PurposeThe main features of evolvable systems include distributed control, a modularized, intelligent and open architecture, a comprehensive and multi‐dimensional methodological support that comprises the reference architecture. Furthermore, integration of legacy subsystems and modules has been addressed in the methodology. This paper aims to present the latest developments, applications and conclusions drawn to date.Design/methodology/approachEvolvable assembly system is a new methodology in itself, and is currently being applied within several European projects. Evolvable assembly goes beyond reconfigurability and offers continuous evolution of the system.FindingsThe work has been, and is being, implemented through large European research projects. Evolvability, being a system concept, is envisaged addressing every aspect of an assembly system throughout its life cycle, i.e. design and development, operation and evolution.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper presents the latest developments, applications and conclusions drawn to date.Originality/valueThe paper presents the methodology and the latest application of it, which is industrial. This is the first application that offers self‐configuration of the equipment.

Current major road mapping efforts, such as ManuFuture, FutMan and EUPASS, have all clearly underlined that true industrial sustainability will require far higher levels of systems' autonomy and adaptability. In accordance with these recommendations, the Evolvable Production Systems (EPS) has aimed at developing such technological solutions and support mechanisms. Since its inception in 2002 as a next generation of production systems, the concept is being further developed and tested to emerge as a production system paradigm. The essence of evolvability resides not only in the ability of system components to adapt to the changing conditions of operation, but also to assist in the evolution of these components in time such that processes may become self-X, x standing for one more desirable properties of a system subjected to a variable operation condition such as self-evolvable, self-reconfigurable, self-tuning, self-diagnosing, etc. Characteristically, Evolvable systems have distributed control, and are composed of intelligent modules integrated. To assist the development and life cycle issues, comprehensive methodological framework is being developed. A concerted effort is being exerted through European research projects in collaboration with European manufacturers, technology/equipment suppliers, and universities. After briefly stating the fundamental concepts of EPS, this paper presents current developments and applications.

The concept of Skin Model Shapes has been proposed as a method to generate digital twins of manufactured parts and is a new paradigm in the design and manufacturing industry. Skin Model Shapes use discrete surface representation schemes, such as meshes and point clouds, to represent surfaces, which makes them enablers to perform an accurate tolerance analysis and surface inspection. However, online inspection of manufactured parts through use of Skin Model Shapes has not been extensively studied. Moreover, the existing geometric variation inspection techniques do not detect unfamiliar changes within tolerance, which could be the precursors to the onset of the manufacturing of out of tolerance part. To detect the unfamiliar changes, as anomalies, and categorize them as systematic and random variations, some unique surface characteristics can be extracted and studied. Random surface deviations exhibit narrow normal distributions, and systematic deviations, on the other hand, exhibit wide, skewed, and multimodal distributions. Using those surface characteristics as key traits, machine learning classifiers can be used to classify deviations into systematic and random variations. To illustrate the method, multiple samples from a truck component manufacturing line were scanned and the collected 3D point cloud data was used to extract features. A prediction score of 97-100% can be achieved by decision tree, k-nearest neighbor, support vector machines, and ensemble classifiers. The purposed approach is expected to extend the existing online inspection approaches and applications of Skin Model Shapes in quality control.

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The concept of Skin Model Shape has been introduced as a method for a close representation of manufactured parts using a discrete geometry representation scheme. However, discretized surfaces make irregular polyhedra, which are computationally demanding to model and process using the traditional implicit surface and boundary representation techniques. Moreover, there are still some research challenges related to the geometrical variation modelling of manufactured products; specifically, methods for geometrical data processing, the mapping of manufacturing variation sources to a geometric model, and the improvement of variation visualization techniques. To provide steps towards addressing these challenges this work uses Octree, a 3D space partitioning technique, as an aid for geometrical data processing, variation visualization, variation modelling and propagation, and tolerance analysis. Further, Skin Model Shapes are generated either by manufacturing a simulation using a non-ideal toolpath on solid models of Skin Model Shapes that are assembled to non-ideal fixtures or from measurement data. Octrees are then used in a variation envelope extraction from the simulated or measurement data, which becomes a basis for further simulation and tolerance analysis. To illustrate the method, an industrial two-stage truck component manufacturing line was studied. Simulation results show that the predicted Skin Model Shapes closely match to the measurement data from the manufacturing line, which could also be used to map to manufacturing error sources. This approach contributes towards the application of Octrees in many Skin Model Shape related operations and processes. of 21However, the computational cost scales up with mesh density and the number of sampled points per part. The meshes and the reconstructed point clouds form irregular polyhedra, whose representation, operation, and manipulation, based on implicit surfaces and boundary representation techniques, is computationally slow and memory intensive [5][6][7]. Since the prime aim of utilizing SMSs is to get a detailed digital representation of parts, computational efficacy of SMS modelling and operations is crucial. As an alternative, an approach based on a 3D space partitioning technique, using Octrees, has been proven to significantly improve computation time and memory in manipulation and processing of irregular polyhedra [8][9][10]. This work utilizes the computational efficacy of Octrees, in one hand, and their capability to localize regions of form errors, in the other hand, in the generation and variation analysis of SMSs.Moreover, despite many contributions in SMS generation methods and associated operations, there are still some challenges that need to be addressed; specifically, the mapping of manufacturing variation sources to geometric models, the development of geometrical data processing methods applicable in different stages of variation modelling, and the improvement of variation visualization techniques [11]. To address these challenges, in the context...

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Traditional methodologies for working together, create useful results which no system design and development have proven part of the element can create separately" [1], c.f. insufficient when it comes to very large and [2] and [3]. Such a generic definitions of system distributed systems. As a consequence, should be valid for all degrees of system research on complex socio-technical systems complexity, from non-complex systems to i.e. System-of-Systems [SoS], has evolved, At extremely complex distributed systems, so called the same time, researchers of complexSoS. However, several of these general systems that are not SoS have started to pay definitions of system state or at least imply an attention to the tools and methods developed architect, a clear purpose, and apparent within the area of SoS. The purpose of this boundaries that separate the system from its paper is therefore twofold: (1) to improve the surrounding; all of which are not necessary true understanding of SoS and SoS methods from for complex systems. a non-SoS point of view, by presenting SoS definitions, properties and behavior of SoS, A first categorization regarding the complexity and (2) to analyze current non-SoS level of systems can be made into non-complex development methodologies to test their systems and complex systems. There is no clear applicability in a SoS environment. Finally a line between these categories, and the distinction metric for the well-being of a SoS is is decided dependent on the viewpoint, i.e. the introduced. observer decides whether a system's behavior is complex of not. However, a system with behavior 1-4244-1041-X/07/$25.00 ©)2007 IEEE

Current major road mapping efforts, such as ManuFuture, FutMan and EUPASS, have all clearly underlined that true industrial sustainability will require far higher levels of systems' autonomy and adaptability. In accordance with these recommendations, the Evolvable Production Systems (EPS) has aimed at developing such technological solutions and support mechanisms. Since its inception in 2002 as a next generation of production systems, the concept is being further developed and tested to emerge as a production system paradigm. The essence of evolvability resides not only in the ability of system components to adapt to the changing conditions of operation, but also to assist in the evolution of these components in time such that processes may become self-X, x standing for one more desirable properties of a system subjected to a variable operation condition such as self-evolvable, self-reconfigurable, self-tuning, self-diagnosing, etc. Characteristically, Evolvable systems have distributed control, and are composed of intelligent modules integrated. To assist the development and life cycle issues, comprehensive methodological framework is being developed. A concerted effort is being exerted through European research projects in collaboration with European manufacturers, technology/equipment suppliers, and universities. After briefly stating the fundamental concepts of EPS, this paper presents current developments and applications.