The Cyber Physical Implementation of Cloud Manufactuirng Monitoring Systems

AbstractThe rise of the industrial internet has been envisaged as a key catalyst for creating the intelligent manufacturing plant of the future through enabling open data distribution for cloud manufacturing. The context supporting these systems has been defined by Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) that facilitate data resource and computational functions as services available on a network. SOA has been at the forefront EU research over the past decade and several industrially implemented SOA technologies exist on the manufacturing floor. However it is still unclear whether SOA can meet the multi-layered requirements present within state-of-the-art manufacturing Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). The focus of this research is to identify the capability of SOA to be implemented at different execution layers present in a manufacturing CPS. The state-of-the-art for manufacturing CPS is represented by the ISA-95 standard and is correlated with different temporal analysis scales, and manufacturing computational requirements. Manufacturing computational requirements are identified through a review of open and closed loop machine control orientations, and continuous and discrete control methods. Finally the Acquire Recognise Cluster (ARC) SOA for reconfigurable manufacturing process monitoring systems is reviewed, to provide a topological view of data flow within a field level manufacturing SOA

Multi-cluster computing interconnection network performance modeling and analysis

The overall performance of a distributed system is often depends on the effectiveness of its interconnection network. Thus, the study of the communication networks for distributed systems is very important, which is the focus of this paper. In particular, we address the problem of fat-tree based interconnection networks performance modeling for multi-user heterogeneous multi-cluster computing systems. To this end, we present an analytical model and validate the model through comprehensive simulation. The results of the simulation demonstrated that the proposed model exhibits a good degree of accuracy for various system organizations and under different working conditions

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Rapid prototyping of rapid prototyping machines

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 50).Rapid prototyping tools empower individuals to create almost anything. Unfortunately, these tools are still far too expensive for personal ownership. The do-it-yourself community has responded with a slew of home-made rapid prototyping machines, but development times are slow because of the complexity of the necessary control system and the need to design the mechanical elements from scratch. This thesis seeks to address both of these issues. A control system is developed which treats the machine as a distributed Internet Zero network controlled by a software virtual machine with the benefits of simplified configuration and greater flexibility. A low cost circuit board milling machine, built as the test bed for this distributed controller, is described in detail. Finally, a parametrically designed XY table is introduced as a prototype for a universal machine axis and a first step towards the creation of reusable machine designs. These contributions will hopefully aid in accelerating the development of new rapid prototyping machines.by Ilan Ellison Moyer.S.B

Design and implementation of a modular controller for robotic machines

This research focused on the design and implementation of an Intelligent Modular Controller (IMC) architecture designed to be reconfigurable over a robust network. The design incorporates novel communication, hardware, and software architectures. This was motivated by current industrial needs for distributed control systems due to growing demand for less complexity, more processing power, flexibility, and greater fault tolerance. To this end, three main contributions were made. Most distributed control architectures depend on multi-tier heterogeneous communication networks requiring linking devices and/or complex middleware. In this study, first, a communication architecture was proposed and implemented with a homogenous network employing the ubiquitous Ethernet for both real-time and non real-time communication. This was achieved by a producer-consumer coordination model for real-time data communication over a segmented network, and a client-server model for point-to-point transactions. The protocols deployed use a Time-Triggered (TT) approach to schedule real-time tasks on the network. Unlike other TT approaches, the scheduling mechanism does not need to be configured explicitly when controller nodes are added or removed. An implicit clock synchronization technique was also developed to complement the architecture. Second, a reconfigurable mechanism based on an auto-configuration protocol was developed. Modules on the network use this protocol to automatically detect themselves, establish communication, and negotiate for a desired configuration. Third, the research demonstrated hardware/software co-design as a contribution to the growing discipline of mechatronics. The IMC consists of a motion controller board designed and prototyped in-house, and a Java microcontroller. An IMC is mapped to each machine/robot axis, and an additional IMC can be configured to serve as a real-time coordinator. The entire architecture was implemented in Java, thus reinforcing uniformity, simplicity, modularity, and openness. Evaluation results showed the potential of the flexible controller to meet medium to high performance machining requirements

Sensor data-based decision making

Increasing globalization and growing industrial system complexity has amplified the interest in the use of information provided by sensors as a means of improving overall manufacturing system performance and maintainability. However, utilization of sensors can only be effective if the real-time data can be integrated into the necessary business processes, such as production planning, scheduling and execution systems. This integration requires the development of intelligent decision making models that can effectively process the sensor data into information and suggest appropriate actions. To be able to improve the performance of a system, the health of the system also needs to be maintained. In many cases a single sensor type cannot provide sufficient information for complex decision making including diagnostics and prognostics of a system. Therefore, a combination of sensors should be used in an integrated manner in order to achieve desired performance levels. Sensor generated data need to be processed into information through the use of appropriate decision making models in order to improve overall performance. In this dissertation, which is presented as a collection of five journal papers, several reactive and proactive decision making models that utilize data from single and multi-sensor environments are developed. The first paper presents a testbed architecture for Auto-ID systems. An adaptive inventory management model which utilizes real-time RFID data is developed in the second paper. In the third paper, a complete hardware and inventory management solution, which involves the integration of RFID sensors into an extremely low temperature industrial freezer, is presented. The last two papers in the dissertation deal with diagnostic and prognostic decision making models in order to assure the healthy operation of a manufacturing system and its components. In the fourth paper a Mahalanobis-Taguchi System (MTS) based prognostics tool is developed and it is used to estimate the remaining useful life of rolling element bearings using data acquired from vibration sensors. In the final paper, an MTS based prognostics tool is developed for a centrifugal water pump, which fuses information from multiple types of sensors in order to take diagnostic and prognostics decisions for the pump and its components --Abstract, page iv

Exploring lean production in the flexible manufacturing systems environment: some tensions between features of advanced manufacturing technologies and new wave manufacturing strategies

Exploring lean production in the flexible manufacturing systems environment: some tensions between features of advanced manufacturing technologies and new wave manufacturing strategie