With the developments and applications of the new information technologies, such as cloud computing, Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence, a smart manufacturing era is coming. At the same time, various national manufacturing development strategies have been put forward, such as Industry 4.0 , Industrial Internet , manufacturing based on Cyber-Physical System , and Made in China 2025 . However, one of specific challenges to achieve smart manufacturing with these strategies is how to converge the manufacturing physical world and the virtual world, so as to realize a series of smart operations in the manufacturing process, including smart interconnection, smart interaction, smart control and management, etc. In this context, as a basic unit of manufacturing, shop-floor is required to reach the interaction and convergence between physical and virtual spaces, which is not only the imperative demand of smart manufacturing, but also the evolving trend of itself. Accordingly, a novel concept of digital twin shop-floor (DTS) based on digital twin is explored and its four key components are discussed, including physical shop-floor, virtual shop-floor, shop-floor service system, and shop-floor digital twin data. What is more, the operation mechanisms and implementing methods for DTS are studied and key technologies as well as challenges ahead are investigated, respectively.

Digital Twin Shop-Floor: A New Shop-Floor Paradigm Towards Smart Manufacturing

Combining with the emerged technologies such as cloud computing, the Internet of things, service-oriented technologies and high performance computing, a new manufacturing paradigm – cloud manufacturing CMfg – for solving the bottlenecks in the informatisation development and manufacturing applications is introduced. The concept of CMfg, including its architecture, typical characteristics and the key technologies for implementing a CMfg service platform, is discussed. Three core components for constructing a CMfg system, i.e. CMfg resources, manufacturing cloud service and manufacturing cloud are studied, and the constructing method for manufacturing cloud is investigated. Finally, a prototype of CMfg and the existing related works conducted by the authors' group on CMfg are briefly presented.

Cloud manufacturing: a new manufacturing paradigm

Recently, Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing (CC) have been widely studied and applied in many fields, as they can provide a new method for intelligent perception and connection from M2M (including man-to-man, man-to-machine, and machine-to-machine), and on-demand use and efficient sharing of resources, respectively. In order to realize the full sharing, free circulation, on-demand use, and optimal allocation of various manufacturing resources and capabilities, the applications of the technologies of IoT and CC in manufacturing are investigated in this paper first. Then, a CC- and IoT-based cloud manufacturing (CMfg) service system (i.e., CCIoT-CMfg) and its architecture are proposed, and the relationship among CMfg, IoT, and CC is analyzed. The technology system for realizing the CCIoT-CMfg is established. Finally, the advantages, challenges, and future works for the application and implementation of CCIoT-CMfg are discussed.

CCIoT-CMfg: Cloud Computing and Internet of Things-Based Cloud Manufacturing Service System

Recently, cloud manufacturing (CMfg) as a new service-oriented manufacturing mode has been paid wide attention around the world. However, one of the key technologies for implementing CMfg is how to realize manufacturing resource intelligent perception and access. In order to achieve intelligent perception and access of various manufacturing resources, the applications of IoT technologies in CMfg has been investigated in this paper. The classification of manufacturing resources and services, as well as their relationships, are presented. A five-layered structure (i.e., resource layer, perception layer, network layer, service layer, and application layer) resource intelligent perception and access system based on IoT is designed and presented. The key technologies for intelligent perception and access of various resources (i.e., hard manufacturing resources, computational resources, and intellectual resources) in CMfg are described. A prototype application system is developed to valid the proposed method.

IoT-Based Intelligent Perception and Access of Manufacturing Resource Toward Cloud Manufacturing

The evolution and future of manufacturing: A review

Combining the emerged advanced technologies (such as cloud computing, ‘internet of thing’, virtualization, and service-oriented technologies, advanced computing technologies) with existing advanced manufacturing models and enterprise ‘informationization’ technologies, a new computing- and service-oriented manufacturing model, called cloud manufacturing (CMfg), is proposed. The concept, architecture, core enabling technologies, and typical characteristics of CMfg are discussed and investigated, as well as the differences and relationship between cloud computing and CMfg. Four typical CMfg service platforms, i.e. public, private, community, and hybrid CMfg service platforms, are introduced. The key advantages and challenges for implementing CMfg are analysed, as well as the key technologies and main research findings.

V C Venkatesh

Papers

Cloud manufacturing: a computing and service-oriented manufacturing model: