Future Factories – Automated Welding Cell based on Cloud Computing Technology

Abstract

The advent of cloud technology, machine learning and internet of things (IoT) has foreseen the possibility of completely autonomous factories. Future shop-floor operations are completely automated and controlled by cloud-based manufacturing system. The researchers have made an attempt to use cloud computing to share the welding parameters and maintain a virtual library for ready reference irrespective of the user location. The automated welding cell is a friction stir welding (FSW) machine and its parameters were used as the reference for the cloud database. Cloud database is built by collecting information from several welders and researchers who are working in the various part of the world. The proposed Machine controls as service, MCaaS reduces the downtime of the weld cell by real-time monitoring and also assist the researchers in real-time data sharing among them, irrespective of their geographical location.