A survey on decision-making based on system reliability in the context of Industry 4.0

The business world is continually changing. Dynamic environments, full of uncertainties, complexities, and ambiguities, demand faster and more confident decisions. To compete in this environment, Industry 4.0 emerges as an essential alternative. In this context, the reliability of manufacturing is an essential aspect for companies to make successful decisions. In the literature, several technologies associated with Industry 4.0 have been applied to improve the availability of equipment, including the Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), blockchain, and data mining. Nevertheless, there is still no survey study that seeks to show how reliability has collaborated to support decision-making in organizations, in the context of Industry 4.0. In general, most applications still focus on the productivity and health of individual equipment. However, in today's volatile and complex businesses, local decisions are no longer sufficient; it is necessary to analyze the organization entirely. Thus, being aware of the impacts that a local failure can impose on the entire company has significant weight in the decision-making process. In this context, this article presents a survey to identify how researches on systems reliability has contributed to and supported the development of decision-making in Industry 4.0. The main contribution of this article is to highlight how reliability can be used to support different types of strategic decisions in the context of Industry 4.0. Finally, it highlights the need for research associating management decisions with the technologies of Industry 4.0.     

Applications of virtual reality in maintenance during the industrial product lifecycle: A systematic review

As a state-of-the-art computer technology, virtual reality (VR) is considered to play an important role in helping manufacturing companies stay competitive in the international market. However, despite the achievements made in the field of VR, it is still an emerging technology that lacks deeper exploration and development in industrial application scenarios, especially in the coming fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). This paper aims to systematically investigate the applications of VR in industrial maintenance to discover evidence of its values, limitations, and future directions so that VR can be guided to better serve manufacturing enterprises in remaining competitive in the coming Industry 4.0. A systematic literature review (SLR) methodology is adopted to review primary studies on this topic, by which 86 studies are ultimately included. The results show that VR has proved its value in benefiting maintenance issues through the product lifecycle. However, VR is still not an indispensable element for the lifecycle management of products regarding maintenance-related issues. Several key findings are concluded based on the analysis of the 86 studies. This review is valuable for researchers who are interested in the application of VR technology in maintainability design, maintenance training or maintenance task assistance.     

Optimizing smart manufacturing systems by extending the smart products paradigm to the beginning of life

The research objective of this work is to enhance the perception of, sensing in, and control of smart manufacturing systems (SMS) by leveraging active sensor systems within smart products during the manufacturing phase. Smart manufacturing utilizes rich process data, usually collected by the SMS (e.g., machine tools), to enable accurate tracking and monitoring of individual products throughout the process chain. However, until now, the to-be-manufactured product itself has not contributed to the sensing and compilation of product and process data. More specifically, data measured from the product’s structure during its own fabrication. In this paper, we discuss and evaluate the opportunity to actively use the capabilities of smart products within a SMS in terms of technical and economic feasibility. This opportunity emerged only recently with the advancements in smart products engineering. In this research, we developed a smart product prototype and evaluated it on a SMS testbed (CPlab) with eight distinct, fully-connected manufacturing processes. The results of the conducted experiments show the possibility to uniquely identify two distinct ‘fingerprints’ of manufacturing processes solely based on data provided by sensors within the smart product itself. The sensor data was collected directly from the smart product before manufacture was completed, yet after the intended sensor functionality during the product’s use phase was activated. The capability to automatically, accurately, and reliably identify process signatures and even inform the optimization of manufacturing parameters creates new opportunities for improvements in quality, scheduling, and seamless transparency across the whole value chain.     

使用安卓设备调试自动化设备的设计与实现

移动便携式设备的高速发展和普及应用,例如手机,设备上集成的功能越来越多,已经应用到各行各业中。自动化行业市场对使用安卓设备调试自动化设备也有急切的需求,设计基于Cortex-M3内核的控制器与安卓设备数据交互,经过使用数据线或者开启设备蓝牙功能就可以进行设备安装、调试、检修等功能,系统具有结构简洁,使用方便、配置灵活等特点,经实际应用满足了在膨胀节检测系统调试上的应用,给调试人员提供便利。     

具有运动伪迹消除功能的移动心电检测系统设计

设计并实现了一种可在人体移动状态下进行检测、采集及分析人体心电信号的系统,硬件设计上,采用高集成度专用心电信号前端处理集成电路进行心电信号的滤波及放大;软件设计上,采用小波阈值降噪对心电信号进行初级滤波,然后采用人体移动加速度传感器获取人体运动信息对心电信号进行自适应滤波,消除运动伪迹.在系统设计上,终端检测设备与手机终端采用蓝牙通信,便于用户测量.实验结果表明:本设计方案能根据人体运动状况,有效消除运动伪迹,保留心电信号的波形,可满足常规的移动心电检测应用.     

Towards a lean automation interface for workstations

Methods and principles of Lean Production have become the major concepts to create highly efficient processes since the early 1990s. Due to its high effectiveness by reducing complexity and focusing on value-adding tasks, the Lean concept is still successful. Nevertheless, its changeability to produce highly customised products is limited. Industry 4.0 describes the vision of a smart production which can meet these future market requirements. Enablers are innovative information and communication technologies and the integration of all production entities into a common digital network. Lean Automation is the application of Industry 4.0 technologies to Lean Production methods in order to combine benefits from both domains. First proprietary Lean Automation solutions exist, but to enhance changeability in production, a common, unified communication interface is required. This paper presents the ongoing work towards an interface for digitising Lean Production methods using Cyber Physical Systems.     

IoT patent roadmap for smart logistic service provision in the context of Industry 4.0

Abstract

Industry 4.0 enables the management of factories manufacturing products with complexity and flexibility. The corresponding logistic services must provide greater accuracy and efficiency in logistic operations. The Internet of Things (IoT) is an important aspect for smart logistics in the context of Industry 4.0. For instance, intelligent logistics models use IoT integrated technologies, e.g. radio frequency identification (RFID), wireless sensor network (WSN) and cloud computing, to enhance the traceability and decision supports of logistic processes in real-time speed, high accuracy, and flexibility. This research focuses on analyzing the related technology roadmaps for the adoption of IoT technologies in smart logistic services. A case research is conducted specifically to identify the relationship between IoT-oriented technologies and deployed advanced logistic services. The logistic operations are organized into an ontology schema based on a four level service framework. The research proposes a roadmap approach to visualize the patent allocations and evolutions corresponding to logistic services at each level. Although the patent roadmap methodology is generic, this research focuses on the two industry leaders, which are UPS and IBM. Using the roadmap methodology, the IoT enabled smart logistic patents are analyzed to identify technology-related business strengths and strategies.     

Modeling and simulation of complex manufacturing phenomena using sensor signals from the perspective of Industry 4.0

This article presents a methodology defined as semantic modeling to create computable virtual abstractions of complex manufacturing phenomena denoted as phenomena twins from the perspective of the fourth industrial revolution (also known as Smart Manufacturing, Connected Factory, Industry 4.0, and so forth). The twins are created such that they become friendly to both sensor signals and new-generation web technology (i.e., the semantic web). The efficacy of the proposed modeling approach is demonstrated by creating a phenomenon twin of cutting force (a highly complex and stochastic phenomenon associated with all material removal processes) and also by representing it using the semantic web. The relevant epistemological and systemological issues (e.g., those of meta-models, ontology, classification/trustworthiness/provenance of knowledge associated with the webized phenomenon twin) are also discussed. This article will help developers of embedded (e.g., cyber-physical) systems needed for functionalizing Industry 4.0.     

从第四次产业革命探讨工业4．0构想与愿景

工业4．0由德国倡导,反映了工业革命发展进程中的历史必然。世界制造业今非昔比,许多领域已有不同程度的工业机器人运作,取代了人力。如若再向前,自动化生产与传感及信息技术的进一步融合,必然带来历史新飞跃。工业4．0就是人类第四次工业产业革命的愿景。     

Industry 4.0 smart reconfigurable manufacturing machines

This paper provides a fundamental research review of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMS), which uniquely explores the state-of-the-art in distributed and decentralized machine control and machine intelligence. The aim of this review is to draw objective answers to two proposed research questions, relating to: (1) reconfigurable design and industry adoption; and (2) enabling present and future state technology. Key areas reviewed include: (a) RMS – fundamentals, design rational, economic benefits, needs and challenges; (b) Machine Control – modern operational technology, vertical and horizontal system integration, advanced distributed and decentralized control; (c) Machine Intelligence – distributed and decentralized paradigms, technology landscape, smart machine modelling, simulation, and smart reconfigurable synergy. Uniquely, this paper establishes a vision for next-generation Industry 4.0 manufacturing machines, which will exhibit extraordinary Smart and Reconfigurable (SR*) capabilities.