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Journal Paper accepted at IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics – An Axiomatic Design of a Multi-Agent Reconfigurable Mechatronic System Architecture
The LIINES is pleased to announce the acceptance of the paper “An Axiomatic Design of a Multi-Agent Reconfigurable Mechatronic System Architecture” to the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. The paper is authored by Prof. Amro M. Farid and Prof. Luis Ribeiro.
Recent trends in manufacturing require production facilities to produce a wide variety of products with an increasingly shorter product lifecycle. These trends force production facilities to adjust and redesign production lines on a more regular basis.
Reconfigurable manufacturing systems are designed for rapid change in structure; in both hardware and software components to address the required changes in production capacity and functionality.
Qualitative methods have recently been successful in achieving reconfigurability through multi-agent systems (MAS). However, their implementation remains limited, as an unambiguous quantitative reference architecture for reconfigurability has not yet been developed.
A design methodology based on quantitative reconfigurability measurement would facilitate a logical, and seamless transition between the five stages of the MAS design methodology, as shown below.
Previous work on the reconfigurability of automated manufacturing systems has shown that reconfigurability depends primarily on architectural decisions made in stages 1, 2, 3, and 5. Operational performance of the manufacturing system after the reconfiguration is also important, but is often overlooked by the existing literature. As a result, it’s not clear:
- The degree to which existing designs have achieved their intended level of reconfigurability.
- Which systems are quantitatively more reconfigurable.
- How these designs may overcome their inherent design limitations to achieve greater reconfigurability in subsequent design iterations.
In order to address the previously mentioned issues with existing design methodologies, this paper develops a multi-agent system reference architecture for reconfigurable manufacturing systems driven by a quantitative and formal design approach, directly in line with the above Figure.
The paper uses Axiomatic Design for Large Flexible Engineering Systems to support a well-conceptualized architecture, which is necessary for excellent production system performance. Additionally, Axiomatic Design highlights potential design flaws at an early conceptual stage. This results in the first formal and quantitative reference architecture based on rigorous mathematics.
About the Author
Wester C.H. Schoonenberg completed his B.Sc. in Systems Engineering and Policy Analysis Management at Delft University of Technology in 2014. After his bachelors’ degree, Wester started his graduate work for the LIINES at Masdar Institute, which he continues as a doctoral student at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College in 2015. Currently, Wester is working on the integrated operation of electrical grids and production systems with a special interest in Zero Carbon Emission Manufacturing Systems.
Journal Paper Accepted at the Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing: Measures of reconfigurability and its key characteristics in intelligent manufacturing systems
The LIINES is pleased to announce that the Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing has accepted our paper entitled: “Measures of reconfigurability and its key characteristics in intelligent manufacturing systems”. The paper is authored by Amro M. Farid and was published in October 2014.
Many manufacturing challenges arise with the global trend of increased competition in the marketplace. Production processes must deal with shorter product lifecycles and mass-customization. Consequently, production systems need to be quickly and incrementally adjusted to meet the ever-changing products. Reconfigurable manufacturing systems have been proposed as a solution that facilitates changing production processes for highly automated production facilities.
Much research has been done in the field of reconfigurable manufacturing systems. Topics include: modular machine tools and material handlers, distributed automation, artificially intelligent paradigms, and holonic manufacturing systems. While these technological advances have demonstrated robust operation and been qualitatively successful in achieving reconfigurability, there has been comparatively little attention devoted to quantitative design methodologies of these reconfigurable manufacturing systems and their ultimate industrial adoption remains limited.
Measuring reconfigurability of manufacturing systems quantitatively has been a major challenge in the past, since a quantitative reconfigurability measurement process was non-existent. Earlier work developed a measurement method that extracts measurables from the production shop floor. When this was established, basic measures of reconfiguration potential and reconfiguration ease were developed, based on axiomatic design for large flexible engineering systems and the design structure matrix respectively.
Reconfiguration of a production process can be split up in four steps: Decide which configuration, Decouple, Reorganize, and Recouple. The larger the number of elements in the system, the more configurations are made possible. This is measured using the reconfiguration potential measure, based on axiomatic design for large flexible engineering systems.
Production processes contain multiple interfaces within themselves. Multiple layers of control can be distinguished, that have to work together to coordinate the physical components. These interfaces are the main determinants for the reconfiguration ease measure.
This paper combines these techniques to define a quantitative measure for reconfigurability and its key characteristics of integrability, convertibility and customization. The intention behind this research contribution is that it may be integrated in the future into quantitative design methodologies for reconfigurable manufacturing systems, which may be easily adopted by industrial automation and production companies.
About the author: Wester Schoonenberg completed his B.Sc. in Systems Engineering and Policy Analysis Management at Delft University of Technology in 2014. After his bachelors’ degree, Wester started his M.Sc. at Masdar Institute of Science & Technology. Currently, Wester is working on the integrated operation of electrical grids and production systems with a special interest in the demand side management of industrial facilities.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
Duke Energy on Analytics and the Internet of Things
It’s been a long time since 2003 when the concept of the Internet of Things was first proposed by U. of Cambridge Auto-ID Laboratory. At the time, Dr. Amro M. Farid, now head of the Laboratory for Intelligent Integrated Networks of Engineering Systems, was a doctoral student investigating how RFID technology enabled intelligent products within reconfigurable manufacturing systems. The Internet of Things was being applied primarily in the manufacturing and supply chain domain.
Since then, the Internet of Things concept has taken hold not just in manufacturing systems and supply chains but nearly every industrial system domain including energy. Every “thing” or “device” has the potential to be connected via an intelligent sensor so as to make decisions — be they centralized within an operations control center — or distributed amongst artificially intelligent multi-agent systems. The Internet of Things concept has the potential to fundamentally transform industrial systems.
Have a look at Duke Energy’s take on the Internet of Things:
The LIINES is proud to have been working in this area since its inception and continue to do so. More information on our research can be found on the LIINES website.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
ESM 616: Techno-Economic Analyses in Power System Operations
To start off the new semester, we have just developed a page for the ESM 616 Techno-Economic Analyses in Power System Operations class. The subject seeks to prepare students for the new world of “smart grid” operations. It specifically seeks to contrast conventional paradigms of power system operations and control with those that will appear in the coming decades. Emphasis is placed on interdisciplinary, holistic approaches founded upon industrial application and mathematical rigor. See the LIINES Blog Keywords: ADWEA — Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority, CIGRE, Control Systems Engineering, DEWA — Dubai Water & Electricity Authority, Dynamic Systems Modeling, Enterprise Control, Graph Theory, IEEE, IEEE CSS, Large Complex Systems, Model-Based Systems Engineering, Operations Research, Power System Economics
Good luck to all as we kick off the Spring Semester.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
ESM 501 Systems Architecture
To start off the new semester, we have just developed a page for the ESM 501 System Architecture class. The subject addresses one of the first stages of system design, analysis and engineering. Emphasis is placed on engineering systems which include technical, economic and social aspects. This blog does often discuss subjects related to systems architecture. See the LIINES Blog Keywords: Axiomatic Design, Axiomatic Design for Large Flexible Systems, Design Methodologies, Enterprise Control, Graph Theory, Life Cycle Properties, Model-Based Systems Engineering, Socio-Techno-Economic Systems, and SysML.
Additionally, a new page has been added to overview our other taught courses.
Good luck to all as we kick off the Fall Semester.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
Using Axiomatic Design for the Temporary Housing of Refugees
As we mentioned in a previous blogpost, being a university professor at Masdar Institute sometimes presents opportunities to work on really interesting problems. One such opportunity arose out of the ESM 501 System Architecture class in which students are encouraged to use Axiomatic Design towards final projects about their ongoing research. Naturally, when Lindsey Gilbert presented to Prof. Farid the idea of using Axiomatic Design to help house refugees, he became quite interested.
We see many humanitarian crises around the world that sadly generate refugee populations. Syria, Darfur, Pakistan and the Philippines are but a few trying examples. The humanitarian challenge of meeting the basic needs of these refugee populations ultimately translates to a design challenge as well. How can these refugees be quickly sheltered in adequate housing? Refugee housing — by nature — is temporary. It must be easily erected in response to the dynamic conditions but also just as easily dismantled to avoid the creation of ghettos long after the news cycle has shifted its spotlight to some other purpose. But the temporary nature of this housing can not diminish the need for durability. While the often depicted footage of refugee tents give some protection from the elements, rarely can these “first-responding” structures last for more than week or two. For refugees, the road to normalcy begins with more solid structures that provide a sense of physical and emotional security — a place from which to literally rebuild.
Lindsey Gilbert’s work used Axiomatic Design to propose temporary housing built up of reconfigurable modules arranged into a product platform. It also recognized that a good design would have to avoid the “one-size-fits-all” pitfalls of many “first-responding” structures. At the heart of the concept was a “studio” module serving all of a person’s basic needs. More advanced modules such as a bedrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms could be attached with standard interfaces to respond to the customized needs of couples and larger refugee families. The work was ultimately published in the 2013 International Conference on Axiomatic Design and received an honorable mention for best paper. The full text can be found through the LIINES website publication page.
Interestingly, Lindsey Gilbert’s work represented one of the first times that Axiomatic Design had been applied to a civil engineering application domain. Present in the room were the organizers of the 2nd International Workshop on Design in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Lindsey’s work drew sufficient attention that he was ultimately invited to write a second paper on the application of axiomatic design to civil engineering applications.
As part of his master’s research, Lindsey continues to develop the design of his temporary housing concept and hopes that it will ultimately lead to practical benefits for future migrant populations.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
Prof. Amro M. Farid presents Reconfigurable Manufacturing System Research at IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Conference in Manchester, UK
A Reconfigurable manufacturing system is a system that is designed at the outset for rapid change in structure, as well as in hardware and software components, in order to quickly adjust production capacity and functionality within a part family in response to sudden changes in market or regulatory requirements. The challenge in the design of such systems is how to enable such reconfigurations and why. One piece in the design puzzle is production path enumeration. On Wednesday October 16th, Prof. Amro M. Farid presented his latest work on Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems at the IEEE Systems Man and Cybernetics Conference, Manchester UK. This paper entitled: “An Axiomatic Design Approach to Non-Assembled Production Path Enumeration in Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems” combines Axiomatic Design for Large Flexible Systems with graph theory to present novel approaches to the design of reconfigurable manufacturing systems.
Full text of the paper and previous work may be found through the LIINES Website publications page under paper code [RMS-C08].
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
Prof. Amro M. Farid gives invited lecture at U.of Connecticut Mechanical Engineering Department
On September 24th, Prof. Amro M. Farid gave an invited lecture at the University of Connecticut Mechanical Engineering department. The goal of the lecture entitled “Applications of Axiomatic Design for Large Flexible Systems” strove to demonstrate how Axiomatic Design may be practically applied. After a tutorial on the subject, the lecture highlighted the recent LIINES research on the application of Axiomatic Design to Temporary Housing and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
Research Theme Highlight Part I: Smart Power Grids
The Laboratory for Intelligent Integrated Networks of Engineering Systems maintains a research program composed of four complementary themes. In the third of a four part series on the LIINES website, the laboratory’s Smart Power Grid Research Theme is highlighted. This work proposes the concept of Power Grid Enterprise Control as means of designing and assuring the holistic dynamic properties of power grids.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
Research Theme Highlight Part III: Smart Power Grids
The Laboratory for Intelligent Integrated Networks of Engineering Systems maintains a research program composed of four complementary themes. In the third of a four part series on the LIINES website, the laboratory’s Smart Power Grid Research Theme is highlighted. This work proposes the concept of Power Grid Enterprise Control as means of designing and assuring the holistic dynamic properties of power grids.
LIINES Website: http://amfarid.scripts.mit.edu
