From the Internet of Things to Cyber-Physical Systems: The Holonic Perspective

The paper presents a distributed model for implementing Cyber-Physical Systems aimed at controlling physical entities through the Internet of Things. The model tames the inherent complexity of the task by a recursive notion of modularity which makes each module both a controller and a controlled entity. Modules are arranged along part-whole tree-like hierarchies which collectively constitute the system. The behaviour of each module is strictly local since it has visibility only on its controlled modules, but not on the module which controls it. Each behaviour can be thus checked locally at design time against safety and liveness formulas, which still hold when component holons are composed into more complex ones, thus contributing, without the need of additional checks, to the overall safety and liveness of the final system

An ergonomics study on manual assembly process re-design in manufacturing firms

Nevertheless process automation is a global trend, some specific phases (i.e., assembly) in highly technological sectors (i.e., medical, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, dental) are still managed by human workers, due to high-precision tasks and low production volumes. In this context, operators are forced to work faster and adapt to not ergonomically workstations and workflows. As a consequence, human assembly is frequently the bottleneck of the entire process due a not ergonomic layout and process design. The study was conducted at a medical equipment manufacturer, leader of dental equipment production, and focused on the analysis of the assembly process of the dental units. Workers at the assembly line were observed by experts and involved also by interviews and focus groups to detect the assembly issues and process jam. The research provides a valuable example of how physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomic problems affect the final process performance and how human-oriented re-design actions can be easily defined according to the proposed analysis procedure

Parametric virtual concept design of heavy machinery: a case study application

Virtual prototyping enables the validation and optimization of machinery equivalent to physical testing, saving time and costs in the product development, especially in case of heavy machines with complex motions. However, virtual prototyping is usually deployed only at the end of the design process, when product architecture is already developed. The present paper discusses the introduction of virtual prototypes since conceptual design stage as Virtual Concepts in which coarse models of machinery design variants are simulated obtaining useful information, sometimes fundamental to support best design choices. Virtual Concept modeling and preliminary validation and its later integration to a Virtual Prototype are expressly investigated using Multi Body Dynamics software. A verification case study on a large vibrating screen demonstrates that dynamic Virtual Concepts enable easier and effective evaluations on the design variants and increase the design process predictability

Benchmarking of Tools for User Experience Analysis in Industry 4.0

Abstract Industry 4.0 paradigm is based on systems communication and cooperation with each other and with humans in real time to improve process performances in terms of productivity, security, energy efficiency, and cost. Although industrial processes are more and more automated, human performance is still the main responsible for product quality and factory productivity. In this context, understanding how workers interact with production systems and how they experience the factory environment is fundamental to properly model the human interaction and optimize the processes. This research investigates the available technologies to monitor the user experience (UX) and defines a set of tools to be applied in the Industry 4.0 scenario to assure the workers' wellbeing, safety and satisfaction and improve the overall factory performance

A reference model to analyse User eXperience in integrated product-process design

The analysis of human factors is assuming an increasing importance in product and process design and the lack of common references for their assessment in industrial practices had driven to define a reference model to analyse the so-called User eXperience (UX) to support human-centred product-process design. Indeed, the recent advances in ubiquitous computing, wearable technologies and low-cost connected devices offer a huge amount of new tools for UX monitoring, but the main open issue is selecting the most proper devices for the specific application area and properly interpreting the collected information content in respect with the industrial design goals. The research investigates how to analyse the human behaviours of \u201cusers\u201d (i.e., workers) by a reference model to assess the perceived experience and a set of proper technologies for UX investigation for industrial scopes. In particular, the model has been defined for the automotive sector. The paper defines a set of evaluation metrics and a structured protocol analysis to objectify and measure the UX with the final aim to support the requirements definition in product-process design. The model has been defined to fit different cases: vehicle drivers at work, workers in the manufacturing line, and service operator

the benefits of human centred design in industrial practices re design of workstations in pipe industry

Abstract Sustainable Manufacturing (SM) traditionally focused on optimization of environmental and economic aspects, by neglecting the human performance. However, the industrial plant's costs, productivity and process quality highly depend on the individual human performance (e.g., comfort perceived, physical and mental workload, simplicity of actions, personal satisfaction) and how much hazardous positions and uncomfortable tasks finally cost to the company. The present paper defines a human-centred virtual simulation environment to optimize physical ergonomics in workstation design and demonstrates its benefits on an industrial case study in pipe industry. The proposed environment aims at overcoming traditional approaches, where analysis are carried out at the shop-floor when the plant is already created, by providing a virtual environment to easily test and verify different design solutions to optimize physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomics

A Minimal Touch Approach for Optimizing Energy Efficiency inPick-and-Place Manipulators

The interest in novel engineering methods andtools for optimizing the energy consumption in robotic systemsis currently increasing. In particular, from an industry pointof view, it is desirable to develop energy saving strategiesapplicable also to established manufacturing systems, beingliable of small possibilities for adjustments.Within this scenario,an engineering method is reported for reducing the totalenergy consumption of pick-and-place manipulators for givenend-effector trajectory. Firstly, an electromechanical model ofparallel/serial manipulators is derived. Then, an energy-optimaltrajectory is calculated, by means of time scaling, starting froma pre-scheduled trajectory performed at maximum speed (i.e.compatible with actuators limitations). A simulation case studyfinally shows the effectiveness of the proposed procedure

Virtual training for assembly tasks: a framework for the analysis of the cognitive impact on operators

The importance of training for operators in industrial contexts is widely highlighted in literature. Virtual Reality (VR) technology is considered an efficient solution for training, since it provides immersive, realistic, and interactive simulations environments where the operator can learn-by-doing, far from the risks of the real field. Its efficacy has been demonstrated by several studies, but a proper assessment of the operator’s cognitive response in terms of stress and cognitive load, during the use of such technology, is still lacking. This paper proposes a comprehensive methodology for the analysis of user’s cognitive states, suitable for each kind of training in the industrial sector and beyond. Preliminary feasibility analysis refers to virtual training for assembly of agricultural vehicles. The proposed protocol analysis allowed understanding the operators’ loads to optimize the VR training application, considering the mental demand during the training, and thus avoiding stress, mental overload, improving the user performance

Hyperelastic Modeling of Rubber-Like Photopolymers for Additive Manufacturing Processes

Constituive models of polymers for rapid prototypin

A Simulation Tool for Computing Energy Optimal Motion Parameters of Industrial Robots

This paper presents a novel robot simulation tool, fully interfaced with a common Robot Offline Programming software (i.e. Delmia Robotics), which allows to automatically compute energy-optimal motion parameters, for a given end-effector path, by tuning the joint speed/acceleration during point-to-point motions whenever allowed by the manufacturing constraints. The main advantage of this method, as compared to other optimization routines that are not conceived for a seamless integration with commercial industrial manipulators, is that the computed parameters are the same required by the robot controls, so that the results can generate ready-to-use energy-optimal robot code