Towards Agile Manufacturing: A Research Proposal on Developing Modular and Flexible Plug-and-Produce Software Solutions

为了使制造业从专用的大批量生产系统发展到大规模定制和适应性强的生产线，必须承认现有系统的缺陷。问题的一个关键原因在于他们的单一方法，即大型、根深蒂固的软件系统阻碍了进步，并阻止了来自不同原始设备制造商的机器人之间的互操作性。这些庞大而复杂的系统构成了巨大的障碍，使它们很难改进。该博士学位旨在通过在APP方法的启发下，在可互操作的系统内开发和实施一个框架来应对这些挑战。从应用程序在个人设备领域的成功中获得灵感，目标是克服当前软件解决方案及其开发方法的局限性。这将通过探索改善工业机器人的用户交互和控制的途径来实现，同时还将探索促进开发的解决方案的有效分发的方法。

In order to progress the manufacturing industry forward from dedicated mass production systems to mass customization and adaptable production lines, it is essential to acknowledge the shortcomings of the existing systems. A key cause of the problem lies in their monolithic approach, where large, deep-rooted software systems hinder progress and prevent interoperability between robots from different OEMs. These immense and complex systems pose significant obstacles, making them difficult to improve. This PhD aims to address these challenges by developing and implementing a framework, within an interoperable system, inspired by the app approach. Drawing inspiration from the success of apps in the field of personal devices, the goal is to overcome the limitations of current software solutions and the methods of developing them. This will be achieved by exploring avenues for improving user interaction and control of industrial robots whilst also exploring methods to facilitate the effective distribution of the developed solution.