Communications of the ACM
Intelligent Machines for Tomorrow’s Factory
The EU's SkillPro project is aimed at developing a plug-and-produce process utilizing intelligent product technology to expedite manufacturing of industrial goods.
Credit: Irina Westermann
The European Union's SkillPro research project is developing a plug-and-produce process that uses intelligent production technology to speed mass manufacturing of industrial goods.
Manufacturing new products typically requires a production process overhaul, but intelligent machines that communicate amongst themselves could facilitate the production of small series of individualized items.
"Machines equipped with additional intelligence and communicating with each other are expected to significantly reduce the changeover time," says Thomas Maier, director of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology's (KIT) Institute for Information Management in Engineering. For example, a machine with camera sensors could recognize any workpiece in any product, and determine how to use gripper or suction caps and where to position the workpiece. Machines that grip, weld, or bond could determine their next task or production step by communicating with adjacent machines.
The plug-and-produce process begins with software that determines which assembly line would produce the orders most efficiently, then allows the addition of other machines or technical capabilities.
In addition to KIT, SkillPro participants include the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies, and Image Exploitation; the FZI Research Center for Information Technology, and other industry partners.
Intelligent production could especially benefit smaller companies by enabling cost-effective production of niche products.
From Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
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Abstracts Copyright © 2014 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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