An architecture for AutomationML-based constraint modelling and orchestration of Incremental Manufacturing

Abstract

Incremental Manufacturing is a novel approach for the production of functional multi-material components with a large number of variants per part. It combines established production processes with additive and subtractive manufacturing technologies. The idea of Incremental Manufacturing comprises the robot-based and thus geometry-flexible step-by-step additive finalisation of prefabricated basic parts (semi-finished products, e.g. sheets, profiles) with a high build-up rate and, if needed, subsequent subtractive finishing of functional surfaces. This concept offers new ways for efficient and volume-capable variant production by reducing variant-specific investments. However, the elevated degree of freedom raises new challenges in the domains of product, process-, control- and software-design, since the classic straightforward production planning from product to process proves infeasible to manage the arising flexibility and configurability of Incremental Manufacturing. To cope with these new challenges, this paper introduces an approach to use AutomationML for the modelling of the degree of freedom in product, process and in the hardware set-up design through a hardware-neutral description of the manufacturing process. The aim is to develop a specific process description using the example of additive manufacturing, which can be used for reconfigurable hardware set-ups and a flexible production design. Therefore, the authors present an AutomationML-based architecture for process modelling and constraint management based on manufacturing process knowledge to ensure a highly flexible Incremental Manufacturing.