16,511 research outputs found
Simulation modeling of tool delivery system in a machining line
This paper describes an industrial project aiming to enhance the existing simulation modeling suites used at a car engine factory in the UK. The company continues to enhance its simulation modeling capabilities towards so called the `total plant modeling' which not only covers the production facilities but also key ancillary facilities. Tool delivery is one such ancillary process. The existing modeling practices at the company are limited to modeling tool changes and assume that tools meet their expected life and the replacement is always available. In reality, the tools are not always reaching the expected life, the facilities in the tool crib are a limiting resource and the tool inventory has to be minimized. The tool delivery system developed in this project has specific features that model how the tool crib operates, how tools are supplied to the machining lines and various operating strategie
Managing a Fleet of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) using Cloud Robotics Platform
In this paper, we provide details of implementing a system for managing a
fleet of autonomous mobile robots (AMR) operating in a factory or a warehouse
premise. While the robots are themselves autonomous in its motion and obstacle
avoidance capability, the target destination for each robot is provided by a
global planner. The global planner and the ground vehicles (robots) constitute
a multi agent system (MAS) which communicate with each other over a wireless
network. Three different approaches are explored for implementation. The first
two approaches make use of the distributed computing based Networked Robotics
architecture and communication framework of Robot Operating System (ROS) itself
while the third approach uses Rapyuta Cloud Robotics framework for this
implementation. The comparative performance of these approaches are analyzed
through simulation as well as real world experiment with actual robots. These
analyses provide an in-depth understanding of the inner working of the Cloud
Robotics Platform in contrast to the usual ROS framework. The insight gained
through this exercise will be valuable for students as well as practicing
engineers interested in implementing similar systems else where. In the
process, we also identify few critical limitations of the current Rapyuta
platform and provide suggestions to overcome them.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, journal pape
3D simulation of complex shading affecting PV systems taking benefit from the power of graphics cards developed for the video game industry
Shading reduces the power output of a photovoltaic (PV) system. The design
engineering of PV systems requires modeling and evaluating shading losses. Some
PV systems are affected by complex shading scenes whose resulting PV energy
losses are very difficult to evaluate with current modeling tools. Several
specialized PV design and simulation software include the possibility to
evaluate shading losses. They generally possess a Graphical User Interface
(GUI) through which the user can draw a 3D shading scene, and then evaluate its
corresponding PV energy losses. The complexity of the objects that these tools
can handle is relatively limited. We have created a software solution, 3DPV,
which allows evaluating the energy losses induced by complex 3D scenes on PV
generators. The 3D objects can be imported from specialized 3D modeling
software or from a 3D object library. The shadows cast by this 3D scene on the
PV generator are then directly evaluated from the Graphics Processing Unit
(GPU). Thanks to the recent development of GPUs for the video game industry,
the shadows can be evaluated with a very high spatial resolution that reaches
well beyond the PV cell level, in very short calculation times. A PV simulation
model then translates the geometrical shading into PV energy output losses.
3DPV has been implemented using WebGL, which allows it to run directly from a
Web browser, without requiring any local installation from the user. This also
allows taken full benefits from the information already available from
Internet, such as the 3D object libraries. This contribution describes, step by
step, the method that allows 3DPV to evaluate the PV energy losses caused by
complex shading. We then illustrate the results of this methodology to several
application cases that are encountered in the world of PV systems design.Comment: 5 page, 9 figures, conference proceedings, 29th European Photovoltaic
Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, Amsterdam, 201
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