Knowledge Driven Configurable Manufacturing (KDCM)

拟议的研究计划将尝试创建基于制造过程和正在制造的产品的智能和高度精确模型的自我重新配置制造系统。这项研究的目标是使制造效率和可持续性发生根本性的变化。制造的目标类型是基于组件的模块化可重构系统，即由各种元素组成并组装在一起的系统，类似于用“乐高”建造的方式。这是一类制造系统，通常用于装配和处理应用程序，在这些应用程序中，您倾向于找到可以作为产品重用和重新配置的模块化机器组件家族，因此生产过程会发生变化。主要应用于汽车和航空航天领域。动力总成就是一个例子，英国的福特（Ford）就是一例。福特估计，如果这种生产系统的可重新配置性得到增强，将有可能节省30%以上的成本，而建造和调试这种系统的时间将减少50%，而这种系统通常每条发动机生产线的成本为3000万英镑。这项研究的实现有可能通过提高可重构制造系统工程的竞争力，帮助英国保持高价值的工程活动。实现这一目标的能力将建立在拉夫堡大学当前国际领先的研究基础上，该研究创造了一种用可重复使用的组件构建可重构系统的方法，目前正在汽车供应链中采用。柔性和可重构制造系统的概念已经建立；然而，这种灵活系统的有效、高效、快速配置仍然存在问题，特别是当生命周期产品发生变化时，无论这种变化是次要的还是更根本的。存在许多灵活和可重构的系统示例。然而，大多数设计都是直观的，仍然缺乏系统的方法。此外，在整个供应链的生命周期环境中，设计产品和流程的集成是必不可少的，但这在很大程度上仍未得到解决。虚拟工程在模拟生产系统和产品方面也发挥着重要作用。然而，这种可重构系统仿真设计工具的有效性仍然很差。这些工具需要能够涵盖整个系统生命周期，并且能够在模型中精确地复制生产系统的功能。这些模型是理解整个生产系统生命周期中可能发生的事情的关键推动者，并且可以驱动我们渴望创建的模块化制造系统的更好配置。

The proposed research programme will attempt to create self-reconfiguring manufacturing systems that are based on intelligent and highly accurate models of manufacturing processes and the products being manufactured. The goal of the research is to enable a radical change in manufacturing effectiveness and sustainability.The target type of manufacturing is component-based modular reconfigurable systems, i.e. systems that are built up of various elements and assembled together, in a similar fashion to building with 'lego'. This is a class of manufacturing system that is typically used in assembly and handling applications, where you tend to find families of modular machine components that can be reused and reconfigured as the product, and hence production processes change. Major applications for this are in the automotive and aerospace sectors. One example is in powertrain assembly, as seen in the UK at Ford. If the re-configurability of such production systems can be enhanced, Ford estimate that potential savings of over 30% in costs are achievable with a target of a 50% reduction in the time to build and commission such a system that typically costs £30 million per engine line. The realisation of this research has the potential to help enable the retention of high value engineering activity in the UK by improving the competiveness in the engineering of reconfigurable manufacturing systems.The capability to achieve this aim is to be built on the foundation of current, internationally leading research at Loughborough University, which has created a method for building reconfigurable systems from reusable components that is currently being adopted in automotive supply chains. The concepts of flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing systems are well established; however problems still exist in the effective, efficient, rapid, configuration of such flexible systems, particularly as lifecycle product changes occur, whether such changes are minor or more fundamental. Many flexible and reconfigurable system examples exist. However, most are designed intuitively and a systematic methodology is still lacking. Additionally, engineering this integration of product and processes is essential in a lifecycle context across the supply-chain, yet this remains largely unaddressed.Virtual engineering also has a major role to play in that we can simulate production systems and products. However the effectiveness of such simulation design tools for reconfigurable systems remains poor. Such tools need to be able to encompass the full system lifetime and be able to replicate the functions of the production system exactly in the models. These models are key enablers for understanding what might happen throughout a production system's lifecycle and can drive better configuration of the modular manufacturing systems we aspire to create.