Project Details
Pop-Up Automation of Production Processes
Applicant
Professor Dr.-Ing. Matthias Althoff
Subject Area
Automation, Mechatronics, Control Systems, Intelligent Technical Systems, Robotics
Production Automation and Assembly Technology
Production Automation and Assembly Technology
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 545267624
We target one of the main obstacles for automating further production processes: time and cost for designing suitable robotic solutions make the investment in robotized automation unattractive for small production series or productions with frequent process variations. We will automate the design of robotic automation cells so that a solution can be found within hours instead of several weeks. The ability to automatically design production cells will open a range of new opportunities - especially manufacturing small and medium enterprises - to implement robotic systems which improve productivity, flexibility, and competitiveness, while strongly reducing investments and pay-back times. To automate the design of production processes, we will use a set of modules that, when combined, realize the production process. Our modular concept will make it possible to re-use modules for future temporary production process. One of the main challenges of reconfigurable systems is to find possible combinations of modules that are able to complete given tasks while meeting constraints, such as avoiding obstacles in the environment. Most studies on reconfigurable systems focus on obtaining combinations of modules to achieve a given task without considering the required motion planning. In contrast to previous works, we will develop configuration synthesis methods considering constraints and motion planning. This results in a mixed discrete/continuous optimization problem, for which we will develop essentially new methods. We envision tackling this problem by using heuristics, genetic algorithms, and machine learning to quickly obtain reasonable solutions - finding optimal solutions to problems of industrial scale is infeasible with current methods. We will demonstrate our approach by automatically designing and realizing automation cells for machine tending and palletizing.
DFG Programme
Research Grants