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Virtual Engineering (VE) has always been a great aid in the design phase of manufacturing systems in terms of structural system description, behaviour simulation and interfacing between the different subsystems. To this end, virtual engineering capabilities have a strong potential to be employed in manufacturing system sustainability at different phases of the system life cycle beyond the design phase. In response to the sustainable manufacturing requirements (namely 6R), this paper discusses the opportunities VE provides to support sustainable manufacturing over the life cycle phases considering the latest industrial developments in manufacturing i.e. Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing. A framework of virtual engineering tools integration with 6R is introduced, then a discussion of the expected contributions follows. To demonstrate the applicability of the previously mentioned concepts, a case study of an on-going industrial project is exemplified with its results discussion.

Active pedestrian safety systems are based on a variety of sensor systems and detection algorithm approaches. The activation of, e.g., an emergency brake is a critical decision. Therefore, such applications must be tested very responsibly. This paper shows the characteristic features of pedestrians, presents current test methods, and introduces a novel test system approach and pedestrian dummy, which enables the test of advanced pedestrian detection systems. This includes also detection algorithm approaches including pre-indicators and path prediction for a complex motion pattern. The complex motion pattern can be a walking or a running pedestrian, including velocity and direction changes.

Engineers of today are required to fulfil the growing demand of interdisciplinary skills required by society and industry. They are expected to possess not only profound disciplinary knowledge and skills, but also a range of methodical, social and personal competencies. A number of teaching modules have been delivered that aim to enhance those competencies in engineering students To evaluate quality of engineering modules an instrument is developed. This instrument measures acquired competencies, quality of the teaching process and settings. This paper presents the evaluation instrument and reports on its validity and reliability.

Electric machines (e-machines) will form a fundamental part of the powertrain of the future. Automotive manufacturers are keen to develop e-machine manufacturing and assembly knowledge in-house. An on-going project, which aims to deliver an e-machine pilot assembly line, is being supported by a set of virtual engineering tools developed by the Automation Systems Group at the University of Warwick. Although digital models are a useful design aid providing visualization and simulation, the opportunity being exploited in this research paper is to have a common model throughout the lifecycle of both the manufacturing system and the product. The vision is to have a digital twin that is consistent with the real system and not just used in the early design and deployment phases. This concept, commonly referred to as Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), is key to realizing efficient system reconfigurability to support alternative product volumes and mixes. These tools produce modular digital models that can be rapidly modified preventing the simulation, test, and modification processes forming a bottleneck to the development lifecycles. In addition, they add value at more mature phases when, for example, a high volume line based on the pilot is created as the same models can be reused and modified as required. This research paper therefore demonstrates how the application of the virtual engineering tools support the development of a CPS using an e-machine assembly station as a case study. The main contribution of the work is to further validate the CPS philosophy by extending the concept into practical applications in pilot production systems with prototype products.

The recent advancements in technology and the high volatility in automotive market compel industries to design their production systems to offer the required product variety. Although, paradigms such as reconfigurable modular designs, changeable manufacturing, holonic and agent based systems are widely discussed to satisfy the need for product variety management, it is essential to practically assess the initial design at a finer level of granularity, so that those designs deemed to lack necessary features can be flagged and optimised. In this research, convertibility expresses the ability of a system to change to accommodate product variety. The objective of this research is to evaluate the system design and quantify its responsiveness to change for product variety. To achieve this, automated assembly systems are decomposed into their constituent components followed by an evaluation of their contribution to the system's ability to change. In a similar manner, the system layout is analysed and the measures are expressed as a function of the layout and equipment convertibility. The results emphasize the issues with the considered layout configuration and system equipment. The proposed approach is demonstrated through the conceptual design of battery module assembly system, and the benefits of the model are elucidated.

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.

Global market pressures and the rapid evolution of technologies and materials force manufacturers to constantly design, develop and produce new and varied products to maintain a competitive edge. Although virtual design and engineering tools have been key to supporting this fast rate of change, there remains a lack of seamless integration between and within tools across the domains of product, process, and resource design - especially to accommodate change. This research examines how changes to designs within these three domains can be captured and evaluated within a component based engineering tool (vueOne, developed by the Automation Systems Group at the University of Warwick). This paper describes how and where data within these tools can be mapped to quickly evaluate change (where typically a tedious process of data entry is required) decreasing lead times and cost and increasing productivity. The approach is tested on a sub-assembly of a hydrogen fuel cell, where an assembly system is modelled and changes are made to the sequence which is translated through to control logic. Although full implementation has not yet been realized, the concept has the potential to radically change the way changes are made and the approach can be extended to supporting other change types provided the appropriate rules and mapping.

The Occupational Health Internship Program (OHIP) was initiated in 2003 to recruit a new, diverse generation of occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals and to advance OSH within union and community-based initiatives. It retains the principles of the original OCAW/Montefiore internship program while adapting to the changed landscape of the 21st-century workplace. Case studies of OHIP projects illustrate how students have contributed to key OSH policies—to regulate silica exposure among construction workers, apply principles of green chemistry with Vietnamese nail salon workers, and integrate OSH into “green” jobs in the recycling industry. They have supported innovative campaigns with immigrant workers in contingent jobs—from taxi drivers to warehouse workers. The students, in turn, have been inspired to enter the OSH arena as professionals and worker advocates with the potential to contribute new energy to an OSH movement.

Due to increasing product variety and complexity, capability to support reconfiguration is a key competitiveness indicator for current automation system within large enterprises. Reconfigurable manufacturing systems could efficiently reuse existing knowledge in order to decrease the required skills and design time to launch new products. However, most of the software tools developed to support design of reconfigurable manufacturing system lack integration of product, process and resource knowledge, and the design data is not transferred from domain-specific engineering tools to a collaborative and intelligent platform to capture and reuse design knowledge. The focus of this research study is to enable integrated automation systems design to support a knowledge reuse approach to predict process and resource changes when product requirements change. The proposed methodology is based on a robust semantic-predictive model supported by ontology representations and predictive algorithms for the integration of Product, Process, Resource and Requirement (PPRR) data, so that future automation system changes can be identified at early design stages.

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) offer numerous advantages over combustion technology but they remain economically uncompetitive except for in niche applications. A portion of this cost is attributed to a lack of assembly expertise and the associated risks. To solve this problem, this research investigates the assembly systems that do exist for this product and systematically decomposes them into their constituent components to evaluate reconfigurability and suitability to product. A novel method and set of criteria are used for evaluation taking inspiration from heuristic approaches for evaluating manufacturing system complexity. It is proposed that this can be used as a support tool at the design stage to meet the needs of the product while having the capability to accept potential design changes and variants for products beyond the case study presented in this work. It is hoped this work develops a new means to support in the design of reconfigurable systems and form the foundation for fuel cell assembly best practice, allowing this technology to reduce in cost and find its way into a commercial space.\ud \ud

Cost and delivery times are key variables used by shippers to determine freight mode choice. Unfortunately, transportation planners wishing to examine truck versus rail trade-offs on major state and regional corridors use models that rarely capture the effects of cargo weight, running speeds, network capacity, or route characteristics, even though they are key inputs to any logistical analysis. Moreover, current models are incapable of fully internalizing external or social costs into their calculations, a failure that becomes more important as sustainable strategies are sought by society. Therefore, in three critical areas of transportation planning—network capacity, route features, and operating characteristics—most existing models are deficient. This study gives planners a mechanistic method to determine variable rail costs on a single corridor. When this model is combined with the latest truck operating cost mechanistic models, the cost differentials that underlie the choice of truck versus rail will be revealed. The model, C-TRIT, is part of a study sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation to support freight movement on the extensive state network of multimodal corridors.

The assessment and optimisation of postural stress and physical fatigue can be challenging and is typically conducted only after the design of manual operations has been finalised. However early assessment of manual operations and identification of critical factors that are deemed outside of an appropriate envelope can avoid the time and costs often associated with re-designing machines and layout for operator work processes. This research presents a low cost software solution based on a simplified skeleton model that uses operator position and workload data extracted from a simulation model used for virtual manufacturing process planning. The developed approach aims to assess postural stress and physical fatigue scores of assembly operations, as they are being designed and simulated virtually. The model is based on the Automotive Assembly Worksheet and the Garg's metabolic rate prediction model. The proposed research focuses on the integration of virtual process planning, ergonomic and metabolic analysis tools, and on automating human factor assessment to enable optimisation of assembly operations and workload capabilities at early design stage.

Much has been published about potential benefits of the adoption of cyber–physical systems (CPSs) in manufacturing industry. However, less has been said about how such automation systems might be effectively configured and supported through their lifecycles and how application modeling, visualization, and reuse of such systems might be best achieved. It is vitally important to be able to incorporate support for engineering best practice while at the same time exploiting the potential that CPS has to offer in an automation systems setting. This paper considers the industrial context for the engineering of CPS. It reviews engineering approaches that have been proposed or adopted to date including Industry 4.0 and provides examples of engineering methods and tools that are currently available. The paper then focuses on the CPS engineering toolset being developed by the Automation Systems Group (ASG) in the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), University of Warwick, Coventry, U.K. and explains via an industrial case study how such a component-based engineering toolset can support an integrated approach to the virtual and physical engineering of automation systems through their lifecycle via a method that enables multiple vendors' equipment to be effectively integrated and provides support for the specification, validation, and use of such systems across the supply chain, e.g., between end users and system integrators.

Increasing the cost of electricity and the global obligations for efficient use of energy have added additional pressure to industrial companies in an already challenging market. Manufacturing companies are adopting methods to have a greater agility to respond quicker to the market dynamics and varying demands by changing production configurations. In recent years, deploying virtual engineering design approaches and extensive simulation methods have facilitated an early insight into how a system may perform, in advance of the physical build. However, the impact of system reconfiguration on the cost of energy consumption is typically unknown. Much research has been carried out on the development of new energy-efficient drives (e.g. motors and actuators) and also the possibility of turning off the drives when idle to save energy. However, in this article, the authors propose a new method of energy saving for engineering production lines by fine tuning the low level device motions to optimise energy consumption. An integration method between virtual engineering design and simulation modelling is proposed, and as a result a simulation method for energy optimisation is developed. In this article the method of interpreting virtual design data for use in simulation modelling of a production assembly line in an automotive industry is discussed. Furthermore, a developed algorithm for optimising energy usage based on adjusting dynamic properties of the system components (e.g. accelerations, torque and mass) is discussed and the result of implementing the concept in an experimental application in the powertrain industry is reported.

The field of factory automation has been the target of many recent research efforts related to improving overall efficiency and reconfigurability in order to effectively enable the advent of mass customisation. These efforts have promoted the adoption of autonomous, loosely-coupled devices aimed at simplifying the integration of modular production cells, as well as new production control methodologies which aim to bring efficiency, agility and quick turnaround to the production process. As these new production paradigms start to trickle down to the factory floor, a new set of tools must be developed in order to support their implementation. Recent advances in computing power and functionality from the past decades have opened up the opportunity to not only improve the processing capabilities within control devices but to implement engineering tools which will support the systems engineers in building the modular production floor. This paper presents the development of such a tool which facilitates the imp...

Federal and state transportation planners and others seeking to analyze transportation systems find few publicly available rail analysis models to estimate the operational costs and environmental impacts of rail movements. Moreover, data to populate such models and to test public policy considerations for evaluating public–private partnerships are generally difficult to obtain. This paper, a product of a study funded by Region 6 of the University Transportation Center Program, offers stakeholders the building blocks to develop an integrated rail analysis model capable of testing railway operational and capital investment changes. The paper also reviews the current state of rail modeling, examines selected rail models, and presents the findings of a preliminary intermodal rail costing model developed in the work.

A new concept in modular automation systems and their virtual engineering is presented. The new approach is aimed to provide support for the reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) approach to automation. Manufacturing industries are moving to the concept of RMS to fulfill the great demand to deliver greater levels of product customisation at a higher quality and at reduced cost. RMS allows the manufacturing companies to quickly implement innovative design changes in their products and produce a greater number of product variants on leaner production lines with shorter times to market. The aim of this research is to enable production machines to be more easily and cost effectively built and subsequently reconfigurable through the adoption of a component-based approach to their implementation utilising virtual manufacturing tools. It is proposed that through the decomposition of manufacturing machines into standardized mechanisms and their associated data structures, a RMS can be designed and implemented. Research conducted at Loughborough University into the development of concepts and tools to support the global engineering of component-based reconfigurable manufacturing automation systems in the automotive production domain is described in this paper. A collaborative framework to integrate and coordinate the various engineering activities of globally distributed engineering teams involved in the design, implementation, operation and diagnosis of production machinery is also described.

A new approach to the design and implementation of virtual prototyping environments (VPEs), aimed at providing support for the engineering of flexible machine technologies (referred to as reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs)) is presented. The research is focused on two aspects of VPE tool development, namely on ensuring the consistency between real- and virtual-system architectures, design tools, and design processes and on maximizing the potential of three-dimensional computer-based virtual models as a basis for distributed engineering collaboration. A component-based (CB) approach to VPE tool design and implementation is proposed, which radically contrasts with approaches commonly adopted by both the commercial and academic VPE developers. The VPE developed in the context of this research should ultimately enable more effective management of RMS complex engineering life cycles by engineering partners who are globally distributed.

This paper provides a brief overview of the SOCRADES project and highlights some of the benefits of the adoption of a SOA approach to the implementation of component-based distributed automation systems. The discussion includes details of the underlying architecture, and explains the loosely coupled nature of distributed web service based systems. The need for the effective orchestration of services is highlighted and potential approaches to system modelling and 3D visualisations are described in outline. The application of the SOCRADES approach in a demonstration environment is introduced and explored towards the end of the paper.

Major capital investments in the aluminum sector require significant financing, often in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Lenders are understandably conservative about transactions of this magnitude, and impose not only contractual and financial obligations, but technical ones as well. A project must be technologically sound, properly staffed and managed, and environmentally acceptable — to the satisfaction of the banks before they will disburse the required capital. With permission from the Billiton Group, two recent examples are presented to illustrate these concepts: the construction of the Hillside smelter in South Africa, and the acquisition of Worsley Alumina in Australia.

Current challenges in production automation requires the involvement of new technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), Systems of Systems and local automation clouds. The objective of this paper is to address the actual process of defining a cloud based automation system. The objective of this paper is to address one of the challenges involved in establishing and managing a cloud based automation system. Three key capabilities have been identified as required to create the expected benefits of local automation clouds; 1) capturing of plant design 2) capturing and distributing configuration and deployment information 3) coordinating information exchange. This paper addresses the capturing and distribution of configuration and deployment information. For this purpose a system service is proposed, the Configuration Store, following the principles of the Arrowhead Framework. The service is accompanied by a deployment methodology and a bootstrapping procedure. These are discussed for several types of automation technology, e.g. controllers, sensors, actuators. A qualitative evaluation of the proposed approach is made for four use cases; Building automation, Manufacturing automation, Process automation and IoT devices. Concluding the usability for large-scale deployment and configuration of Industrial Internet of Things.

Accommodating frequent product changes in a short period of time is a challenging task due to limitations of the contemporary engineering approach to design, build and reconfigure automation systems. In particular, the growing quantity and diversity of manufacturing information, and the increasing need to exchange and reuse this information in an efficient way has become a bottleneck. To improve the engineering process, digital manufacturing and Product, Process and Resource (PPR) modelling are considered very promising to compress development time and engineering cost by enabling efficient design and reconfiguration of manufacturing resources. However, due to ineffective coupling of PPR data, design and reconfiguration of assembly systems are still challenging tasks due to the dependency on the knowledge and experience of engineers. This paper presents an approach for data models integration that can be employed for coupling the PPR domain models for matching the requirements of products for assembly automation. The approach presented in this paper can be used effectively to link data models from various engineering domains and engineering tools. For proof of concept, an example implementation of the approach for modelling and integration of PPR for a Festo test rig is presented as a case study.

Despite the technological advancements within the last few decades in computer aided design and manufacturing systems, the existing solutions are still fragmented and typically target only small fragments of the production lifecycle. The engineering support required for the design and lifecycle management of manufacturing systems is not sufficiently developed. In particular there is no established integrated approach to support the lifecycle of manufacturing automation systems. Automotive industry is one of the world's largest manufacturing sector, more effective service based approaches to lifecycle support are now needed as an integral part of manufacturing systems in order to effectively support rapid product or process change in a global business context. This research paper presents a lifecycle support framework for the development of new modular automation systems in order to bring greater agility to the manufacturing system using a collaborative work centre concept and also to investigate the new supplier relationships resulting from using a modular approach.

This paper describes an evaluation method for assessing the effectiveness of using multimedia tools for remote maintenance of production machinery in the automotive sector. The multimedia tools have been developed to support the design implementation and maintenance of a component-based control system for manufacturing machines. Scenario testing has been adopted to assess the possible benefits associated with the use of multimedia tools. It has been found that the multimedia tools are effective in improving the diagnostic capability of the maintenance provider in terms of acquiring better information and reducing the time taken to diagnose the problems. However, there are security, human resource restructuring, maintenance agreement, and training issues associated with the service that must be appreciated prior to large-scale adoption of the technology.

This paper describes the application of a novel component-based approach to the design and implementation of an assembly automation system in the automotive production domain. The assembly automation system is composed of autonomous mechatronic units known here as components. The component encapsulates automation hardware, software, control services, and specific automation knowledge and can be integrated into the desired automation system as a common reusable building block without the need to know its low-level implementation details. The component-based concept is outlined and the implementation of a component-based assembly automation system is described in this paper.

This paper describes research towards the realization of reconfigurable modular automated machines and the associated engineering methods and tools necessary to support their lifecycle needs. UK-based research, in collaboration with the Ford Motor Company and several machine builders, has resulted in the development of full-scale prototype reconfigurable modular automation systems for both engine assembly and machining applications. The implementation of an assembly system is featured in this paper. An engineering environment and associated reconfigurable component-based control system architecture have been created aimed at supporting the lifecycle needs of a new generation of agile automated systems, i.e., providing reconfigurable, easily scalable automated machinery. This approach has the potential to fit within a wider collaborative automation strategy where manufacturing systems are implemented as a conglomerate of distributed, autonomous, and reusable units.

Improving the UK train services has been the subject of many debates in the last few years particularly after the privatization of the rail network in 1993. Within the network's complex structure, the train maintenance industry plays a major role in keeping trains in safe condition with a high standard of customer service. The results of a research work carried out by Loughborough University to investigate ways of improving the current practice in this industry through the application of business process modelling and component-based system design approaches are documented in the present paper. The method that has been adopted to enable a formal representation of a typical train maintenance process is discussed in detail and a case study based around a major maintenance supplier on the South West Trains network in the UK is described.

Port drayage—defined as a truck pickup from or delivery to a seaport, with the trip origin and destination in the same urban area—is a critical, yet comparatively understudied link in the intermodal supply chain. Because port dray trucks operate primarily in urban environments, they significantly affect congestion and air quality. Drayage industry characteristics at the Port of Houston Authority (POHA) in Texas are identified to help planners prepare for continually increasing container volumes, while considering the dual needs of maintaining profitability and reducing societal costs. Results are reported from interviews with drayage managers and a survey of 103 port drivers at the Port of Houston's Barbours Cut container terminal regarding demographics, working conditions, truck characteristics, route characteristics, and port operations. The study results then are compared with existing literature, most of which originates in the area of Los Angeles, California. Substantial variation is apparent in truck age and mileage. Although few drivers were unsatisfied with overall terminal efficiency, many had suggestions for improving efficiency. Results indicate that the industry is relatively stable, despite the increasing demands that stem from high container growth rates. Finally, methods whereby the dray fleet could be modernized through grants for air quality improvement are examined.

Unpredictable and dynamic markets are driven by an ever more informed customer base and rapid technological evolution. In order stay competitive, organisations producing physical products need to be agile. To realise a product, an organisation must go through several phases including product design, process planning and manufacturing system design. These phases can exist within and across organisations, spanning the globe and utilizing an enormous range of information and communication standards. So as to understand the requirements of the predominantly sequential phases, resources are exhausted in converting information into a language which upstream and downstream phases can understand. This research paper aims to reduce this effort by capturing knowledge in a core ontology which is formed by product, process and resource domain ontologies. The vision is that phase or domain experts input information into this ontology, which then infers requirements for the adjacent phases based on predefined relationships. The presented approach permits the insertion of additional information as it becomes available because ontologies are extensible and scalable. This supports a concurrent engineering approach and accommodates the needs of modern businesses. This research paper presents a proof of concept based on a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). The rationale for the choice of classes and properties in the model are described. The model is successfully proved by describing liaison precedence and the selection of appropriate assembly equipment.

This paper proposes a framework to enable a proactive approach to energy consumption prediction and optimisation that can be utilised from the design phase thus offering significant advantages over existing reactive approaches. The framework integrates energy modelling and management techniques at component and system levels using the modelling capabilities of virtual engineering tools. For proof of concept demonstration, a case study of a pick-and-place automatic workstation is presented. An energy consumption optimisation is achieved by optimising components motion control and reconfiguring the workstation. In the case study, a number of experiments were conducted to compare alternative designs against the original one. Results showed significant energy saving (up to 57% of the original design) by redefining the motion profiles and cycle time in a more optimised form.

The rapid development and reconfiguration of assembly automation systems to accommodate product changes in a short period of time is a challenging task due to the limitations of the contemporary automation systems engineering approach. To improve the engineering process, Product Process Resource (PPR)-based modeling, simulation and data integration systems emerged as a promising approach to compress the development time and engineering cost by enabling collaboration and realization of product and manufacturing resources in a virtual environment. However, due to ineffective coupling of PPR data, design and reconfiguration of assembly systems is still a challenging task and is highly dependent on the knowledge and experience of engineers. This paper presents a knowledge-driven engineering approach to manage the mapping of engineering data sets to interconnect product attributes to manufacturing process and resources. A case study based on a Festo test rig is presented for illustrating the implementation of the approach. The successful identification of the tasks required to manufacture a product proves the approach concept but only for the presented use case.

Due to the current business requirements, the manufacturing industry is striving to reduce design, development and commissioning time of production systems to manufacture new products in a timely manner. The use of new technologies such as virtual engineering, automatic code generation and knowledge-based approaches is being extensively researched. This paper presents a framework that utilizes a knowledge-based approach to automate the component mapping in the code generation process. The raw data is taken from simulation models of manufacturing systems developed in 3D based virtual engineering tools. Moreover, a prototype implementation is presented and the results are discussed.

Nowadays industrial companies need more agile and adaptable production systems to manufacture customized products faster and with a high level of process optimization. This agility in production requires flexible automation systems. One key capability such systems need to exhibit is effective connectivity and interoperability with different vendor-specific software and hardware tools, which often presents difficulties. This paper shares results and research experience in applying OPC UA technology, to establish communication between Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) based control systems and virtual engineering tool (Onevue) to enable interactive support and data collection during production. This paper provides an overview of the OPC UA client development for the Onevue. Based on the case study provided in the paper, results of the OPC UA client-server communication is reported.

Optimising the compression process during assembly improves the performance of fuel cells. Sufficient and uniform compression across the x, y and z axes ensures uniform current distribution contributing to stack longevity, minimisation of mechanical stresses and optimisation of the well-recognised compromise between mass transport and ohmic losses. In addition, the sealing media experience the necessary forces required to prevent the leakage of reactant gases and thus increase the efficiency of the system. This research paper evaluates the compression characteristics of a test version of a fuel cell compression rig, designed by Horizon Fuel Cell UK, to inform future assembly line design. A MATLAB code was used to assess the compression homogeneity presented on Fuji Prescale Low pressure films. A spring equivalent model is developed to approximate required compressive force for optimal performance. Optimisation of this model is expected to facilitate the development of a compression process which lends itself to the mass production of fuel cells. Recommendations for improving the current process include the use of electronically controlled cyclic compression and an increase in the number of compression pistons. The key finding of this study is a lack of compression symmetry which is associated with the alignment of the jig or component manufacturing and assembly tolerances.

Today's manufacturing enterprises are characterised by frequently changing market demands, time-to-market pressure, continuously emerging new technologies and global competition. The traditional manufacturing control systems are often lacking in terms of the capabilities of responsiveness, flexibility, robustness and re-configurability. Therefore, there is a need of interoperability and integration of control functions on different hierarchical levels ranging from field level to various higher level applications such as process control and operations management services. More specifically, an open, agile automation environment with plug and play connectivity is needed. To reduce cost and improve flexibility, a reconfigurable component-based automation approach based on a platform of reusable components is proposed. This paper outlines the application of component-based technology to shop floor devices using a Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services for the purpose of realising future generation agile manufacturing systems. If SOA can be applied at shop floor level using the embedded devices, it can enable entirely new automation architectures based on peer-to-peer interactions between autonomous devices. This paper proposes a distributed modular service-based approach to the implementation of a real manufacturing application associated with the control of automotive engine assembly lines.

Component-based (CB) technology applied to the control system of production machinery is one of the new research developments in the automotive manufacturing sector. Although it is important to evaluate the technical aspects of this new paradigm, an appreciation of the impact from the business and human aspects is equally important to the stakeholders in the industry. Current evaluation approaches do not offer a method to capture and analyse the impact of CB technology that is simple to use and produces results that are readily understood by all the interested parties. The definition of an approach for evaluating the business and human aspects of implementing a CB system in the automotive sector is discussed. An evaluation strategy has been formulated comprising (1) knowledge elicitation, (2) investigation of future implementation scenarios, (3) data representation and analysis using enterprise modelling approaches, and (4) simulation and model analysis using proprietary software toolkits.

Research conducted by the MSI Research Institute, Loughborough University, into the development of concepts and tools to support the global engineering of component-based reconfigurable manufacturing automation systems in the automotive production domain is described in this paper. The concept of a collaborative framework to coordinate the various engineering activities of globally distributed engineering teams in the design, implementation, operation and diagnosis of production machinery is proposed. Details of the runtime system, monitoring and visualisation capabilities are provided along with a brief description of an industrially focused implementation of the framework for use within the automation domain.

The application of Human Machine Interfaces (HMI's) to support a Component Based (C-B) approach for automotive manufacturing machines is described in this paper which is based on research being conducted at the MSI Research Institute, Loughborough University. The globalisation of automotive product design and manufacture is radically affecting the way companies do business. The HMI within the context of this paper is a system that supports the user's interaction with a manufacturing production machine in providing machine control, monitoring and diagnostics. The approach to engineering HMI systems described addresses the emerging needs and tremendous pressures enterprises face to be faster to market, achieve quicker machine builds with manufacturing production machines that must support mass customisation and quick response times.

The adoption of a set of enterprise modelling diagrams as a formal representation of the processes involved in developing a system based on a component-based approach is described in this paper. Illustration is given on how the information, resources, and events within the systems and the activities involved are abstracted, captured, and represented using a Computer Integrated Manufacturing Open System Architecture (CIMOSA)-based method. Such representation of the engineering processes is useful as it: (a) provides support for analysis of the system based on the component-based approach; (b) promotes understanding of the system implemented using the component-based approach; (c) enables better management of the complexities involved in describing the system; and (d) can potentially support system design.

This paper makes a case for the widespread adoption of a “collaborative automation” paradigm, which promises to provide more flexible and reconfigurable production systems overcoming many of the inherent limitations in traditional, rigid approaches to production automation. The collaborative automation approach implements production automation systems as a conglomerate of distributed, autonomous, and reusable units, which operate as a set of cooperating entities. A brief overview of existing developments and implementations of collaborative automation systems is presented together with discussion of some of the critical issues related to the realisation and industrial adoption of the approach. The current state of relevant research is briefly assessed, gaps in knowledge identified and areas for future research suggested.

Increasing complexity and interdependency in manufacturing enterprises requires an agile manufacturing paradigm. This paper considers the characteristics that a component-based control system needs to embody to support agility in this context. The concept of a component that incorporates automation hardware, software, control services, and manufacturing-related services into a basic modular unit is reported. A component encapsulates low-level, real-time implementation and component-specific knowledge, which are abstracted and exposed as standard interfaces to enable it to be integrated into a manufacturing system as a common, reusable building block. The concept and control of the component is outlined in this paper and the methodology for the implementation of a component-based control system is illustrated. Finally, the implementation of the component-based concept at Johann A. Krause Maschinenfabrik GmbH, a major manufacturer of automotive assembly automation systems, is described.

Complex causal, temporal and spatial dependencies need to be maintained during the engineering of a complicated product, such as an automobile or an aeroplane. However, few of these dependencies are explicitly known and coded into a form that allows a business or enterprise to reason about process and product design and change. However, various methods and computer tools have become available to industry that allow some of these dependencies to be specified and managed, albeit in a fragmented way. This paper reviews dependency management capabilities of common methods and tools currently deployed by industry. The discussion characterizes deficiencies in technology provision. Also outlined is the basis of a new approach to dependency management based on a development of workflow management techniques.

Robotics constitutes a multidisciplinary area, congregating knowledge from different scientific domains. The learning of robotic systems requires the acquisition of multidisciplinary scientific bases, and high integration and synthesis abilities, which is not an easy task. This paper describes the implementation of a lifelong course that aims to provide a global insight on robotics field, introducing the concepts and technologies for different domain applications, namely industrial robotics, autonomous mobile robotics and robotics applied in medicine. This is accomplished in an international framework where individual knowledge and experiences will be confronted in a multidisciplinary level and intercultural environment. The work described in this paper was financially supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme Erasmus, under the projects n. 2012-1-PT1-ERA10-12529 and 2013-1-PT1- ERA10-16656. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The development and application of a business process modelling approach to comprehend, formalize, simulate and assess a particular domain within the automotive industry are described in this paper. Within an ongoing project carried out by Loughborough University, the design and implementation of a new generation of component-based machine control systems are being investigated. As part of this project, impacts of business and technical aspects of the new control systems on existing practices are also being examined using enterprise modelling methods and tools. The modelling has been applied to the production and assembly of a machine for a new engine project in the automotive industry. The modelling approach has been based on the CIMOSA modelling architecture and complementary simulation and analysis tools, mainly ithink™ and Excel. The lessons learned from the implementation of the modelling approach and the assessment of the component-based machine control systems are also discussed in this paper. The criteria of this assessment were considered primarily as cost and time, although other factors that ultimately impact on the business processes are also discussed.

In 1989, the Texas legislature passed HB 2060 creating an annual permit for vehicles to operate above the general weight limits. Controlled and administered by the state government, the 2060 permit has satisfied industry much more than the county-run permits it replaced. Controversial, however, has been the permit’s exemption from the special weight limits, generally 58,420 lb, that are posted on many light-duty state and county roads. County officials, in particular, have expressed concern about the damage to these roads that results from trucks traveling with up to 84,000 lb under permit. The costs of this damage are likely to far exceed the revenues from permit fees, which suggests that the permit is underpriced. Among the recommendations is the collection of additional data on the travel patterns of 2060 trucks to better determine the menu of prices and options that the permit should offer. Also recommended are returning some control over the permit system to the counties and an increased emphasis on economic efficiency in designing truck-related taxes and charges.

Freight volumes in Texas and throughout the world have been increasing as a result of growing national economies and international trade. The use of intermodal containers to transport this freight presents the opportunity for a more efficient transportation system. Using barges to carry containers could diminish roadway congestion, reduce fuel consumption and emissions, increase shipper options, and expand the reach of smaller ports. Although a number of benefits could be realized from container-on-barge (COB) service, the feasibility of a COB network along the Texas Gulf Coast remains less clear. At present, the likelihood of a COB network is slight because the hindrances are daunting: the lack of infrastructure and equipment; inadequate distribution of population along the Texas Gulf Coast; only a few navigable inland waterways, with none serving a major population center outside Houston; transport times that are incompatible with many manufacturers’ needs; a history of failed attempts for COB companies; intense competition from railways; unclear costs for serving ports without container infrastructure; and a limited number of participants due to restrictions of the Jones Act. Opportunities may exist, however, for a COB operation to exploit the substantial amount of industrial activity along the Texas Gulf Coast and the inefficiencies in the existing supply chain. Growing U.S. trade with Mexico might also offer some possibilities for COB services, but the recent trend has been toward Texas receiving a diminishing share of the value and weight of containerized commodities being moved from Mexico.

When creating production forecasts in order to evaluate a prospect, is it more realistic to vary the estimated well performance parameters to reflect the likelihood of the prospective resource case being modeled? For example, should wells in the high case perform better than wells in the best technical case (BTC), which in turn outperform those in the low case? If one subscribes to this school of thought, what is the most appropriate way of assigning such variation in expected well performance?The initial rate of a well is not exclusively a function of rock and fluid properties, it also depends on completion type, formation damage, clean up practices, cement bond quality, sand control requirements, artificial lift design, coning rate constraints, to name but a few. It is regularly observed that initial well rates rarely match those suggested by theoretical calculations.Office sweepstakes for guessing the headline flow rate from a new discovery always reveal a large range of expected initial rates and, possibly more worryingly, the reservoir engineers rarely win. Bearing this in mind, the paper goes on to ask whether it is better to simply use the same ‘average’ well performance throughout all of one's prospect analysis?Another approach is to use the assumed geological model to divide up the prospect into good, average and poor areas and assign an appropriate well performance to each of them, based on what one believes is the reservoir quality and fluids in each prospect area.The paper discusses the various issues confronting the reservoir engineer engaged in prospect evaluation, weighing up the arguments for changing well performance in the different cases and the arguments for leaving the well performance the same for all cases. The impact on the expected value of an exploration portfolio is discussed, depending on which approach is chosen.

Today industry has to face the demands of products at lower cost and reduced time-to-market in a global market environment. Solutions require the application with new and innovative technologies to efficiently achieve the desirable functional capabilities. The benefits of Virtual Engineering environments are becoming noticeable at product and process development level but its visualisation has not been applied much at a shop-floor level. Using an automation toolset utilising a component based approach, this paper introduces a Web-based 3D fault diagnosis and its visualisation in a shop-floor that delivers better perception and understanding to engineers, and even provides convenient shop floor accessibility to machine information anytime and anywhere. In particular, this work has implemented 3D fault visualisation using an X3DOM model and technology. It improves the accessibility of 3D visualisation without the need for specific visualisation software and can be deployed on both PC-based hardware and mobile devices.