Flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing

该研究计划旨在产生先进的知识和基本原则，并开发有效地将产品设计特征与制造过程和系统结构和设计联系起来所需的方法，以实现最大的灵活性、可重构性、生产力和对不断变化的需求的响应。它针对产品/系统接口领域的三个主要领域和研究问题：一种新的制造系统分类代码的设计与开发。它捕获了它们的组件、结构的显著特征，并比较了它们的布局和交互。这种创新的代码是制造系统的第一个。除其他应用程序外，它还可用于评估其复杂性和设计效率。2. 工艺规划有两个主要方向：a)面向可变制造的创新动态工艺规划技术；b)智能混合激光和触觉扫描，重点是无组织激光扫描数据的自动特征识别。3. 设计一种具有独特功能的新型控制器，可以根据不同的任务或拓扑结构自动重新配置。它们将首先应用于机器人系统。这项研究将有助于培养许多研究生和本科生以及技术人员。预计它将为提高制造商的全球竞争能力做出重大贡献。其结果适用于广泛的制造企业，包括汽车部门，并将产生积极的社会经济影响。

This research program aims at generating advanced knowledge and fundamental principles and developing methodologies needed to effectively link the products design characteristics to the manufacturing processes and systems structure and design in order to achieve maximum flexibility, reconfigurability, productivity and responsiveness to changing demands. It targets three primary areas and research issues that lie at the product/system interface domain: 1. The design and development of a new classification code for manufacturing systems. It captures the salient features of their components, structure as well as compares their layout and interaction. This innovative code is the first of its kind for manufacturing systems. It can be used for, among other applications, assessing their complexity and design efficiency. 2. Process planning with two main thrusts: a) Innovative dynamic process planning techniques for changeable manufacturing, and b) Intelligent hybrid laser and tactile scanning with emphasis on the automatic features identification in un-organized laser scanning data. 3. Designing a new breed of controllers with unique features that allow automatic re-configuration in response to varying tasks or topologies. They will first be applied to robotic systems. This research will contribute to the training of many graduate and under-graduate students as well as technical personnel. It is expected to make significant contributions for enhancing the ability of manufacturers to compete globally. Its results are applicable to a wide range of manufacturing enterprises, including the automotive sector, and would have a positive socio-economic impact.