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Engineering the smart factory

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Abstract

The fourth industrial revolution promises to create what has been called the smart factory. The vision is that within such modular structured smart factories, cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralised decisions. This paper provides a view of this initiative from an automation systems perspective. In this context it considers how future automation systems might be effectively configured and supported through their lifecycles and how integration, application modelling, visualisation and reuse of such systems might be best achieved. The paper briefly describes limitations in current engineering methods, and new emerging approaches including the cyber physical systems (CPS) engineering tools being developed by the automation systems group (ASG) at Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, UK.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Robert Harrison, Daniel Vera & Bilal Ahmad

Authors
  1. Robert Harrison
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  2. Daniel Vera
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  3. Bilal Ahmad
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Correspondence to Robert Harrison.

Additional information

HARRISON Robert, is a professor of Automation Systems at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) of Warwick University, UK and Head of the Automations Systems Group at WMG, with a research focus in the areas of smart factories, systems engineering and industrial automation. The Automation Systems Group, a team of around 25 researchers are undertaking internationally leading research into new generations of pilot production systems, advanced automation systems and associated lifecycle support tools for manufacturing automation. Prof. HARRISON’S research interests include manufacturing automation from the business, technical and social perspectives, and virtual engineering tools and related engineering services, particularly within the automotive and aerospace sectors. He is the author of around 150 peer-reviewed international journal and conference papers and gives frequent national and international presentations in academic and commercial contexts.

VERA Daniel is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, Warwick Manufacturing Group. Daniel has a PhD (use of VR technologies to support virtual planning and validation of engine assembly processes), which was followed by more than 12 years of experience in the design, development and deployment of digital solutions to support the mechanical and manufacturing engineering industry. Dr. Vera is author of over 20 international peer-reviewed international journal and conference publications, and his search currently focuses on the practical implementation of Industry 4.0 concept and the deployment of technologies to practically support Cyber Physical System Lifecycle.

AHMAD Bilal received the M.Sc. degree in Mechatronics and the Ph.D. degree in Automation Systems from Loughborough University, U.K. Dr Ahmad is working as a Senior Research Fellow at WMG, University of Warwick, UK. His research interests are in the area of industrial automation and controls engineering. He has worked on a number of projects in collaboration with automotive manufacturers, machine builders and control vendors to develop tools and methods to support lifecycle engineering of industrial automation systems. He has previously worked as a Research Associate and University Teacher at Loughborough University, UK.

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Harrison, R., Vera, D. & Ahmad, B. Engineering the smart factory. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 29, 1046–1051 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2016.0908.109

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2016.0908.109

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