Intelligent Machines for Tomorrow’s Factory

While robotics has long been part of the modern industrial factory, recent innovations by engineers are helping intelligent machines make the manufacturing process more efficient and less costly. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in the European Union embarked on the SkillPro research project with the hope of reducing manufacturing changeover times in factories.

Let’s take a closer look at their progress.

Improving Changeover Times for Small Production Runs

Currently, it takes too much time to switch around the manufacturing process at a factory when beginning a production run for a new product. In many cases, the preparation and setup actually take longer than the actual manufacturing run itself. KIT’s SkillPro project looks to improve things through the use of intelligent machines.

Thomas Maier, Managing Director of KIT’s Institute for Information Management in Engineering (IMI) commented on the project’s goals. “Machines equipped with additional intelligence and communicating with each other are expected to significantly reduce the changeover time,” said Maier.

These machines are able to automatically recognize changes to parts through the use of optical sensors. This will greatly reduce the programming time necessary to perform changeovers between production runs.

Factory Robots communicating with each Other

Smart machines in the SkillPro project are also able to communicate with each other when a new part is built and needs to be transported from one step to another in the manufacturing process. A mobile robot then ferries the part to the next machine.

The SkillPro project has the potential to revolutionize the manufacturing of the niche products typically produced at small to medium-sized enterprises. Robotic manufacturing is no longer the sole domain of large automobile conglomerates. The research project hopes to be completed by the end of next year; a mid-period evaluation report proved successful for the KIT engineers.

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