Search results

The purpose of the research and development, validation and application of an advanced concurrent engineering research toolset, developed by the authors, at Rolls‐Royce Motor Cars Limited is to: reflect the customers’ requirements in a very competitive world market by focusing on product that is very high quality and reliable; shorten lead time; increase productivity; and improve integration between design, manufacturing and assembly, as well as the logistic system so that alternative supply chains could be evaluated before the product design is complete. This paper discusses some of the strategic issues, as well as gives examples of the modelling methods of the research toolset and some of its applications at Rolls‐Royce Motor Cars Limited.

Multi‐arm, collaborative, synchronous robots are gaining acceptance in industry, because of the cycle time reduction, productivity increase, flexibility and quality gain, distributed control, layout design/simulation, and programming support robot manufacturers and system integrators can offer. On the negative side, when things go wrong such systems are more complex to recover, and maintain, than non‐networked and non‐distributed controlled individual robots. In this paper, we introduce some of the most important engineering, and technology management principles that collaborate robots and their users and should be kept in mind while developing such systems, and/or planning for such applications.

The results and description of the TESTROBOT program are presented. This is a module of The FMS Software Library developed by the author.

The aim of this paper is to introduce a real‐time performance evaluation and control model, for the purpose of reducing cost and improving the quality, and the real‐time responsiveness of manufacturing/assembly systems and enterprises that host them. In order to make the approach practical, networking solutions with integrated sensory feedback processing and visualization methods are illustrated. In this paper we summarize the core concepts of our method and demonstrate some quality industrial solutions.

The purpose of developing smart (analog and digital) sensors for networked machine/process monitoring, and other tasks, is to make them as easy and trouble free to deploy, program and maintain, as plugging a keyboard, or mouse into a computer. The IEEE 1451 smart transducer interface standards describe a set of open, common, and network‐independent communication interfaces for smart transducers. (“Smartness” here means on‐board data storage/processing capability, interfaced/ integrated with the analog and/or digital sensor.) Several companies and individuals involved in networked control systems of machines, and the measurement and control industries are developing these new standards, in the USA sponsored by the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society’s Technical Committee on Sensor Technology (TC‐9), and the US Department of Commerce NIST Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory.

Digital, Internet‐enabled assembly line and factory modeling is essential for creating hardware and software independent, model‐driven system designs that can be implemented in a variety of different ways on a global‐basis in different countries and industries based on constraints such as cost, quality, productivity, real time responsiveness, technological support, culture, climate, risk factors, and others. In order to make our model‐driven approach practical, we follow an analytical, quantitative and open‐source computational method and use IBM's Rational Rose, UML (unified modeling language). This is an industry‐standard, platform‐independent, object‐oriented software and system analysis/design and documentation method, as well as a language for specifying, constructing, visualizing and documenting complex systems. To illustrate our Internet‐enabled factory design and modeling approach we demonstrate in‐depth examples of our own Internet‐enabled factory system designs, including class diagrams, use case and activity diagrams, and even some automatically generated Java code.

This paper aims to introduce some of the most important engineering, and information systems management principles and challenges, that radio frequency identification (RFID) researchers, implementers and users should keep in mind when developing such systems, and/or planning for such applications.

Provides a general review of RFID systems.

RFID technologies with the appropriate IT infrastructure help both major distributors and manufacturers, as well as other logistics operations, such as the health‐care system, defense industries, and others, dealing with complex, global supply chains in which products and product shipments must be traced and identified in a non‐contact, wireless fashion using a computer network, because of cost, or security, or safety, or because parts are subject to corrosion, or food/medicine is subject to quality degradation, or other reasons. All of these requirements point to an automated, wireless‐readable sensory‐based identification method, and network, that offers more functionalities and is significantly “smarter” than the well known bar code or the unified product code. RFIDs are available as passive and/or active radio read/write sensor‐packages with active read (and often write) capabilities in relatively large areas (like a large distribution centre warehouse, or a containership), all performed automatically, supervised by computers and communicated in a wireless fashion over secure intranets. RFID represents great research, technology, as well as huge business opportunities.

RFID has the potential to change the way we do business all around the world. It is a huge challenge, not just because of the sophisticated sensor‐network technology, but also because of the vast systems integration and IT tasks ahead of us.

Reviews the current state‐of‐the‐art and future opportunities.

Offers a broad overview on Japanese prototype service robot R&D trends and examples.

Displays two examples of service robotics: the forestry robot WOODY‐1, and the android presenter and entertainer/informer/guide Repliee Q1.

More and more frequently robotics usage has expanded into more diverse areas that involve work outside the confines of the factory floor. The paper highlights interesting Japanese service robot prototypes, as well as identifies some new R&D trends and requirements.

The potential for new service robotics applications is enormous, ranging from childcare and nursing, to forestry.

The practical implications of the increased diversity of service robotics will reduce human workload and environmental strain.

Reveals examples of innovation in service robot design and application.