Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring [Digital Shoestring]

制造业的数字化是英国政府提高工业生产力水平的关键推动因素，以达到并超过领先的竞争对手。虽然基本的数字技术在制造业中的应用并不新鲜，但有两个关键趋势预示了拟议研究的及时性：（1）制造业组织越来越多地将信息视为其产品供应的关键战略补充;（2）计算机科学，控制和信息学的重大创新为制造业的重大突破创造了新的机会。其中一个关键挑战是如何支持中小企业的数字化制造转型，并在一个资本投资和研究潜力有限的行业中引入考虑到最新控制、通信和人工智能技术的新生产方法。虽然在这一领域有大量的知识，但主要集中在中小企业往往负担不起的相对昂贵的解决方案上。因此，本项目将解决一个共同关注的问题，即由于升级工业计算和通信环境的相关资本成本，中小企业不太可能利用数字制造业的最新发展。该项目提出了一种完全不同的方法来实现制造业务的数字化发展，主要关注工业自动化和信息挑战的非工业解决方案。它将寻求利用非常低成本的商用技术进行移动的计算、传感和人工智能，并解决与将这些技术安全地集成到小规模制造环境中相关的挑战。除了传统的研究活动外，该项目还将更激进地让学生参与黑客马拉松，作为刺激低成本软件开发的一种手段，将使用内部技术转让组织来访问中小企业组织，并直接与高价值制造弹射器示范网络合作，作为接触最大数量潜在用户的一种手段。该方案的延伸目标包括引入低成本产品跟踪，利用新兴的工业物联网平台和基于人工智能的灵活控制，使用商用人工智能和语音识别开发环境。该项目将通过一些创新的实施开发活动来补充传统的研发方法，其中：工程和计算机科学的本科生和研究生，并通过一系列黑客马拉松和软件和硬件开发竞赛进行整合（ii）一系列研讨会将针对本地初创企业和中小企业信息技术界，让他们直接参与应用程序和产品的开发通过直接与技术转让组织合作，确保不仅最终信息，而且工作的基本原理充分吸引中小企业制造界的参与。

The digitalisation of manufacturing is a key enabler in the UK Government drive to raise the level of industrial productivity to match and exceed leading competitors. Whilst basic digital technology applications in manufacturing are not new, there are two key trends that predicate the timeliness of the proposed research: (1) manufacturing organisations are increasingly seeing information as a key strategic addition to their product offerings; (2) major innovations in computer science, control and informatics have created new opportunities for major breakthroughs in manufacturing. One of the critical challenges is how to support the digital manufacturing transformation of SMEs and introduce new methods of production that take into account the latest control, communication and AI technologies in a sector characterised by limited capital investment and research potential. Whilst there is significant body of knowledge in this area it is mostly focused on relatively expensive solutions which are often unaffordable to SMEs?This project will therefore address a common concern that recent developments in digital manufacturing are unlikely to accessible by SMEs owing to the associated capital cost of upgrading industrial computing and communication environments. The project proposes a radically different approach to the digital evolution of a manufacturing operation by focussing predominantly on non industrial solutions to industrial automation and information challenges. It will seek to exploit very low cost commercially available technologies for mobile computing, sensing, AI and tackle the challenges associated with integrating these safely and securely into a small scale manufacturing environment. As well as conventional research activities, the project will more radically involve student hackathons as a means of stimulating low cost software development, will use an in-house technology transfer organisation to access SME organisations, and engage directly with the High Value Manufacturing catapult demonstration network as a means of reaching the maximum number of potential users. Stretch targets for the programme include the introduction of low cost product tracking, exploiting emerging industrial IoT platforms and AI-based flexible control using commercially available AI and voice recognition development environments.The project will supplement the traditional research and development approaches with some innovative implementation development activities in which (i) undergraduate and graduate students in both engineering and computer science and integrated via a series of hackathons and software and hardware development competitions (ii) a series of workshops will be targeted at local start up and SME IT communities to engage them directly in the development of applications and products (iii) by working directly with technology transfer organisations to ensure that not only the final message but also the starting rationale for the work fully engages the SME manufacturing community.