Modelling a Platform for Smart Manufacturing System

Abstract

The characteristics of industry ecosystems in the 21st century that have evolved from advances in technology and connectivity in manufacturing include cyber-physical systems (CPSs), the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence (AI). These characteristics allow the manufacturer to monitor operation and control systems to improve performance through effective, efficient, and flexible production methods. Industry 4.0 continues to drive the manufacturing sector to use smart manufacturing systems to meet companies’ challenges. For example, a smart welding system can be created by integrating a robot welding part of a manufacturing operation with smart manufacturing, which enlists all the necessary manufacturing assets. Such a smart welding system can improve the uptime and performance of the operation and control systems. Here, the Reference Architectural Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) is applied as a service-oriented architecture to demonstrate how to transform a robot welding system to meet the challenges of smart manufacturing in a structured way. This paper proposes using certain characteristics of I4.0 technologies for a smart welding system, based on a RAMI 4.0 conceptual approach, and designs a platform for a smart welding station.