Cyber physical approach and framework for micro devices assembly

The emergence of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) based principles and technologies holds the potential to facilitate global collaboration in various fields of engineering. Micro Devices Assembly (MDA) is an emerging domain involving the assembly of micron sized objects and devices. In this dissertation, the focus of the research is the design of a Cyber Physical approach for the assembly of micro devices. A collaborative framework comprising of cyber and physical components linked using the Internet has been developed to accomplish a targeted set of MDA life cycle activities which include assembly planning, path planning, Virtual Reality (VR) based assembly analysis, command generation and physical assembly. Genetic algorithm and modified insertion algorithm based methods have been proposed to support assembly planning activities. Advanced VR based environments have been designed to support assembly analysis where plans can be proposed, compared and validated. The potential of next generation Global Environment for Network Innovation (GENI) networking technologies has also been explored to support distributed collaborations involving VR-based environments. The feasibility of the cyber physical approach has been demonstrated by implementing the cyber physical components which collaborate to assemble micro designs. The case studies conducted underscore the ability of the developed Cyber Physical approach and framework to support distributed collaborative activities for MDA process contexts

Design of a Cyber Physical Framework for the Assembly of Micro Devices

Micro Devices Assembly (MDA) is an emerging domain with a significant economic potential. Existing methods for assembly of micro devices are tedious and costly. For this reason, it is important to develop a collaborative framework for the field of MDA. In this thesis, a Cyber Physical Framework (CPF) is proposed to support a collaborative approach using software and physical resources for rapid assembly of micro devices in a distributed environment. CPF adopts the cloud computing principles to improve the Quality of Experience (QoE) of users accessing the simulation videos and physical assembly videos. The cloud computing principle enables the distributed engineers/users to access the cyber physical resources from various locations.Computer Science Departmen

Development of a Virtual Factory Environment to Study, Simulate and Improve the Material Flow Between Multiple Micro Assembly Work Cells

This thesis focuses on the creation of a virtual factory environment and its use to improve material flow between micro assembly work cells. The idea is to create a methodology that enables users to study the improvement of micro factory layouts and compare them based on their performance in the virtual environment. The main objectives for this project are to create a virtual factory environment using Unity� software, a game engine, and use it to simulate near optimal routing sequences between work cells. Programming in Unity� creates user interfaces that accept inputs with near optimal sequences that visit all the micro assembly cells in the simulated factory. Near optimal sequences are obtained using genetic algorithms within the Global Optimization tool from MatLab. This tool calls pre - programed functions that repeatedly apply genetic operators, like crossovers and mutations, to a given sequence in order to find a near optimal one. MatLab feeds from external data that consists of the distances between the work cells. These distances are calculated and stored in an Excel file which is read directly from the MatLab environment.All thesis objectives are fulfilled and the proposed methodology is used successfully to create a virtual micro factory in Unity�. The model is used to simulate several sequences for different circumstances:� Material distribution for a twenty four cell layout connected by conveyors.� Material distribution for only twelve of the twenty four available stations.� Design of material distribution sequence to supply twenty four work cells that are not limited by conveyor connections.In all situations the cumulative travel distances calculated in the Unity� model matched the objective function value estimated in MatLab. This validated the ability of the model to accurately represent the motion of materials within a micro assembly factory. This methodology can be used not only to study and improve existing micro factory systems but to also design future micro factories to be more efficient. The flexibility of the Unity� environment enables the users not to only simulate the movement of materials along near optimal sequences but to also reposition objects to quickly create different layout options.Industrial Engineering & Managemen

Automatic Microassembly of Tissue Engineering Scaffold

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Service-oriented design of microfludic devices

Microfluidics is a relatively new and, with an estimation of the market for these devices exceeding $3 billion in 2014, it is considered a profitable domain. Constant development of new technologies and growing demand for more versatile products cause increasing complexity in this area. To address this, the current trends for the domain include automation, standardisation and customisation. At the same time, the society is moving from product types offering to services. Due to the customisation trend this transition appears beneficial for microfluidics. Taking advantage of these opportunities, an investigation of microfluidic design has been undertaken to address the issues at their origins. The literature review showed a lack of a general design methodology applicable for all microfluidic devices, identified existing approaches as technology driven and the domain as unique in terms of design. Also, it highlighted a number of automation and standardisation attempts in the area. In addition, microfluidics shows limited customer and service-orientation. Meanwhile, an investigation of complexity and its implications in microfluidics narrowed the study to sub-section interactions, which allowed standardisation and automation without compromising customisation. In response to these gaps, an aim of the research is to develop a guideline for service- oriented design of microfluidic devices that can deal with sub-section interactions. This research reviews: existing methodologies for design in micro-scale, their applicability to the domain, microfluidic practitioners’ approach to design, state of service-thinking and services in the area and how sub-section interactions are dealt with for these devices. The developed guideline and design enablers present a proposal for a general process for the design of microfluidics. The solution attempts to tackle the issue of sub- section interactions and brings the domain one step towards an ‘experience economy’ by incorporating service-considerations into the design process. The usefulness of this contribution has been confirmed by a variety of methods and numerous sources including experts in the field.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo