Bio-inspired Factories of the Future

The biological transformation of added value is seen as one of the key aspects in applied research. Bio- inspired methods and technologies will affect factories of the future and enable them to cope with changing boundary conditions and the rising necessity of sustainability. This results in a higher demand for flexibility and transformation ability of the comprised production systems. To elaborate topics like these, Fraunhofer initiated strategic collaborative research projects. The current project aims at developing aspects of the biological transformation, whereof organic bio-inspired factories is one. Different research focal points were identified as enabling technologies on different levels of the well-established automation pyramid. The paper highlights the aspects “facility layout planning”, “behavioral modeling of production systems” and “skill-based controller programming” as enabling technologies. Solution approaches for the addressed aspects are discussed and future steps towards a flexible and sustainable production are shown

AREUS \u2013 Innovative Hardware and Software for Sustainable Industrial Robotics

Abstract\u2014 Industrial Robotics (IR) may be envisaged as the key technology to keep the manufacturing industry at the leading edge. Unfortunately, at the current state-of-the-art, IR is intrinsically energy intensive, thus compromising factories sustainability in terms of ecological footprint and economic costs. Within this scenario, this paper presents a new framework called AREUS, focusing on eco-design, eco-programming and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of robotized factories. The objective is to overcome current IR energetic limitations by providing a set of integrated technologies and engineering platforms. In particular, novel energy-saving hardware is firstly introduced, which aim at exchanging/storing/recovering energy at factory level. In parallel, innovative engineering methods and software tools for energy-focused simulation are developed, as well as energy-optimal scheduling of multi-robot stations. At last, LCA methods are briefly described, which are capable to assess both environmental and economic costs, linked to the flows of Material, Energy and Waste (MEW). A selected list of industrially-driven demonstration case studies is finally presented, along with future directions of improvement

Book of abstracts of the 2nd International Conference of TEMA: mobilizing projects

Based on its Human Capital and Capacities, the Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation (TEMA) embraces a mission aiming to contribute to a sustainable industry, with specially focus on the surrounding SMEs, and to the wellbeing of society. Sustainable manufacturing aims to contribute to the development of a sustainable industry by developments and innovations on manufacturing engineering and technologies, to increase productivity, improve products quality and reduce waste in production processes. Technologies for the Wellbeing wishes to contribute to the wellbeing of society by the development of supportive engineering systems focusing on people and their needs and intending to improve their quality of life. TEMA intends to maximize its national and international impact in terms of scientific productivity and its transfer to society by tackling the relevant challenges of our time. TEMA is aware of the major challenges of our days, not only confined to scientific issues but also the societal ones, (a strategic pillar of the Horizon 2020 program), at the same time placing an effort to have its research disseminated, in high impact journals to the international scientific community. (...)publishe

1st Symposium of Applied Science for Young Researchers: proceedings

SASYR, the rst Symposium of Applied Science for Young Researchers, welcomes works from young researchers (master students) covering any aspect of all the scienti c areas of the three research centres ADiT-lab (IPVC, Instituto Polit ecnico de Viana do Castelo), 2Ai (IPCA, Instituto Polit ecnico do C avado e do Ave) and CeDRI (IPB, Instituto Polit ecnico de Bragan ca). The main objective of SASYR is to provide a friendly and relaxed environment for young researchers to present their work, to discuss recent results and to develop new ideas. In this way, it will provide an opportunity to the ADiT-lab, 2Ai and CeDRI research communities to gather synergies and indicate possible paths for future joint work. We invite you to join SASYR on 7 July and to share your research!info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Challenges and prospects of automated disassembly of fuel cells for a circular economy

The hydrogen economy is driven by the growing share of renewable energy and electrification of the transportation sector. The essential components of a hydrogen economy are fuel cells and electrolysis systems. The scarcity of the resources to build these components and the negative environmental impact of their mining requires a circular economy. Concerning disassembly, economical, ergonomic, and safety reasons make a higher degree of automation necessary. Our work outlines the challenges and prospects on automated disassembly of fuel cell stacks. This is carried out by summarizing the state-of-the-art approaches in disassembly and conducting manual non-/destructive disassembly experiments of end-of-life fuel cell stacks. Based on that, a chemical and mechanical analysis of the fuel cell components is performed. From this, an automation potential for the disassembly processes is derived and possible disassembly process routes are modeled. Moreover, recommendations are given regarding disassembly system requirements using a morphological box

Factories of the Future

Engineering; Industrial engineering; Production engineerin

Optimisation of Product Recovery Options in End-of-Life Product Disassembly by Robots

In a circular economy, strategies for product recovery, such as reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing, play an important role at the end of a product’s life. A sustainability model was developed to solve the problem of sequence-dependent robotic disassembly line balancing. This research aimed to assess the viability of the model, which was optimised using the Multi-Objective Bees Algorithm in a robotic disassembly setting. Two industrial gear pumps were used as case studies. Four objectives (maximising profit, energy savings, emissions reductions and minimising line imbalance) were set. Several product recovery scenarios were developed to find the best recovery plans for each component. An efficient metaheuristic, the Bees Algorithm, was used to find the best solution. The robotic disassembly plans were generated and assigned to robotic workstations simultaneously. Using the proposed sustainability model on end-of-life industrial gear pumps shows the applicability of the model to real-world problems. The Multi-Objective Bees Algorithm was able to find the best scenario for product recovery by assigning each component to recycling, reuse, remanufacturing, or disposal. The performance of the algorithm is consistent, producing a similar performance for all sustainable strategies. This study addresses issues that arise with product recovery options for end-of-life products and provides optimal solutions through case studies