all four interfaces to supervise and maintain daily part production at systematically varied levels of difficulty across sessions. Significant results provide evidence that the incorporation of direct perception and direct manipulation in interface design produced an additive effect, allowing for greater support for the supervisory agents

The Center-TRACON Automation System: Simulation and field testing

A new concept for air traffic management in the terminal area, implemented as the Center-TRACON Automation System, has been under development at NASA Ames in a cooperative program with the FAA since 1991. The development has been strongly influenced by concurrent simulation and field site evaluations. The role of simulation and field activities in the development process will be discussed. Results of recent simulation and field tests will be presented

An investigation into tooling requirements and strategies for FMS operation

A study of the minimum tooling requirements and strategies for efficient operation of Flexible Manufacturing Systems, FMS's, in Assembly set Production, ASP, i.e production in sets of parts to completely assemble one or more product units, is presented in this research work. The main investigating tool is a simulation model. With this model the tool groups to be loaded into machines and fixtured pallet requirements were studied in conjunction with two scheduling rules. One is a FCFS rule and the other is a new rule, called MRPAS, which schedules work on the basis of the number of parts still unfinished belonging to an Assembly Set. The results of the research work show that ASP can be efficiently carried out in FMS's. However this requires that a good system set-up and adequate operating strategies are used. In particular appropriate tooling levels and good tooling configurations,TC's, i.e. combinations of tools in groups to be loaded into the machines, must be established to achieve high FMS performance. Tooling combination and duplication heuristic rules and the simulation model can be used for achieving this aim. The heuristic approach is shown to be necessary due to the impossibility, in a reasonable time, of evaluating the performance of FMS's under the large number of alternative tooling configurations which are possible. The level of fixtured pallets used can also have a great influence on system performance. Appropriate levels of these resources to operate FMS's for given TC's can be established using the methodology developed in this work. It is also important that good scheduling rules are used. In the cases studied, the MRPAS rule produces the best performance expressed as the combination of FMS utilization and production of complete assembly sets. Moreover a very small assembly set batch size, ASBS, i.e. number of AS released together into the FMS, is likely to be preferable. In the cases studied an ASBS of one performed best overall

An Application of Context-sensitive Computing for Flexible Manufacturing System Optimization

Recent advancements in embedded systems, computing, networking, WS and SOA have opened the door for seamless integration of plant floor devices to higher enterprise level applications. Semantic web technologies, knowledge-based systems, context-sensitive computing and associated application development are widely explored in this regard. Ubiquitous and pervasive computing are the main domains of interest among many researchers so far. However, context-sensitive computing in manufacturing, particularly, relevant research and development in a production environment like FMS is relatively new and growing.Dynamic job (re)scheduling and dispatching are becoming an essential part of modern FMS controls. The foremost drive is to deal with the chaotic nature of the production environment while keeping plant performance indicators unaffected. Process plans in FMS need to consider several dynamic factors, like demand fluctuations, extreme product customizations and run time priority changes. To meet this plant level dynamism, complex control architectures are used to provide an automatic response to the unexpected events. These runtime responses deal with final moment change of the control parameters that eventually influences the key performance indicators (KPIs) like machine utilization rate and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). In response, plant controls are moving towards more decentralized and adaptive architectures, promoting integration of different support applications. The applications aim to optimize the plant operations in terms of autonomous decision making, adaptation to sudden failure, system (re) configuration and response to unexpected events for global factory optimization.The research work documented in this thesis presents the advantages of bridging the mentioned two domains of context-sensitive computing and FMS optimization, mainly to facilitate context management at factory floor for improved transparency and to better respond for real time optimization through context-based optimization support system.This manuscript presents a context-sensitive optimization approach for FMS, considering machine utilization rate and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) as the KPIs. Runtime contextual entities are used to monitor KPIs continuously to update an ontology-based context model, and subsequently convert it into business relevant information via context management. The delivered high level knowledge is further utilized by an optimization support system (OSS) to infer: optimal job (re) scheduling and dispatching, keeping a higher machine utilization rate at runtime. The proposed solution is presented as add-on functionality for FMS control, where a modular development of the overall approach provides the solution generic and extendable across other domains. The key components are functionally implemented to a practical FMS use-case within SOA and WS-based control architecture, resulting improvement of the machine utilization rate and the enhancement of the OEE at runtime

Linking production paradigms and organizational approaches to production systems

Manufacturing system design and operation is critical to achieve strategic company objectives. This must aim fitting manufacturing systems capabilities to the different demand market environments, having in consideration the different approaches and strategies that should be used. In this paper we develop a framework for characterizing production system conceptual models and linking them to both production paradigms and organizational approaches to production, such as lean and agile manufacturing. The conceptual models identified are useful for aiding to implement organizational approaches and fit manufacturing systems to manufacturing requirements determined by different product demand patterns.(undefined

A Potentially Useful for Airborne Separation in 4D-Trajectory ATM Operations

An aircraft equipped with Airborne Separation Assistance System functions and 4- dimensional trajectory management capabilities can have significant, potentially transforming, value to Air Traffic Management at the local and system levels. This paper discusses how certain vital characteristics envisioned in the Next Generation Air Transportation System enable some Air Traffic Management functions to be distributed to properly equipped aircraft, and it defines and illustrates this equipage level in a potential application. The new equipage level, perhaps the most capable of many levels permitted, enables an effective implementation of both near- and long-term 4-dimensional trajectory operations in complex airspace, with the aircraft providing the near-term tactical functions and conforming to the long-term trajectory attributes coordinated with ground-based Traffic Flow Management authorities. NASA s recent research and development of this proposed aircraft equipage for en-route and terminal-arrival operations is summarized. The role the equipage level may play in addressing key implementation challenges of reducing ground infrastructure cost, building in security and safety, and scaling to traffic demand is discussed

An Application of Context-sensitive Computing for Flexible Manufacturing System Optimization

Recent advancements in embedded systems, computing, networking, WS and SOA have opened the door for seamless integration of plant floor devices to higher enterprise level applications. Semantic web technologies, knowledge-based systems, context-sensitive computing and associated application development are widely explored in this regard. Ubiquitous and pervasive computing are the main domains of interest among many researchers so far. However, context-sensitive computing in manufacturing, particularly, relevant research and development in a production environment like FMS is relatively new and growing.Dynamic job (re)scheduling and dispatching are becoming an essential part of modern FMS controls. The foremost drive is to deal with the chaotic nature of the production environment while keeping plant performance indicators unaffected. Process plans in FMS need to consider several dynamic factors, like demand fluctuations, extreme product customizations and run time priority changes. To meet this plant level dynamism, complex control architectures are used to provide an automatic response to the unexpected events. These runtime responses deal with final moment change of the control parameters that eventually influences the key performance indicators (KPIs) like machine utilization rate and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). In response, plant controls are moving towards more decentralized and adaptive architectures, promoting integration of different support applications. The applications aim to optimize the plant operations in terms of autonomous decision making, adaptation to sudden failure, system (re) configuration and response to unexpected events for global factory optimization.The research work documented in this thesis presents the advantages of bridging the mentioned two domains of context-sensitive computing and FMS optimization, mainly to facilitate context management at factory floor for improved transparency and to better respond for real time optimization through context-based optimization support system.This manuscript presents a context-sensitive optimization approach for FMS, considering machine utilization rate and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) as the KPIs. Runtime contextual entities are used to monitor KPIs continuously to update an ontology-based context model, and subsequently convert it into business relevant information via context management. The delivered high level knowledge is further utilized by an optimization support system (OSS) to infer: optimal job (re) scheduling and dispatching, keeping a higher machine utilization rate at runtime. The proposed solution is presented as add-on functionality for FMS control, where a modular development of the overall approach provides the solution generic and extendable across other domains. The key components are functionally implemented to a practical FMS use-case within SOA and WS-based control architecture, resulting improvement of the machine utilization rate and the enhancement of the OEE at runtime