products autonomously find their path through the manufacturing, real and virtual factory grow together: If it goes to the advocates of “industrial 4.0″, is the manufacturing industry a revolution before
Imagine you go to a fashion house -., and exactly the kind of jacket that you want is not there. Today, the seller says: “I’m sorry, this is sold out, and the winter fashion is unfortunately already gone out of the camps.” In the future, he might say: “I order you to.” And in some distant factory, a robotic arm grasps the right fabric, the fabric shall notify the cutting machine, how it should be handled, and at the end says the finished jacket the shipping department, where she has to send it. For the seller that would be just a short click on the screen – but behind the scenes it is a revolution. Controlling the entire production would be turned upside down
In order to do this, is to base the future take command : instead to be guided by the factory remote control to products find their way from machine to machine itself modeled the data packets on the Internet, also not follow a fixed predetermined route, but to each node according to the current traffic situation on the information highway to another can pursue away. What is the standard for decades in data traffic, the production means, however, a paradigm shift – because the processes in the factories are still centrally coordinated and predefined by people. No wonder then that experts of “industrial 4.0″ or the “fourth industrial revolution” talk – after the historic upheavals of steam engines in the 19th Century, by electric motors and assembly lines a century later, and through the collection of electronics and software in the factory halls of the 70s
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leap forward to the upcoming so-called” cyber-physical systems “(CPS) put. Behind the hidden products with embedded mini-computers, sensors and wireless interfaces, communicate with their environment and, for example, the machines say how they want to be processed. “In memory of the CPS all information stored about the product and the necessary processing steps,” explains Wolfgang Wahlster, Director of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). “Therefore, you can say the machines, which process is next in line.” On a laboratory scale, the works already: DFKI operates in Kaiserslautern together with 20 partners from industry and research, including Siemens, BASF, the University of Kaiserslautern and Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation, “Smart Factory”. There, for example through a soap dispenser and divide the filling machines using glued RFID tags with wireless, which filled soap in it or lid which is to be screwed onto it. The abbreviation RFID stands for “Radio Frequency Identification”, behind which hide small electronic chip with antenna, the exchange by radio with a base station data.
to the dialogue between the product and the manufacturing machine in the future much more flexible make, because when unscheduled changes such as cancellations or problems in the system no intervention in a complex central control system is more necessary – for example, if a machine fails, the products to find another place where they can be edited<. p> This fascinates the researchers of the Working Group “Global Production Logistics” at Jacobs University Bremen as the “factory of the Autonomous Products” proves that they have built together with colleagues from the University of Bremen. In this demonstrator, different variants of rear lights from the reflector components, electronics, seal, lamp and diffuser are assembled. The reflectors are equipped with an RFID chip so that the system always knows where that product is located. Each of them is represented by a software agent that negotiates with other agents, which is tail light is to be processed next, to which machine. Behind this simple priority rules – first come, must be delivered at the fastest or the shortest processing time has to score here. The machine accepts the request, and the taillight with the highest score gets the nod. “We can react quickly to changing jobs or defects in the machinery,” said Henning Blunck of Jacobs University. “The classic hierarchical approach would quickly reach its limits here.”
Similar to the taillights in Bremen demonstrator and the soap dispenser in the Smart Factory soon to many other products on RFID chips with the surrounding exchange systems. The RFID tags can be either mounted directly on the component – for example on a car bodywork – or stick to a component carrier. The first users are likely to be industries such as automotive and aerospace, where highly complex networks of suppliers and logistics service providers are common today, are the central controls with little more to master. Not just about see the Supporters of 4.0 in the wireless networking industry crucial to keep production in the future in a high-wage country like Germany can: “An increase in productivity by 30 percent is realistic,” says Acatech President Kagermann. At the same time, Germany is located in an optimal position: With the hardware and software for networked embedded systems ! 211; the technical basis for cyber-physical systems – is the traditional “factory supplier of the world” as a leader, because, for example, cars and machines “Made in Germany “long time no longer do without them. The federal government supports the industry-4.0-projects under its High-Tech Strategy in line with the 200 million euroBut not only products and machines will be networked in the future -. Well as between the real and the virtual world want the 4.0 Industry experts using the new Information Technology Building Bridges: “Previously the product was first planned and then its production,” says Siegfried Russwurm, head of the Industry Sector of Siemens. “And also in the planning of the production went to sequential steps: first, the actual production process, the mechanical and electrical systems, and finally the automation.” In the future, these processes are largely run in parallel. During the developers still finish a new product, the colleagues of the factory design and automation already start with their work – in this way can new introduce noticeably faster on the market
Product Variants and alternative process steps can the engineers with the “digital twins” in the virtual factory extensively simulated before the actual production starts. This avoids problems in the real world, saving time and costs.
The next industrial revolution is in the offing. By introducing artificial intelligence into the world of production automation rigid hierarchies will soon be a thing of the past. For this reason invites Technology Review on 5 and 6 November 2013 for Innovation Congress “Industry 4.0″ in Berlin. . Information here
This text is the magazine issue 02/2013 taken from Technology Review. The booklet can, just like the current issue, be ordered online here.
