Outlook report on the future of European assembly automation

Abstract

PurposeThis roadmap is primarily concerned with the adaptive assembly technology situation in Europe, a topic of particular interest as assembly is often the final process within manufacturing operations. Being the final set of operations on the product, and being traditionally labour‐intensive, assembly has been considerably affected by globalisation. Therefore, unlike most technology roadmaps, this report will not focus solely on particular technologies, but will strive to form a broader perspective on the conditions that may come to influence the opportunities, including political aspects and scientific paradigms. The purpose of this paper is to convey a complete view of the global mechanisms that may come to affect technological breakthroughs, and also present strategies that may better prepare for such a forecast.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes a technological roadmap.FindingsThis paper provides a complete overview of all aspects that may come to affect assembly in Europe within the next 20 years.Originality/valueThe paper gives an original Evolvable Ultra Precision Assembly Systems FP6 project result which will be of general interest for strategic R&D.

Current status and advancement of cyber-physical systems in manufacturing

“…As reported in [6], most manufacturing engineers are mechanical experts, the notion of abstract architectural work does find resistance, and hence the need to bridge the gap between the disciplines, as proven in several recent European projects (EUPASS, IDEAS, GRACE).…”

Performance Assessment in Self-organising Mechatronic Systems: A First Step towards Understanding the Topology Influence in Complex Behaviours

“…However, they fail to present the desired agility to follow volatile market needs. This augments the need of systems that are rapidly deployable, reconfigurable and autonomous and that can accommodate the required changes with minimal integration/programming effort and therefore maximum cost-effectiveness [5]. Modern production paradigms emerged in the last two decades aiming at offering responsive and cost effective solutions.…”

“…machine failures, bottlenecks, volume and product change, etc.) [5], [16]. Nevertheless due to the early stage development of these systems, there is a lack of methods to support their design and configuration and to evaluate their behaviour although some analysis work has been carried out in [17], [18].…”

Modeling and simulation of evolvable production systems using Simulink/SimEvents

“…The need for shorter lead times, reduced downtime, minimized outsourcing of assembly tasks, increased safety, environmental friendliness, life-cycle management of the systems and at the same time reduced cost for different products and their variants are a few of the challenges faced by the current manufacturing industries [1]. One of the approaches to deal with these challenges is the Evolvable Production System (EPS) [2], [3] incorporating adaptability, reconfiguration and intelligence at the shop-floor level.…”