Development of a Socially Believable Multi-Robot Solution from Town to Home

Technological advances in the robotic and ICT fields represent an effective solution to address specific societal problems to support ageing and independent life. One of the key factors for these technologies is that they have to be socially acceptable and believable to the end-users. This paper aimed to present some technological aspects that have been faced to develop the Robot-Era system, a multi-robotic system that is able to act in a socially believable way in the environments daily inhabited by humans, such as urban areas, buildings and homes. In particular, this paper focuses on two services—shopping delivery and garbage collection—showing preliminary results on experiments conducted with 35 elderly people. The analysis adopts an end-user-oriented perspective, considering some of the main attributes of acceptability: usability, attitude, anxiety, trust and quality of life

Industry 4.0: Architecture and equipment revolution

© 2020 The Authors. Published by Tech Science Press. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://www.techscience.com/cmc/v66n2/40642The development of science and technology has led to the era of Industry 4.0. The core concept is the combination of "material and informationization." In the supply chain and manufacturing process, the "material" of the physical entity world is realized by data, identity, intelligence, and information. Industry 4.0 is a disruptive transformation and upgrade of intelligent industrialization based on the Internet-of-Things and Big Data in traditional industrialization. The goal is “maximizing production efficiency, minimizing production costs, and maximizing the individual needs of human beings for products and services.” Achieving this goal will surely bring about a major leap in the history of the industry, which will lead to the "Fourth Industrial Revolution.” This paper presents a detailed discussion of industrial big data, strategic roles, architectures, characteristics, and four types of innovative business models that can generate profits for enterprises. The key revolutionary aspect of Industry 4.0 is explained, which is the equipment revolution. Six important attributes of equipment are explained under the Industry 4.0 perspective.Authors would like to thank deanship of scientific research (DSR) at umm Al-Qura University for their partial funding the work (Grant# 17-COM-1-01-0007)

Architecture definition and operation testing of local electricity markets. The EMPOWER project

Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A Data-Driven Condition Monitoring of Product Quality Analysis System Based on RS and AHP

Mechanical and electrical products have complex structure and intelligent control system, their reliability plays an important role in the normal operation of security facilities. However, most manufacturers usually pay more attention to the product designing and manufacturing quality, with little interest in the intelligent fault diagnosis. The objective of this study is to develop the products quality intelligent analysis and management system based on Rough Set (RS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Firstly, this paper reviews the principle of hardware, software design, monitoring platform and quality analysis system to reduce the number of information transfer with computer technology. Secondly, the fault types and feature extractions of different faults of elevators are presented and simplified by using RS theory. Then, the objective weight of level index model can be obtained by AHP method, and the comprehensive analysis weight of each index is obtained by using the value of subjective and objective weight coefficients with the golden ratio. Finally, a comprehensive decision weight of the major index for quality control analysis system of many vertical elevators is presented. The results show that the data-driven condition monitoring and quality analysis system is a kind of important means to prevent a disaster of complex mechanical and electrical products

Cloud manufacturing architecture: a critical analysis of its development, characteristics and future agenda to support its adoption

Purpose: In the last decade, cloud manufacturing (CMfg) has attracted considerable attention from academia and industry worldwide. It is widely accepted that the design and analysis of cloud manufacturing architecture (CMfg-A) are the basis for developing and applying CMfg systems. However, in existing studies, analysis of the status, development process and internal characteristics of CMfg-A is lacking, hindering an understanding of the research hotspots and development trends of CMfg-A. Meanwhile, effective guidance is lacking on the construction of superior CMfg-As. The purpose of this paper is to review the relevant research on CMfg-A via identification of the main layers, elements, relationships, structure and functions of CMfg-A to provide valuable information to scholars and practitioners for further research on key CMfg-A technologies and the construction of CMfg systems with superior performance. Design/methodology/approach: This study systematically reviews the relevant research on CMfg-A across transformation process to internal characteristics by integrating quantitative and qualitative methods. First, the split and reorganization method is used to recognize the main layers of CMfg-A. Then, the transformation process of six main layers is analysed through retrospective analysis, and the similarities and differences in CMfg-A are obtained. Subsequently, based on systematic theory, the elements, relationships, structure and functions of CMfg-A are inductively studied. A 3D printing architecture design case is conducted to discuss the weakness of the previous architecture and demonstrate how to improve it. Finally, the primary current trends and future opportunities are presented. Findings: By analyzing the transformation process of CMfg-A, this study finds that CMfg-A resources are developing from tangible resources into intangible resources and intelligent resources. CMfg-A technology is developing from traditional cloud computing-based technology towards advanced manufacturing technology, and CMfg-A application scope is gradually expanding from traditional manufacturing industry to emerging manufacturing industry. In addition, by analyzing the elements, relationships, structure and functions of CMfg-A, this study finds that CMfg-A is undergoing a new generation of transformation, with trends of integrated development, intelligent development, innovative development and green development. Case study shows that the analysis of the development trend and internal characteristics of the architecture facilitates the design of a more effective architecture. Research limitations/implications: This paper predominantly focuses on journal articles and some key conference papers published in English and Chinese. The reason for considering Chinese articles is that CMfg was proposed by the Chinese and a lot of Chinese CMfg-A articles have been published in recent years. CMfg is suitable for the development of China’s manufacturing industry because of China’s intelligent manufacturing environment. It is believed that this research has reached a reliable comprehensiveness that can help scholars and practitioners establish new research directions and evaluate their work in CMfg-A. Originality/value: Prior studies ignore the identification and analysis of development process and internal characteristics for the current development of CMfg-A, including the main layers identification of different CMfg-As and the transformation process analysis of these main layers, and in-depth analysis of the inner essence of CMfg-A (such as its elements, relationships, structure and functions). This study addresses these limitations and provides a comprehensive literature review

Retail Precinct Management: A Case of Commercial Decentralization in Singapore

AbstractThis paper reviews the logistics challenges of a decentralization strategy in Singapore. The main purpose of an urban decentralization, where the commercial hubs and retail clusters are distributed in several regional centers is to relieve congestion from the city center and to move business closer to home. However, this approach can also create congestion in regional centers due to the rapid flow of public, private and freight vehicles in and out of regional centers. This paper identifies three major challenges and proposes Retail Precinct Management (RPM) which consists of four inter-related components to overcome these challenges

Virtuaalinen operointikeskus älykkääseen kunnossapitoon

The concept of Virtual Operation Center (VOC) for smart maintenance is studied in this research. The goal is to find out applications and structure for VOC in the maintenance of paper, board and pulp manufacturing and the potential benefits it can bring. Research structure is exploratory multiple case study with five interviews from other industries using VOC applications and six interviews conducted with the main case Efora Ltd's key personnel. Literature review is done on service innovations, operational excellence, Industrial Internet and service operations. The research shows that several VOC applications have potential to improve maintenance operations making them smarter, leaner and more effective. Applications can also improve network collaboration between maintenance company, its clients and key partners in cooperation profiting all parties. Conclusions are valid in restricted framework of this case study.Diplomityössä tutkitaan Virtuaalisen operointikeskuksen konseptia paperi-, kartonki- ja selluteollisuuden huoltotoiminnassa. Tavoitteena on kartoittaa operointikeskuksen rakennetta ja mahdollisia sovelluksia sekä niiden tuomia potentiaalisia hyötyjä. Tutkimusmenetelmä on kartoittava monitapaustutkimus, johon kerättiin tutkimusdataa haastatteluilla. Tutkimuksen päätapaus on Efora Oy, josta haastaltiin kuusi avainhenkilöä. Lisäksi haastateltiin muilta toimialoilta viisi yritystä, jotka käyttävät Virtuaalista operointikeskusta vastaavia sovelluksia. Kirjallisuuskatsaus käsittelee palveluinnovaatioita, operational excellenceä, teollista internetiä sekä palveluoperaatioita. Tutkimus osoittaa että usealla Virtuaalisen operointikeskuksen sovelluksella on potentiaalia parantaa huoltotoimintoja tehden niistä älykkäämpiä, leanimpia sekä tehokkaampia. Sovellukset voivat parantaa myös verkostoyhteistyötä huoltoyhtiön, asiakkaan ja laitetoimittajien kesken hyödyttäen kaikki osapuolia. Tulokset pätevät rajatussa tapaustutkimuksen viitekehyksessä

Smart Manufacturing

This book is a collection of 11 articles that are published in the corresponding Machines Special Issue “Smart Manufacturing”. It represents the quality, breadth and depth of the most updated study in smart manufacturing (SM); in particular, digital technologies are deployed to enhance system smartness by (1) empowering physical resources in production, (2) utilizing virtual and dynamic assets over the Internet to expand system capabilities, (3) supporting data-driven decision-making activities at various domains and levels of businesses, or (4) reconfiguring systems to adapt to changes and uncertainties. System smartness can be evaluated by one or a combination of performance metrics such as degree of automation, cost-effectiveness, leanness, robustness, flexibility, adaptability, sustainability, and resilience. This book features, firstly, the concepts digital triad (DT-II) and Internet of digital triad things (IoDTT), proposed to deal with the complexity, dynamics, and scalability of complex systems simultaneously. This book also features a comprehensive survey of the applications of digital technologies in space instruments; a systematic literature search method is used to investigate the impact of product design and innovation on the development of space instruments. In addition, the survey provides important information and critical considerations for using cutting edge digital technologies in designing and manufacturing space instruments

Hierarchical workflow management system for life science applications

In modern laboratories, an increasing number of automated stations and instruments are applied as standalone automated systems such as biological high throughput screening systems, chemical parallel reactors etc. At the same time, the mobile robot transportation solution becomes popular with the development of robotic technologies. In this dissertation, a new superordinate control system, called hierarchical workflow management system (HWMS) is presented to manage and to handle both, automated laboratory systems and logistics systems.In modernen Labors werden immer mehr automatisierte Stationen und Instrumente als eigenständige automatisierte Systeme eingesetzt, wie beispielsweise biologische High-Throughput-Screening-Systeme und chemische Parallelreaktoren. Mit der Entwicklung der Robotertechnologien wird gleichzeitig die mobile Robotertransportlösung populär. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde ein hierarchisches Verwaltungssystem für Abeitsablauf, welches auch als HWMS bekannt ist, entwickelt. Das neue übergeordnete Kontrollsystem kann sowohl automatisierte Laborsysteme als auch Logistiksysteme verwalten und behandeln