Theodor Borangiu

An implementing framework for holonic manufacturing control with multiple robot-vision stations

The paper describes a holonic control architecture and implementing issues for agile job shop assembly with networked intelligent robots, based on the dynamic simulation of material processing and transportation. The holarchy was defined considering the PROSA reference architecture relative to which in-line vision-based quality control was added by help of feature-based descriptions of the material flow. Two solutions for production planning are proposed: a knowledge-based algorithm using production rules, and an OO resolved scheduling rate planner (RSRP) based on variable-timing simulation. Failure- and recovery-management are developed as generic scenarios embedding the CNP mechanism into production self-rescheduling. Aggregate Order Holon execution is realized by OPC-based PLC software integration and event-driven product transportation. The holonic control of multiple networked robot-vision stations also features tolerance to station computer- (IBM PC-type), station controller- (robot controller), quality control- (machine vision) and communication- (LAN) failure. Fault tolerance and high availability at shop-floor level are provided due to the multiple physical communication capabilities of the robot controllers, to their multiple-axis multitasking operating capability, and to hardware redundancy of single points of failure (SPOF). Implementing solutions and experiments are reported for a 6-station robot-vision assembly cell with twin-track closed-loop pallet transportation system and product-racking RD/WR devices. Future developments will consider manufacturing integration at enterprise level.

Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing and Robotics

This volume gathers the peer reviewed papers which were presented at the third edition of the International Workshop Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-agent Manufacturing and Robotics SOHOMA13 organized on June 20-22, 2013 by the Centre of Research in Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Robotics CIMR Bucharest, and hosted by the University of Valenciennes, France. The book is structured in five parts, each one covering a specific research domain which represents a trend for modern manufacturing control: Distributed Intelligence for Sustainable Manufacturing, Holonic and Multi-Agent Technologies for Manufacturing Planning and Control; Service Orientation in Manufacturing Management and Control, Intelligent Products and Product-driven Automation and Robotics for Manufacturing and Services. These five evolution lines have in common concepts related to service orientation in a distributed planning and control agent-based industrial environment; today it is generally recognized that the Service Oriented Enterprise Architecture paradigm has been looked upon as a suitable and effective approach for industrial automation and management of manufacturing enterprises.

Distributed manufacturing control with extended CNP interaction of intelligent products

This paper describes two heterarchical architectures which use distributed intelligence for the control (operation scheduling, resource allocation and product routing) of a manufacturing cell. In these architectures intelligence is put respectively at the product and through the network of workstation computers. The cost of embedded specialized hardware required for the first option is still very high. The second option needs the utilization of Automatic Identification and Data Capture technology close to the product to permit its identification and tracking by the computer system. These technologies enable the automated identification of objects, the collection of data about them, and the storage of that data directly into computer systems. Through this network, the computer system can access or update information in databases about the products and connect with software agents that represent production orders and resources and take in common decisions through negotiation and contract-based rules. The theory of the proposed solutions is based on the holonic manufacturing and product-driven automation concepts. The implementation methodology along with experimental results is presented, emphasizing the advantages of each solution.

A Service-Orientated Arhitecture for Holonic Manufacturing Control

The paper describes a solution and implementing framework for the management of changes which may occur in a holonic manufacturing system. This solution is part of the semi-heterarchical control architecture developed for agile job shop assembly with intelligent robots-vision workstations. Two categories of changes in the manufacturing system are considered: (i) changes occurring in resource status at process level: breakdown, failure of (vision-based) in-line inspection operation, and depletion of local robot storages; (ii) changes in production orders at business (ERP) level: rush orders. All these situations trigger production plan update and rescheduling (they redefine the list of Order Holons) by pipelining CNP-type resource bidding at shop-floor horizon with global product scheduling at aggregate batch horizon. Failure- and recovery management are developed as generic scenarios embedding the CNP mechanism into production selfrescheduling. Implementing solutions and experimental results are reported for a 6-station robot-vision assembly cell with twin-track closed-loop pallet transportation system, Cartesian pallet feeding station, dual assembly component feeder with robot-vision tending and product tracking RD/WR devices. Future developments will consider manufacturing integration at enterprise level.

A genetic algorithm for workload scheduling in cloud based e-learning

Cloud computing is a game-changing paradigm in modern computing, offering a better utilization of IT resources and at the same time reducing the operational costs and increasing the elasticity of the IT infrastructure. Clouds exist in various shapes and dimensions, from general purpose public clouds having virtually unlimited resources, to small private clouds used inside enterprises for specific business goals. These private clouds have limited resources in terms of processing power and IO capability and therefore, an effective scheduling of workloads becomes very important. Another characteristic of small, private clouds is that they are built for a specific purpose, allowing an accurate prediction of the workloads that are going to be scheduled. This paper presents the characteristics of a private cloud used for e-Learning purposes along with a genetic algorithm that optimizes the scheduling of the e-Learning workloads according to a set of conditions that are imposed by the underlying virtualization technology such as memory over-commitment and IOPS rate distribution.

Emerging ICT concepts for smart, safe and sustainable industrial systems

This editorial introduces the special issue on Emerging Information and Communication Technology (ICT) concepts for smart, safe and sustainable industrial systems in the Elsevier journal Computers in Industry. The 13 papers in this special issue were selected because of their high quality and also because they propose emerging ICT solutions that address at least one of the three dimensions we suggest are basic requirements to design usable future Industrial Systems that must be safe, smart and sustainable. Previous global discussions about the state of the art with regard to the topic of this special issue are provided, as well as exploratory guidelines for future research in this area.

Customer order management in service oriented holonic manufacturing

One of the most important problems when considering the design of manufacturing systems based on SOA paradigms is the integration of shop floor devices in the business processes at the enterprise level. This paper presents the design and implementation of the Customer Order Management (COM) module based on SOA architecture in the context of holonic manufacturing systems. The COM module is integrating with SOA enabled shop floor devices using industry standards. The implementation leverages a multi agent system suited for industrial applications integrated in a SOA environment capable of dynamic BPEL workflow generation and execution. The prototype consists in a SCA application for core COM module functionality and an extension for NetLogo MAS platform for SOA integration. The COM module interacts with the MES layer using real time events handled by the BPEL process implementation in the execution stage. A web based portal frontend for the COM module has been developed to allow real time tracking of customer orders, providing data about product batch execution and individual progress of each product on the production line.

vMES: Virtualization aware manufacturing execution system

Abstract The large scale emergence in the last decade of various cloud solutions, ranging from software-as-a-service (SaaS) based solutions for business process management and implementation to very sophisticated private cloud solutions capable of high performance computing (HPC) and efficient virtualization, constitute the building blocks for engineering the next generation of flexible enterprise systems that can respond with great agility to changes in their environment. These new technologies are adopted at a certain level by manufacturing enterprises in order to advance in a new era of mass customization where flexibility, scalability and agility are the differentiating factors. In this context, this paper introduces the virtualized manufacturing execution system (vMES), an intermediate layer in the manufacturing stack, and discusses the advantages and limitations offered by this approach for manufacturing enterprises. A classification of MES workloads based on the ISA-95 function model is presented, focusing on the virtualization techniques suitable for each workload, considering the algorithms and technologies used and the virtualization overhead. A pilot vMES implementation using a parallel process for smart resource provisioning and automatic scaling is also presented. The pilot implementation using six Adept robots and one IBM CloudBurst 2.1 private cloud and an ISA-95 based MES is described; the virtualization sequence is analyzed in several scenarios of resource workload collocation on physical cloud blades with and without perturbations.

Switching mode control strategy in manufacturing execution systems

The paper describes a semi-heterarchical control solution for mixed planning and scheduling, routing and job execution in flexible manufacturing systems based on the paradigms of holonic manufacturing and product-driven automation. The main feature of the control solution is the bidirectional switching of the operating mode (scheduling, routing) between centralised and decentralised in the presence of perturbations to ensure as long as possible both global optimisation and agility to changes in batch orders, while featuring robustness to disturbances in the production environment. At the theoretical level, the control solution is described in terms of generic structural and dynamic models. The implementation is done using a multi-agent Java Agent Development Framework framework.

Manufacturing Integration Framework: A SOA Perspective on Manufacturing

Abstract Todays society, driven by aggressive marketing campaigns, shows an appetite for everything new and state of the art. The life span of a given product type, in these conditions, becomes shorter and shorter. To remain competitive, manufacturing enterprises need to keep up with these dynamic market variations, by always adjusting the offer according to competition. On top of this, the poor economic conditions add additional pressure on optimization and efficiency in order to cut costs and maximize profit. Enterprises have understood that the “time to market” becomes a decisive factor that separates successful enterprises from lagers. This time to market can be shortened only by increasing flexibility in the manufacturing process. The purpose of this paper is to present IBMs framework for manufacturing integration, which matches plant floor solutions with business systems and suppliers. IBMs manufacturing integration framework focuses mainly on achieving flexibility by enabling a low coupling design of the entire enterprise system through leveraging of Service Oriented Architecture and Manufacturing Service Bus as best practices.