Abstract

Industry 4.0 uses the analysis of real-time data, artificial intelligence, automation, and the interconnection of components of the production lines to improve manufacturing efficiency and quality. Manufacturing Execution Systems (MESs) and Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles (AIVs) are key elements of Industry 4.0 implementations. An MES connects, monitors, and controls data flows on the factory floor, while automation is achieved by using AIVs. The Robot Operating System (ROS) built AIVs are targeted here. To facilitate MES and AIV interactions, there is a need to integrate the MES and the AIVs to help in building an automated and interconnected manufacturing environment. This integration needs middleware, which understands both MES and AIVs. To address this issue, a LabVIEW-based scheduler is proposed here as the middleware. LabVIEW communicates with the MES through webservices and has support for ROS. The main task of the scheduler is to control the AIV based on MES requests. The scheduler developed was tested in a real factory environment using the SAP MES and a Robotnik ‘RB-1′ robot. The scheduler interface provides real-time information about the current status of the MES, AIV, and the current stage of scheduler processing. The proposed scheduler provides an efficient automated product delivery system that transports the product from process cell to process cell using the AIV, based on the production sequences defined by the MES. In addition, using the proposed scheduler, integration of an MES is possible with any low-cost ROS-built AIV.

Highlights

  • The term ‘Industry 4.00 initially originated from Germany, and it represents the fourth industrial revolution [1]

  • The proposed scheduler provides an efficient automated product delivery system that transports the product from process cell to process cell using the Autonomous Intelligent Vehicles (AIVs), based on the production sequences defined by the Manufacturing Execution Systems (MESs)

  • Different organizations and consortiums are working to come up with a Recently, Robot Operating System (ROS)-Industrial had the opportunity to collaborate with Microsoft, BMW, and Open Robotics on an automation solution to integrate SAP with fleet management and navigation functionality [42], as BMW required a way to connect their robots to an open-source platform, allowing a heterogeneous fleet of robots to work together in perfect harmony with the human workers on the assembly line

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Summary

Introduction

The term ‘Industry 4.00 initially originated from Germany, and it represents the fourth industrial revolution [1]. Industry 4.0 is still visionary but realistic [2] as technology is changing faster than ever. Industry 2.0 replaced the steam power with electrical power and introduced the concept of automation and assembly lines. The third industrial revolution started in the 20th century with the invention of computer technology. Industry 3.0 introduced the digitalization of technology and further helped to automate the factory using computer systems.

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