Autonomous Maintenance for Through-Life Engineering

Abstract

This chapter looks at the overall theme of automating maintenance practices with a particular focus upon the application of robotics within this field. Covering the current state of the art in automating maintenance processes this chapter also looks at the current challenges to moving beyond simple inspection and diagnosis to the design and construction of fully automated platforms for undertaking maintenance. This includes methodologies for capturing and classifying maintenance task processes so that they can be automated in some way and how to link this task classification with some level of automation. The chapter ends with a discussion on how the design process can be adapted to aid automated maintenance, self-healing and no fault found applications.

Implementing total productive maintenance in a manufacturing small or medium-sized enterprise

“…AM demands a cultural change to the way maintenance is done (Mugwindiri & Mbohwa, 2013). It can be divided into two themes (Farnsworth, Bell, Khan & Tomiyama, 2015). The first theme is the concept of 'self ', focusing on incorporating 'self-healing', 'self-monitoring', 'self-aware', 'self-configure' and 'self-protect' technologies or characteristics; The second theme focuses on automating maintenance practices within enterprises, through autonomous robotics to assist or guide maintenance tasks.…”

Design, modelling, simulation and integration of cyber physical systems: Methods and applications

“…The use of robots in maintenance is, however, still limited to inspection, monitoring, or servicing. Many of them are remotely controlled and often dragging power cables [FBK+15,DAR16]. There are various reasons for this.…”

“…Therefore, a general purpose maintenance robot needs huge general maintenance intelligence, but it is extremely difficult to develop such general intelligence that can deal with almost any failures and situations. Consequently, the combination of "robotic maintenance" and "autonomous maintenance" could be promising [FBK+15]. Autonomous maintenance is a way of maintenance performed by a system that is equipped with sensors, controller, and actuators and responding to the internal and environmental changes without human interventions.…”

Zero-maintenance of electronic systems: Perspectives, challenges, and opportunities

“…In the context of this paper, zero-maintenance can perhaps be best viewed as a collection of capabilities that ensure error-free operation in the presence of faults occurring within an integrated sub-system or component, with minimal external intervention. This is also related to the area of autonomous maintenance wherein autonomous systems take on similar capabilities, for example the use of external robotic systems to perform specific maintenance tasks [46]. A number of related maintenance requirements can be identified within the literature, though most come from related areas.…”