Safety requirements for the design of collaborative robotic workstations in europe – a review

Industrial manufacturing is moving towards flexible and intelligent processes. Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) has a pivotal role in smart factories due to a more versatile resource allocation that ultimately drives higher productivity and efficiency. The physical barriers that separate robots’ and humans’ workspaces are removed to facilitate HRC, which raises new safety concerns. To cope with this new robotics paradigm, regulatory legislation and international safety standards have been issued and are enforced for any machinery placed in factories. In this paper, we aim to shorten the gap between research projects and industry-ready robotic systems, by providing the guidelines and general requirements for collaborative robotic applications. We review the current international safety standards, certification procedures under the scope of European jurisdiction, and elaborate a literature review of papers related to safety for collaborative workstations.This work was supported by NORTE-06-3559-FSE-000018, integrated into the invitation NORTE-59-2018-41, aiming to hire highly-qualified human resources, co-financed by the Regional Operational Programme of the North 2020, thematic area of Competitiveness and Employment, through the European Social Fund (ESF)

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

Using ERP as a basis for Enterprise application integration

Architecting and implementing e-Business supply chain solutions across and within the modern day enterprise, is now becoming a necessity in order to maintain competitive and be adaptable to market needs. As such, the integration of information and processes is a vital step, using technologies such as using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and enterprise portal platforms. The effective sharing of resource planning and other enterprise related data across and within the enterprise is typically seen as a facet of a business to business (B2B) platform. However, such infrastructures typically involve a tight integration across intra and inter-organisational systems. This paper examines an Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) initiative taken by a global manufacturer of industrial automation products, which attempted to utilise ERP as an integration tool across its internal B2B infrastructure, to achieve such an aim. This paper discusses those integration considerations and complexities, experienced by the case company upon embarking on an EAI integration programme through the adoption of a core ERP as a catalyst for organizational change. In doing so the authors present an analysis of the inherent risks and limitations of this approach in terms of previously published literature in the field, relating to technology-driven organizational change and EAI impact and adoption frameworks

Development of an Extended Product Lifecycle Management through Service Oriented Architecture.

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityThe aim of this work is to define new business opportunities through the concept of Extended Product Lifecycle Management (ExtPLM), analysing its potential implementation within a Service Oriented Architecture. ExtPLM merges the concepts of Extended Product, Avatar and PLM. It aims at allowing a closer interaction between enterprises and their customers, who are integrated in all phases of the life cycle, creating new technical functionalities and services, improving both the practical (e.g. improving usage, improving safety, allowing predictive maintenance) and the emotional side (e.g. extreme customization) of the product.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Company; BAE Systems; S4T – Support Service Solutions: Strategy and Transitio

Fabrication and characterization of nanostructured fluorine doped tin oxide thin film for dssc by hydrothermal method

Nanostructured Fluorine Doped Tin Oxide (FTO) thin film has been successfully synthesized on top of bare FTO layer substrates using hydrothermal method. The performance of FTO thin film including conductivity and transparency depend on the surface morphology and the properties of the material. Hydrothermal method has proven to be a very good method for the fabrication of novel metal oxides. Thus, a new nanostructured FTO thin film like nanorice has been fabricated using one step hydrothermal method. FTO nanorice thin films were obtained from the reaction of tin (iv) chloride (SnCl4), ammonium fluoride (NH4F), acetone, deionized water and hydrochloric acid (HCl). The compound was prepared in an autoclave at 150°C hydrothermal temperature for different reaction times of 5 hours, 10 hours, 15 hours, and 20 hours. FESEM studies on the surface morphologies of all the samples showed that nanorice structure had formed to fully cover the bare FTO substrate. Then, to further the optimization of FTO nanorice thin film, this research focused on studying the effect of hydrothermal temperature on FTO nanorice thin films. The experiments were conducted at 130°C, 140°C, 150°C, 160°C, and 170°C of hydrothermal temperature in constant reaction time of 10 hours. Basically, there were six properties studied; surface morphology, structural, element composition, thickness measurement, electrical and optical properties. At the end of this research, homogeneous FTO thin film has been successfully prepared. By controlling the reaction time and hydrothermal temperature, a transparent FTO film with beyond 85% percentage of transmittance was developed. The FTO thin film produced at 10 hour reaction time and 150°C of hydrothermal temperature time gave the low sheet resistance of 0.012 Ohm/sq with high transparency. The DSSC fabricated using the optimized FTO film gave higher efficiency of 2.77% compared to commercial FTO of 1.93%

A framework of justification criteria for advanced manufacturing technology implementation in small and medium enterprises

Today in order to stay in businesses and prosper, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are seeking higher electiveness and competitiveness across the entire cycle of marketing, product design, manufacture, test and sales. SMEs play an increasingly important role in all aspects of competitiveness: both products and production techniques, but also management methods, the organization of the firm and human resources training. One of the ways by which SMEs can achieve a competitive advantage in manufacturing is through the implementation of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT). An increasing number of them have chosen and are choosing various levels of AMT as the solution. Realizing the importance of SMEs, an attempt has been made in this paper to review the application of AMT in SMEs. Also, a framework has been offered for the implementation of AMT in SMEs. Finally, a summary of findings and conclusions are presented

Securing the Participation of Safety-Critical SCADA Systems in the Industrial Internet of Things

In the past, industrial control systems were ‘air gapped’ and isolated from more conventional networks. They used specialist protocols, such as Modbus, that are very different from TCP/IP. Individual devices used proprietary operating systems rather than the more familiar Linux or Windows. However, things are changing. There is a move for greater connectivity – for instance so that higher-level enterprise management systems can exchange information that helps optimise production processes. At the same time, industrial systems have been influenced by concepts from the Internet of Things; where the information derived from sensors and actuators in domestic and industrial components can be addressed through network interfaces. This paper identifies a range of cyber security and safety concerns that arise from these developments. The closing sections introduce potential solutions and identify areas for future research