https://users.encs.concordia.ca/~ymzhang/publications/ARC32-2-98Zhang_pp.229-252.pdf

Bibliographical review on reconfigurable fault-tolerant control systems

Clustering of time series data-a survey

Changeable Manufacturing - Classification, Design and Operation

Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS) is a new manufacturing systems paradigm that aims at achieving cost-effective and rapid system changes, as needed and when needed, by incorporating principles of modularity, integrability, flexibility, scalability, convertibility, and diagnosability. RMS promises customized flexibility on demand in a short time, while Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs) provides generalized flexibility designed for the anticipated variations and built-in a priori. The characteristics of the two paradigms are outlined and compared. The concept of manufacturing system life cycle is presented. The main types of flexibility in manufacturing systems are discussed and contrasted with the various reconfiguration aspects including hard (physical) and soft (logical) reconfiguration. The types of changeability and transformability of manufacturing systems, their components as well as factories, are presented along with their enablers and compared with flexibility and reconfigurability. The importance of having harmonized human-machine manufacturing systems is highlighted and the role of people in the various manufacturing paradigms and how this varies in pursuit of productivity are illustrated. Finally, the industrial and research challenges presented by these manufacturing paradigms are discussed.

Flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing systems paradigms

Product family design and platform-based product development has received much attention over the last decade. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art research in this field. A decision framework is introduced to reveal a holistic view of product family design and platform-based product development, encompassing both front-end and back-end issues. The review is organized according to various topics in relation to product families, including fundamental issues and definitions, product portfolio and product family positioning, platform-based product family design, manufacturing and production, as well as supply chain management. Major challenges and future research directions are also discussed.

Product family design and platform-based product development: a state-of-the-art review

Presented in this article is a review of manufacturing techniques and introduction of reconfigurable manufacturing systems; a new paradigm in manufacturing which is designed for rapid adjustment of production capacity and functionality, in response to new market conditions. A definition of reconfigurable manufacturing systems is outlined and an overview of available manufacturing techniques, their key drivers and enablers, and their impacts, achievements and limitations is presented. A historical review of manufacturing from the point-of-view of the major developments in the market, technology and sciences issues affecting manufacturing is provided. The new requirements for manufacturing are discussed and characteristics of reconfigurable manufacturing systems and their key role in future manufacturing are explained. The paper is concluded with a brief review of specific technologies and research issues related to RMSs.

/pdf/reconfigurable-manufacturing-systems-key-to-future-o2mz7wmglz.pdf

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems: Key to future manufacturing

To better understand future needs in manufacturing and their enabling technologies, a survey of experts in manufacturing has been conducted. The survey instrument (i.e., questionnaire) tries to assess the experience to date with the use of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) and to examine the potential roles and enabling technologies for reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS). The results show that two-thirds of respondents stated that FMSs are not living up to their full potential, and well over half reported purchasing FMS with excess capacity (which was eventually used) and excess features (which in many cases were not eventually used). They identified a variety of problems associated with FMS, including training, reconfigurability, reliability and maintenance, software and communications, and initial cost. However, despite these issues, nearly 75% of respondent expressed their desire to purchase additional, or expand existing FMSs. The experts agreed that RMS (which can provide exactly the capacity and functionality needed, exactly when needed) is a desirable next step in the evolution of production systems. The key enabling technologies for RMS were identified as modular machines, open-architecture controls, high-speed machining, and methods, training and education for the operation of manufacturing systems.

/pdf/trends-and-perspectives-in-flexible-and-reconfigurable-3xievi3t1q.pdf

Trends and perspectives in flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing systems

A reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) is designed for rapid adjustment of production capacity and functionality in response to new market conditions and new process technology. It has several distinct characteristics including modularity, integrability, customisation, convertibility and diagnosability. There are a number of key interrelated technologies that should be developed and implemented to achieve these characteristics. This paper examines and identifies these technologies. After a brief description of the RMSs and their goals, aspects of reconfiguration (reconfigurable system, software, controller, machine, and process) are explained; this provides one with a better understanding of the enabling technologies of RMSs. Some of the issues related to the technology requirements of RMSs at the system and machine design levels, and ramp -up time reduction are then explained. The paper concludes with descriptions of some of the future research directions for RMSs.

/pdf/reconfigurable-manufacturing-systems-and-their-enabling-cwhjhxa39i.pdf

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems and their enabling technologies

This paper presents a new modeling framework for tool wear monitoring in machining processes using hidden Markov models (HMMs). Feature vectors are extracted from vibration signals measured during turning. A codebook is designed and used for vector quantization to convert the feature vectors into a symbol sequence for the hidden Markov model. A series of experiments are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach for different lengths of training data and observation sequence. Experimental results show that successful tool state detection rates as high as 97% can be achieved by using this approach.

Hidden Markov model-based tool wear monitoring in turning

Reconfigurable Machine Tools (RMTs), assembled from machine modules such as spindles, slides and worktables are designed to be easily reconfigured to accommodate new machining requirements. Their goal is to provide exactly the capacity and functionality, exactly when needed. In this paper, we present a novel parallely-actuated work-support module as a part of an RMT to meet the machining requirements of specific features on a family of automotive cylinder heads. A prototype of the proposed module is designed/built and experimental results regarding its performance are presented.

M.G. Mehrabi

Papers

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems: Key to future manufacturing

Trends and perspectives in flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing systems

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems and their enabling technologies

Hidden Markov model-based tool wear monitoring in turning

Parallel Structures and Their Applications in Reconfigurable Machining Systems