Abstract
Smart Factory is a complex system that integrates the main elements of the Industry 4.0 concept (e.g., autonomous robots, Internet of Things, and Big data). In Smart Factories intelligent robots, tools, and smart workpieces communicate and collaborate with each other continuously, which results in self-organizing and self-optimizing production. The significance of Smart Factories is to make production more competitive, efficient, flexible and sustainable. The purpose of the study is not only the introduction of the concept and operation of the Smart Factories, but at the same time to show the application of Simulation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods in practice. The significance of the study is that the economic and social operational requirements and impacts of Smart Factories are summarized and the characteristics of the traditional factory and the Smart Factory are compared. The most significant added value of the research is that a real case study is introduced for Simulation of the operation of two collaborating robots applying AI. Quantitative research methods are used, such as numerical and graphical modeling and Simulation, 3D design, furthermore executing Tabu Search in the space of trajectories, but in some aspects the work included fundamental methods, like suggesting an original whip-lashing analog for designing robot trajectories. The conclusion of the case study is that—due to using Simulation and AI methods—the motion path of the robot arm is improved, resulting in more than five percent time-savings, which leads to a significant improvement in productivity. It can be concluded that the establishment of Smart Factories will be essential in the future and the application of Simulation and AI methods for collaborating robots are needed for efficient and optimal operation of production processes.
Highlights
Due to globalization, increasing market competition, and rapidly changing customers’ demands there have already been many changes in production in the 21st century
In the first part of the article the main elements and operation of a Smart Factory are introduced focusing on the Smart Devices of Industry 4.0, which are known as Multi-Agent Systems (MAS)
The concept of the Smart Factory is based on improved production processes due to more efficient utilization of physical resources, taking into consideration predefined constraints (delivery efficient utilization of physical resources, taking into consideration predefined constraints, in order to achieve the goal of production in case of time, product quality, product type, etc.), in order to achieve the goal of production in case of unpredictable disruptions and problems when a certain number of Agents have to be activated in the unpredictable disruptions and problems when a certain number of Agents have to be activated in the same environment (Hernández et al 2013)
Summary
Due to globalization, increasing market competition, and rapidly changing customers’ demands there have already been many changes in production in the 21st century. In the first part of the article the main elements and operation of a Smart Factory are introduced focusing on the Smart Devices of Industry 4.0, which are known as Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) These can be intelligent smart machines, collaborating robots, sensors, controllers, etc., which communicate with the production control system and the smart workpieces, so the machines coordinate, control, and optimize themselves and the whole production (Shrouf et al 2014; Sunil and Sachin 2018; Wang et al 2016a). 4.0 production philosophy, a whole ascollaborating the Industry robots, Simulation of the operation of robots, and an method used by cooperating are of the Future—was created in Germany at the Hannover Fair in 2011 This concept hasrobots prevailed introduced in a case study. Worldwide due to its strategy, which is based on a new way of organizing operations at the industrial level using new technologies (Nasser 2014) and represents the upcoming 4th industrial revolution
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