Antonio Maffei

Evolvable assembly systems: coping with variations through evolution

Purpose – The main features of evolvable systems include distributed control, a modularized, intelligent and open architecture, a comprehensive and multi-dimensional methodological support that com ...

From Flexibility to Evolvability: ways to achieve self-reconfigurability and full-autonomy

From Flexibility to Evolvability : ways to achieve Self-Reconfigurability and Full-Autonomy

Evolvable Production Systems: Environment for New Business Models

The increasing threats and opportunities, on the global markets, challenge today the company at several levels. The actual Manufacturing Systems becomes dramatic for the survival and prosperity of the organization. Agility, Sustainability and high rate of Re-usability are the main objectives of an “Evolvable Production System”. Task-specific and process-oriented modules with embedded intelligence, together with distributed control based on agent technology are the cornerstones of an EPS. The realization and management of this kind of systems entail an ontological approach due to their implicit complexity. The reference architecture is the key to canalize the underlying holism of an EPS towards an effective instantiation, which exploits the “Emergent Behavior”, the key driver of the Evolvability of a system. The issues related with the application of this view, such as dynamic link between product and system design as well as the management of a module repository, underline the weakness of present business models. Therefore a model for the emplacement of a System that follows the “Evolvable Paradigm” predicament has been produced in order to enable further studies. One of the conclusions of the work is the need for a more suitable approach to business by the main actors involved in the realization of an EPS. Sharing information and standards about product design and modules realization becomes a compulsory strategic choice.

Evolvable Production Systems: Mechatronic Production Equipment with Evolutionary Control

Current major roadmapping efforts have all clearly underlined that true industrial sustainability will require far higher levels of systems’ autonomy and adaptability. In accordance with these recommendations, the Evolvable Production Systems (EPS) has aimed at developing such technological solutions and support mechanisms. Since its inception in 2002 as a next generation of production systems, the concept is being further developed and tested to emerge as a production system paradigm. Characteristically, Evolvable systems have distributed control, and are composed of intelligent modules with embedded control. A concerted effort is being exerted through European research projects in collaboration with manufacturers, technology/equipment suppliers, and universities. After introducing EPS, this paper presents current developments and applications.

A preliminary study of business model for evolvable production systems

The aim of this paper is to define, through a survey of the current achievements within the Evolvable Paradigm universe, the potential target companies for the Evolvable Manufacturing Systems and to describe some features of a business model that fits the EPS structure and requirements. Therefore, the new, main, concerns surfacing by the introduction of the Evolvable Paradigm into the industrial field have been underlined and analysed in order to put into evidence the economical advantages achievable with their adoption. A simplified version of the EPS methodology is hereby presented as a framework in which concept like life cycle of a product, investment evaluation tools and “coopetition” have been integrated enabling crossed considerations.

Dealing with the unpredictable: An Evolvable Robotic Assembly Cell

The work presented in this paper intends to clarify how the Evolvable Assembly Systems (EAS) paradigm has been used to develop a robotic assembly cell based on a fully reconfigurable robot. The work includes some detail of the multiagent architecture based on coalitions of assembly modules and how this was successfully used to implement the control architecture for EAS.

From flexibility to true Evolvability: An introduction to the basic requirements

In the field of production engineering, most of the past paradigms introduced automation and computer science at shopfloor level based on the concept of system flexibility. Nevertheless their limits in approaching some fundamental areas such as the modularisation or the control issues, make them unsuitable to tackle the current dynamic scenarios & challenges. In this paper a review of past approaches, underlining their weaknesses, leads to propose a methodology for the creation of a manufacturing system, based on the Evolvable Paradigm. The salient points of this scheme are the process oriented approach to modularisation and the link between the development of the system and the design of the product. The potential economical benefits can render automation a sustainable solution even for SMEs. One fundamental requirement to pursue Full Autonomy and Evolvability is to deeply study the processes in order to represent them at hardware level, enabling the exploitment of the Emergent Behavior by the Control System, that for this reason has to be distributed.

Characterization of an agile bio-inspired shop-floor

Sustainability is currently one of the biggest challenges and drivers of manufacturing industry. With traditional automation approaches becoming evermore inadequate to support sustainable mass customized production, the research focus is moving towards agile systems that enact companies with the ability to quickly reconfigure their shop-floors by seamlessly deploying or removing modules. Such systems are envisioned as key for attaining a profitable and sustainable industrial development. In this sense, this paper attempts to characterize an innovative approach that relies on bio-inspired concepts as the main control mechanism, in order to foster sustainability by attaining the necessary shop-floor agility. Furthermore an experimental setup is presented and the results are analysed, in order to understand the influence and impact of the main properties of the approach towards the system performance.

Object-oriented design of product assembly feature data requirements in advanced assembly planning

Purpose This paper introduces a schema for the product assembly feature data in an object-oriented and module-based format using Unified Modeling Language (UML). To link production with product design, it is essential to determine at an early stage which entities of product design and development are involved and used at the automated assembly planning and operations. To this end, it is absolutely reasonable to assign meaningful attributes to the parts’ design entities (assembly features) in a systematic and structured way. As such, this approach empowers processes such as motion planning and sequence planning in assembly design. Design/methodology/approach The assembly feature data requirements are studied and definitions are analyzed and redefined. Using object-oriented techniques, the assembly feature data structure and relationships are modeled based on the identified requirements as five UML packages (Part, three-dimensional (3D) models, Mating, Joint and Handling). All geometric and non-geometric design data entities endorsed with assembly design perspective are extracted or assigned from 3D models and realized through the featured entity interface class. The featured entities are then associated (used) with the mating, handling and joints features. The AssemblyFeature interface is realized through mating, handling and joint packages related to the assembly and part classes. Each package contains all relevant classes which further classify the important attributes of the main class. Findings This paper sets out to provide an explanatory approach using object-oriented techniques to model the schema of assembly features association and artifacts at the product design level, all of which are essential in several subsequent and parallel steps of the assembly planning process, as well as assembly feature entity assignments in design improvement cycle. Practical implications The practical implication based on the identified advantages can be classified in three main features: module-based design, comprehensive classification, integration. These features help the automation and solution development processes based on the proposed models much easier and systematic. Originality/value The proposed schema’s comprehensiveness and reliability are verified through comparisons with other works and the advantages are discussed in detail.

Characterization of Costs and Strategies for Automation in Evolvable Production Systems

The rise of global competition and the demands for mass customization observed in recent years are the main shaping forces of the manufacturing domain. Current approaches to industrial production automation are not suitable to cope with the resulting increasing requirement in term of system agility and sustainability. While a quite large amount of innovative and sound technical solutions for automation address such an issue, it is not clear how the new generation of automatic production system will be economically connoted. This work proposes a first step towards an economical characterization of the Evolvable Paradigm: one among the most promising aforementioned innovative industrial automation technologies. A basic description of the state-of-the-art of the related Evolvable Assembly/Production System allows inferring a cost model able to account for such an installation. This, in turn, enable a quantitative description of how the focal innovative approach enables a more effective and rational use of industrial automation.