-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: In this paper an off-line programming approach for welding robots is presented. The approach is based on the integration of a software tool for robot simulation and an user-friendly interface for automatic generation of the control program. The user can graphically arrange the components in a robotic work-cell and simulate the movements and operations of robotic arms before converting motions and operating sequences in controller-specific tasks. This methodology guarantees high level of flexibility of the robotic system when high variety of work-pieces needs to be welded. The approach has been implemented and tested in a real welding work-cell.
Industrial Informatics, 2007 5th IEEE International Conference on; 07/2007
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Robotized manufacturing cells are required more and more often to process high variety of short life-cycle product. This increases the need for methods and techniques for easy reconfiguration of software programs running in programmable logic controllers (PLC), i.e., devices able to control manufacturing systems. PLCs run embedded code characterized by a procedural nature that does not make it quite reconfigurable. In this paper we propose an agile control system development (AGICOSD) methodology that uses various practices of Agile software development methodologies and the design by contract (DBC) practice for modeling and programming manufacturing control systems. In this context we propose a way to automatically generate IEC 61131-3 conformed instruction list code starting from object oriented code and contracts written in Java modeling language. A test-bed and some industrial trials have shown the effectiveness of our methodology with respect to the traditional development methodology in terms of fast reconfigurability of manufacturing systems, reusability of instruction list code and reliable translation of Java code to IEC 61131-3 standard compliant code.
Industrial Informatics, 2007 5th IEEE International Conference on; 07/2007
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Generic manufacturing enterprises need to interact with an environment characterized by a strong competition. In order to react to the mutable requests of market, control systems should confer to the manufacturing system capabilities for easy modifiability, and this can be achieved by reducing the necessary time to reconfigure the existing system. Following this main requirement, this paper presents a user-friendly control system that pursues three operational goals: Ability to easy re-program the sequence of operations of the manufacturing equipments of a manufacturing cell; Reconfigurability of the system, by allowing to add/remove a new/existing component in/from the manufacturing cell. Real time supervisioning of the system, by the visualization of the currently executing operation and the state of each element of the cell. The proposed control system user-interface has been realized in Microsoft Visual Basic common programming language; by using such interface the operator can create the sequences of movements and operations of the elements without being acquainted with the different equipment control systems and their programming languages. The control system, realized in an object-oriented approach, allows the user to simply build up operation sequences by simply selecting step by step the specific manufacturing resource and the operation that the resource should execute. Every programmed operation will then be translated into the specific language of the controlled components which perform that operation. A case study shows how the proposed control system has been implemented in a real robotized manufacturing cell.
Industrial Technology, 2006. ICIT 2006. IEEE International Conference on; 01/2007
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: A generic manufacturing system must interact with an environment characterized by a strong competition and by continuous technological changes. For this reason there is the necessity to make the system easily and economically modifiable in its hardware and software configuration. One of the main problems in making a manufacturing system re-configurable concerns its control system which has to be accordingly scalable and object oriented. This paper presents a methodology for making a manufacturing control system actually reconfigurable and adaptable to hardware changes in the manufacturing systems components. In particular, a PC-based shop-floor control system has been realized. Such system allows easy integration of new robotic systems in a generic manufacturing system
Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, 2006. ETFA '06. IEEE Conference on; 10/2006
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The goal of the presented research is to face the topic of reconfigurable control software development in a concrete fashion, i.e., by presenting a control software system development approach which has been used for a specific, although easy to be generalized, robotized manufacturing cell component. In particular, a methodology for the control software development of a planar robot (2-degrees of freedom) is presented, from the conceptual design to the actual implementation. The methodology suggests UML and object-oriented modeling and programming techniques for the design phase, while AWL programming language run by a PLC for the implementation phase. The analysis has been conducted considering the internal and external requirements of the manufacturing system which comprises the robot, mostly driven by the contemporary industrial need of reconfigurable control systems, critical key to succeed in the new era of mass customization
Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, 2005. ETFA 2005. 10th IEEE Conference on; 10/2005
-
Proceedings of 10th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, ETFA 2005, September 19-22, 2006, Catania, Italy; 01/2005
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) offer capabilities for quick adjustment of production capacity and functionality. In this kind of systems scheduling decisions and exception handling policies are complex since multiple reconfiguration strategies should be considered simultaneously. This paper explores potential of the reconfigurability feature to be a basis for development of new strategies to handle out-of-ordinary events in the production process, in particular maintaining production flow when machine breakdowns occur. Both economic and performance aspects are considered in presented analysis, and supported by discrete event simulations.
Automation Congress, 2002 Proceedings of the 5th Biannual World; 02/2002
