Conceptual control architecture for future highly flexible production systems

摘要

The trend towards more customized products with shorter product life cycles requires rethinking of current production systems. Due to the increasing demands for flexibility and adaptability, agile state of the art production systems come close to their limits. To improve adaptability to volatile markets, the fundamental concepts of production systems must be reviewed. With the novel production system Wertstromkinematik, the limits of flexibility and agility will be pushed further. By using several units of an identical universal robot kinematic with suitable end effectors, complete versatile value streams can be mapped. In this paper a conceptual control architecture for this novel production concept is presented and discussed in four different test environments. These examined environments comprise the core functions of the new production concept coupling of robot kinematics and machine self-optimization as well as two use cases involving the use of digital CAD-CAM-chains will be discussed in detail. Based on these topics possible restrictions and solutions regarding the overall communication architecture will be presented and discussed.