EAGER: Cybermanufacturing: Design and analysis of a cyberphysical systems approach for custom manufacturing kiosks

计算、通信和制造技术的最新进展为定制高质量组件的成本效益生产提供了可能性，特别是在医疗、能源、航空航天和消费电器行业。由非技术人员操作的在自助服务亭（可能在家庭供应商店内）中独立操作的定制制造机器可以实现广泛的零售客户使用。这一愿景面临的一个主要挑战是当前3D打印过程中质量损失的高成本。与复印部门所取得的成就类似，质量保证方面的突破性办法是部署定制制造技术作为服务亭所必需的。与大批量制造不同，实时控制对于部署定制制造系统即服务至关重要。设计和规划生产过程以从各种各样的材料实现任意几何特征是不现实的。这个早期概念探索性研究资助（EAGER）项目探讨了一种新型机床系统核心的实时控制问题，该系统用于使用一系列切割-弯曲-折叠（kirigami）操作从板材前体创建定制组件。kirigami机器由激光切割机、带成型工具的机械臂和分度器组成。与目前的3D打印定制制造模式相比，它具有显著的优势，因为片材前体更便宜，更容易处理，并且只需几分钟而不是几小时即可创建复杂的零件，包括大型轻质功能组件。该项目的方法结合了CPS，无源无线传感，低延迟通信和数字图像相关性的最新进展，以实现实时质量保证。片材前体将嵌入有热致变色颗粒，使得当片材成形时，颗粒用作一群移动的被动传感器，其瞬时位置和变形使用相机来识别，以前所未有的粒度估计过程状态（主要是温度和变形场），并且控制律被合成以调整过程参数和致动器运动，以减轻质量问题。这与目前对使用粉末而不是基于片材的工艺的网络制造的想法不同，并且利用基于动态CPS的协调，采用基于新颖群的传感器而不是静态开环规划。这种新型的被动群体传感器在分解过程变量方面可能是一个巨大的进步。主要研究人员将解决与摄像机位置相关的挑战，以捕获来自动态传感器的信息，解决诸如闭塞，即将发生的故障的快速诊断以及使用不确定图像数据优化控制动作等问题。他们正在与当地一家板材成型公司合作开发一种概念验证机器。他们的经验，在莫尔斯理论精确kirigami建设复杂的几何形状，和片材折叠力学将被用来计划kirigami操作和划定可达到的几何形状。

Recent advances in computing, communication and manufacturing technologies promise the possibility of cost-effective production of custom, high quality components especially in medical, energy, aerospace and consumer appliance industry. Custom manufacturing machines operating standalone in kiosks, possibly within home supply stores, operated by a non-technical workforce may enable broad retail customer use. A major challenge to this vision is the high cost of quality loss in the current 3-D printing processes. Breakthrough approaches for quality assurance, similar to what the photocopying sector has achieved, are necessary to deploy custom manufacturing technologies as service kiosks. Unlike in high volume manufacturing, real-time control is essential for deploying custom manufacturing systems as a service. It is unrealistic to design and plan a production process to realize arbitrary geometric features from a wide variety of materials. This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project explores real-time control issues at the core of a novel machine tool system for creating custom components from sheet precursors using a sequence of cut-bend-fold (kirigami) operations. A kirigami machine consists of a laser cutter, a robotic arm with a forming tool, and an indexer. It offers significant advantages over the current 3-D printing paradigms for custom manufacturing, as sheet precursors are cheaper and easier to handle, and it takes just minutes versus hours to create complex parts including large lightweight functional components.The project's approach combines recent advances in CPS, passive wireless sensing, low latency communications and digital image correlation for real-time quality assurance. The sheet precursors will be embedded with thermochromics particles so that as the sheet is being shaped, the particles serve as a swarm of mobile passive sensors whose instantaneous location and distortion are discerned using cameras to estimate the process state (mainly temperature and deformation fields) at unprecedented granularity, and control laws synthesized to tune process parameters and actuator motion to mitigate quality issues. This is a departure from the currently held thoughts on Cybermanufacturing using powder rather than sheet based process, and leverages dynamic CPS based coordination employing novel swarm based sensors instead of static open-loop planning. The novel passive swarm sensing is potentially a huge advancement in disaggregating process variables. The principal investigators will address the challenges associated with placement of cameras to capture information from dynamic sensors, addressing issues such as occlusions, fast prognostication of impending faults, and optimization of control actions using uncertain image data. They are working with a local sheet forming firm to develop a proof of concept machine. Their experiences in Morse theoretic exact kirigami construction of complex geometries, and sheet folding mechanics will be employed to plan kirigami operations and delineate attainable geometries.