WO2014138949A1 - Automation system and method of manufacturing products using automated equipment - Google Patents
Automation system and method of manufacturing products using automated equipment Download PDFInfo
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Classifications
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- G—PHYSICS
- G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
- G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
- G05B19/00—Programme-control systems
- G05B19/02—Programme-control systems electric
- G05B19/418—Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] or computer integrated manufacturing [CIM]
- G05B19/41885—Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] or computer integrated manufacturing [CIM] characterised by modeling, simulation of the manufacturing system
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- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
- Y02P90/00—Enabling technologies with a potential contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
- Y02P90/02—Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
Definitions
- the present application relates to the field of automation and to manufacturing of unit products using automated machinery or equipment.
- Such costs may in many cases be mitigated by a more intelligent management of the industrial automation environment, allowing for a potential defect to be prevented from ever occurring, or alternatively recovering an item or portion of a batch or lot that in the current state of the art must typically be discarded as a result of having to halt production on a given line.
- the ability to suspend automation of automated machinery, temporarily interrupting production, and then to resume operation, without having to discard most if not all of the products within the affected portion of a batch represents an enormous advantage.
- Embodiments of the invention disclosed herein describe the joint and simultaneous use of simulators, actuators, and control logic to achieve the same broad automation goal as systems known in the art, but to specifically accomplish said goals in a manner allowing for a product to be manufactured using automated machinery, components, and control logic that essentially appropriates the overwhelming majority of procedure and actions to perform, such as managing a bagel manufacturing system's response to the state of doneness of a bagel.
- the result is simplified operation for the operator, and the ability to recover should anything go wrong represents a cost, effort, and safety savings for the entity invested in the product.
- the solution proposed herein describes a method of manufacturing products using automated machinery using one or more sensors to measure and quantify environmental conditions prevalent both within and around the system, in addition to enhancing said system with one or more simulators operative to accurately simulate the behavior and response of actuators, elements, or products within a given system.
- the solution also discloses the role and importance of the accompanying control logic to respond to the state of such simulators, and to direct the operation of other actors within the system.
- Figure 1 is a basic prior art system wherein a programmable logic controller (PLC) feeds output to actuators, receives input from sensors, may include components or simulators of components to test the operation of the PLC, and a user operator interface to illustrate the status and events of the overall system.
- PLC programmable logic controller
- Figure 2 is a basic layout of an embodiment of the present invention in which the relative interactions between a simulator, a synchronization interface, actuators, and sensors, are displayed; the foregoing layout showing how the simulator interface and simulator structurally replacing the traditional PLC shown in Figure 1.
- Figure 3 is a more complex embodiment than that in figure 2, expanded to include multiple (linear) simulators, multiple actuators, multiple simulators for each component and product whose states are communicable to a system control logic module to form a full simulator, in addition to an online/offline toggle module and a user interface for each component, for each product, in addition to the system having control logic.
- Figure 4 is another layout view of another embodiment of the system, which includes a user interface, simulator, simulator interface, sensors, control logic, actuators, and simulators to model the states and behavior of said actuators.
- Figure 5 is a detailed view of the internal components of a simulator module of the type shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4.
- Actuators of various types are key actors in different automation systems, as they are often employed to introduce specific types of motion within a system, such motion typically resulting from a set of one or more electrical signals, and typically directed to one or more types of controlled elements.
- simulators are useful to model the behavior of actuators and other components configured within a real-world system. The modeling of such behavior is in turn useful to describe and predict the actions of said components within a given configuration. Simulators by their very nature include state observers, known in the art, the latter providing the actual value of the position of one or more components involved within a given system.
- a known set of a component's behaviors and actions may be formalized as the set of that component's states.
- states may be further formalized as state machines.
- information such as dead time may be included within a model.
- a simulator may in some cases have a distinct state observer.
- a simulator may comprise state machines, if, for example said simulator models the behavior of discrete sensors.
- the state observer may also confirm the operation state of said discrete sensors, and together with the state machine may validate whether such operation is consistent with expected or desired function.
- testing of the programmable logic controller (PLC) 1400 can be done by connecting the actuator signals and providing the sensor signals from a simulator (1300) that was created for the purposes of design, evaluation, and/or teaching of a proposed automated system as a way of validating that the logic in the PLC 1400 matches with the evaluated design done using the simulator.
- a simulator (1300) that was created for the purposes of design, evaluation, and/or teaching of a proposed automated system as a way of validating that the logic in the PLC 1400 matches with the evaluated design done using the simulator.
- the Components or simulator module 1300 known in the art and shown in Figure 1 may in some embodiments have a partial counterpart in the form of one or more components 2300.
- an embodiment of the present invention includes a simulator 2450 whose function consists in part of imitating the operation of one or more actuators 2200 or processes within a real-world system and of using the latter simulator 2450 for purposes of control.
- Control logic for the actuators 2200 is implemented in the combination of the simulator 2450 and simulator interface 2400.
- the components illustrated in Figure 2 illustrate a simplified but operational embodiment of the present invention.
- the simulator interface 2400 might remain physically connected to actuators 2200 and still be able to generate signals that could potentially be delivered to the latter 2200, although such signals are not delivered and thus do not have any bearing on the set of actuators 2200 itself which is occasionally referred to as the real-world system to distinguish it from the simulator-only aspect.
- the simulator interface 2400 since no sensor 2000 data is being received by the simulator interface 2400, the simulator is provided no knowledge as to whether (or by how much) to adjust any real-world component 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203 of the system.
- a similar mode may be achieved as shown in Figure 3 where the Online/Offline module 2800 is set by a human operator via User interface 2600 to not transmit any simulator-derived 2451 , 2452, 2453 data or states provided to Control logic 2470 to any of the Actuators 2201 , 2202, 2203 within the system.
- any existing external alarm signals (further discussed herein) or states that may be communicated by any component 2200, and/or product state are suppressed.
- component and product states include various settable alarm states whose purpose during regular operation is to warn a human operator of a loss or absence of sensor 2000 data to the simulator interface 2400. Once such alarm states are disabled, however, a purely simulated variant of the system's operation may proceed, and it will be appreciated that in an embodiment having a structure similar to that illustrated in Figure 2 and in which a connection between the simulator interface 2400 its corresponding sensors 2000 and actuators 2200 is severed, the resulting system will operate using a reduced set of components, and its operation amounting to essentially that of a simulator.
- the linear simulators 2450 ( Figure 2); 2451 , 2452, 2453 ( Figure 3) and product simulator(s) 2460, combined with control logic 2470 converts the result of simulations into electrical signals to drive a system's one or more actuators 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203.
- the group containing individual component simulators 2451 , 2452, 2453 and product simulator 2460 also includes a control logic module 2470 within provides a synchronization interface between the simulated and real-world systems. The latter control logic module 2470 confers "full" simulator functionality 2490 to a system.
- a simulator module 2453 may typically simulate the position state of a corresponding component associated with one or more actuators 2203 within its respective system.
- the importance of accurately simulating said actuators' 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203 motion and position using linear models that, for example, integrate accelerations to give accurate velocity, or alternatively integrate velocity to give position will also be appreciated.
- integrating heating power minus heating losses may be used to determine an accurate temperature value.
- a one-to-one correspondence may exist between an actuator 2203 and simulator 2453; in such cases, the operation of the former may be uniquely matched with the latter making the two direct counterparts.
- a less strict correspondence may prevail; for example, one simulator may accurately model the behavior of one or more system components controlled by an actuator 2203, or vice versa.
- a full simulator 2490 as illustrated in Figure 3, which may include multiple linear simulators 2451 , 2452, 2453 and which also combines control logic 2470, and one or more product simulators 2460 (to model the behavior of each item manufactured by or resulting from the system) may also be considered to model the behavior of the entire system or product as well.
- Examples of actuator 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203 behavior modeled within a simulator 2450, 2451 , 2452, 2453 are as broad, diverse, and scalable as the field and task to which an embodiment of the present invention may be applied.
- an electrical motor may be one such actuator whose specific behavior, such as angular velocity in response to a range of input voltages, types of friction, and ambient temperatures is modeled and accordingly may be simulated by its corresponding simulator.
- a factory conveyor itself made up of several constituent parts or subassemblies may be collectively conceptualized and defined as another such actuator or component; here, such attributes as belt speed, particularly in response to various loads and/or materials may be one of several key attributes modeled by its simulator.
- the data set for a product's state machine dataset may likewise be defined for each subassembly of a product to manufacture and likewise be connected to any component state.
- the set of elements to be simulated is extended to include non- actuator components present within an embodiment of the present invention as well.
- an embodiment or system that outputs a given result or produces a product will typically have one or more product simulators 2460 to appropriately model attributes and other aspects of said product or result.
- such modeling mirrors the evolution of the product as its manufacturing sequence unfolds.
- the ingredients and the procedure required to first create the dough, then shape it into a ring, and then place it onto a conveyor all include elements whose simulation may be desired.
- State machine datasets may be elaborated as deemed appropriate, and encompass various values determined to be of value in the manufacture of a given product.
- Such simulations will be the result of constructed models, said models having been built upon previously measured and studied behaviors. The breadth and depth of such behaviors may be studied in whatever scope and with whatever granularity is deemed acceptable or necessary to successfully meet the objective of the target application or of a given embodiment of the invention.
- components and products may have state machines that include an ordered sequence of logical statements. This ordered sequence is required to set states within the state machines of various components and/or products within the system. The setting of such states may be useful to control or inquire function of actuators or of other components within the system. In another embodiment, a priority for the setting and execution of specific states may be established to ensure that the component or product operates as required.
- product state machine datasets include an ordered sequence of logical statements. This includes the ability to set states as a function of various criteria, as for example system component states, product states, or system component states, product states and time.
- Control logic 2470 is expressed in the form of conditions (or states), each corresponding to a particular or participating within a particular action.
- the default action communicated to each actor in the system is that corresponding to no action, conferring a so-called "rest state” to each actor in the system so directed.
- actuators and actors in the system are directed as a result of state information issuing from the simulators 2450, 2451 , 2452, 2453 in combination with the Control logic 2470 described above.
- the above-mentioned control logic also enables the execution of the sequence of datasets' logical statements in such manner that later executed statements have priority in directing actuators over earlier executed statements. This is particularly useful for controlling automated equipment having multiple modes of operation. For example, a particular type of machinery might provide an automatic and a manual mode of operation, as well as various other modes, each having various operational particularities, and one might imagine for example the presence of maintenance, safety, and automated security modes.
- Such switching requires that the system know and manage the priority of each mode of operation under different sets of circumstances, and to be operative to undertake the proper sequence to transition from one mode of operation to another.
- this may be implemented using "goto" (or "go to" or "go-to") actions ordered sequence of logical statements.
- assembly charts or state charts that track in real time the states of all systems that they control
- actions may be of the "go to" type so that their result is independent of the initial conditions of the system, to allow the system to effortlessly resume operation should an operational halt be experienced.
- Such resumption is intended to occur irrespective of the mode of operation or of attendant system or environmental conditions.
- real time state charts' own go to statements allow the system to direct transition to various positions or directions in instances other than those strictly related to recovery.
- the set of states of a state machine may be represented using any appropriate scheme.
- the direction of a system's action can be determined by comparing the destination state with the current state. The result thus becomes independent of the initial conditions
- Actions of the "go to" variety discussed herein are always necessary when a component is operable three or more workable positions.
- a turntable having multiple operating positions, for purposes of rotating a product being manufactured into any of three or more set positions to complete said product's manufacture (or even to complete a single step).
- Sensors 2000 operative to measure or otherwise detect the presence or absence of specific conditions related to production are mounted throughout the production chain, and the information they detect and transmit is ultimately received by the one or several simulators 2451 , 2452, 2453.
- a given linear simulator 2453 may model the state of the bagel as it enters and travels through a conveyor oven to be baked.
- the percentage of doneness into a fully-baked bagel may be similarly modeled and simulated 2453 for each instance of a bagel candidate.
- another simulator 2453 may simulate the presence of a ring of dough (with specific non-limiting attributes such as dimensions on the conveyor belt, mass, temperature and thickness of dough, as well as the physical and chemical response qualities of the dough's composition).
- a ring of dough with specific non-limiting attributes such as dimensions on the conveyor belt, mass, temperature and thickness of dough, as well as the physical and chemical response qualities of the dough's composition.
- Such considerations might include detection of the correct number of bagels in a given row of a conveyor prior to packaging, with such measures as causing the actual number of bagels on a given conveyor to appear within the simulator should any be missing from the conveyor for any reason, or whether the arrival of another bagel along the conveyor.
- a simulator being present for each product 2460 (and in an embodiment, a simulator being present for at least each instance or (specified) grouping of a product, such as a half-dozen bagels considered together) can thus not be understated.
- the role of the control logic 2470 is also instrumental as such might include the precise actions to perform when the bagel is - variously - barely, partially, and fully cooked. Such actions may be provided by the various product states defined within the product state machine, with precise sequences of logical statements to execute to arrive at conclusions on such aspects as a baked product's doneness.
- product state machines may also include specific states operative to respond to operator commands and other manually- specified logical statements. Such functionality is particularly valuable when no existing execution procedure has been provided, or in cases where a human override of any automated portion of system behavior is required. Such human operator input may likewise apply to product states for all types of components present within the system, conveniently allowing for human input in cases where the system would be unable to continue to function properly without said human input.
- the logical statements that determine the execution of a particular system may be edited by a human following deployment of said system.
- a state machine dataset for a product or for a component might allow for automatic learning, for example, as a result of both actuator 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203 and sensor 2000 data, in tandem with previously discussed operator-controlled machinery.
- the state machines of the various components of an embodiment of the invention to use models with a higher resolution (e.g. spatial) or granularity than that of discrete sensors involved within said embodiment.
- the increased resolution is one aspect of the state observer, mentioned herein.
- the Control logic 2470 module functions as a command structure between the simulators 2450, 2451 , 2452, 2453 and actuators 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203 of an embodiment of the invention. Although it may be implemented variously in different embodiments of the invention, the command structure fundamentally obviates the need to add programmable logic (such as through a PLC). In an embodiment of the invention, the Control logic module 2470 sets the states of the actuators 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203. With reference to Figures 3 and 4, sensor signals 2000 do not generally connect to the Control logic module 2470, but are instead routed back to the simulators 2451 , 2452, 2453, 2460.
- a simulator 2451 , 2452, 2453, 2460 might obtain information, for example, about positioning, from a sensor signal 2000.
- the simulator 2450, 2451 , 2452, 2453 updates the position information, following which the Control logic module 2470 determines its next decision and outputs simulated control signals intended for the actuators 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203.
- a projection in virtual space of objects handled by an embodiment of the present invention can be maintained by the Control logic module 2470 so as to manage the expected position of the objects within an automated control system.
- the Control logic module 2470 oversees and directs the execution, in priority, of a sequence of statements. The role of go to statements, further described herein, will further be appreciated in the accomplishment of this endeavor.
- an important aspect of embodiments of the present invention concerns carefully managing the states of all actuators 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203 and other components of the system.
- maintaining such data is particularly valuable for recovery following slowdown of one or more of its constituent sections or components, or even suspension or interruption the said embodiments' operation.
- bagel-making operation discussed previously, suppose it were necessary to temporarily bring an operating the production line to a halt, resulting in the immediate slowdown of the various components in the chain.
- Such suspension of automated system might occur, for example to make a change in either the products or in one or more components within an automation system.
- embodiments of the present invention may, upon restarting of the production chain, continue as appropriate because the state of each bagel is sensed, tracked, and known via simulation.
- the temperature of the conveyor oven might be set higher than usual, to account for the previous slowdown, or alternatively the conveyor for a segment of bagels whose cooking was in progress at the time of the shutdown might, upon restart, be slowed to properly accommodate the temporary anomaly, leveraging the more robust controls offered by the structure of embodiments of the present invention in such a manner as to recover the entire batch of bagels in its entirety, thus avoiding the risk of unnecessary rejection of any or all bagels in said batch which may otherwise be safely and successfully recovered.
- any element or consideration, whether fixed or variable, but potentially able to impact on the quality of the product or result produced by an embodiment of the present invention should be simulated.
- a simulation model as well as the latter's inherent accuracy make it possible to apply the known model to a given real-world environment and facilitates recovery whenever said complex production environment is temporarily paused and subsequently restarted.
- Recovery possibilities described herein are made possible by the knowledge of the states of all key elements in the production line, namely those relating, on the one hand, to the position of actuators 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203 and other components of the line itself, as well as those of the products that the production line is intended to manufacture, on the other.
- state differs appreciably from the notion of a step in an SFC as is known in the art. Rather than conceiving of individual steps within which associated actions are carried out, and then transitioning to other steps upon associated logic conditions, "states" operate on both the basis and outcome of simulators' operations. Specifically, each simulator operation results in further consideration of the system of the state in which the previous action has placed the system in. Unlike the case prevalent in PLC-based prior-art solutions, determination of state falls outside the scope of mere control logic, and as a result, accurate results may be obtained.
- the role of user interface is increased within the present invention as a result of the offline mode discussed earlier.
- the offline mode functionalities allow a user - whether a human operator, highly skilled technician, or dedicated system developer - to experiment with various aspects of the system, including simulating hypothetical situations, and optimizing such aspects.
- Embodiments of the present invention allow for such optimization to take place either when the system is first deployed or anytime thereafter.
- linear simulators in the context of embodiments of the present invention are understood to be far more than simple timers. Instead, they should be appreciated for the possibilities they offer to determine a state, by integrating a given parameter over time. For example, heating power minus heating losses may be integrated to provide temperature.
- acceleration or velocity of an actuator 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203 might likewise be doubly integrated or integrated, respectively, to determine position information with far greater accuracy following rapid start and stop of moving parts such as motors or conveyors within a given system.
- Such position information is typically of appreciably greater accuracy than a timer-based implementation that merely depends the time period during which a motor (or attendant conveyor) has either begun or ceased operation to determine the position.
- a component or a product's states may additionally include variable position data obtained from various sources.
- data may be introduced from such sources as sensors 2450, 2451 , 2452, 2453 and/or be received from a human operator defining position states, with the position data obtained through calculation.
- simulators 2450, 2451 , 2452, 2453 are notified of actual system conditions from sensor 2000 readings and as a result said simulators 2450, 2451 , 2452, 2453 model and direct actuators 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203 in a manner consistent with the requirements of a given application has been discussed herein.
- control logic 2470 is required to fulfill this specific requirement - in some embodiments far more challenging than what is required, for example, to dynamically change the temperature of a conveyor oven in response to a suddenly cooler factory or alternatively to a new batch of products to process through a conveyor oven, the products having different thermal qualities than the previous or successive batch. This is because in the context of the ongoing parallel catch-up dynamic occurring between both simulated and real-world counterparts, it is possible to encounter undesirable and unpredictable actuator behavior 2200, 2201 , 2202, 2203.
- alarm signaling plays a vital role within an embodiment of the invention to indicate the presence of a significant disparity between real-world observations and those expected by simulator 2453 model(s) applicable to a specific situation when operating in online mode.
- Figure 5 shows the modules within a simulator involved in detecting and reacting to such disparities. It will be appreciated that this is distinct from the situation which prevails when working in offline mode wherein alarm signaling is turned off as previously mentioned herein.
- the simulator 2453 receives as inputs values from one or more sensors 2000 within the system.
- Values in the form of variables, such as temperature and position are provided to the simulator's 2453 Sensor/Comparator module 2454, which assesses the real-world value against and the value expected by the simulator's 2453 own model. It will be further appreciated that such assessment is typically done for numerical values as opposed to on/off state values. If the real-world value falls, within a given range or alternatively within a margin of the value expected by the model, the model is adjusted 2455 accordingly, either replacing the previous expected value, or modifying the latter through some situation- appropriate algorithm to bring it closer in line with the value received and thus safely respond to the system's operational reality. The component's modeled behavior 2457 is accordingly adjusted in such cases.
- the alarm will be activated when a deviation between the value received from the sensor exceeds the set range or margin discussed.
- the component state adjustor 2456 is notified of the wider deviation, and a human operator may intervene as a result of the alarm to assess whether to adjust the component's state 2458.
- performance trends may be tracked and recorded over a longer period so as to detect changes over a longer period that would otherwise be imperceptible on a day-to-day basis. For example, a slowdown of a conveyor's maximum speed might signal the need for maintenance to be performed, in which case an alarm may ultimately be generated.
- such an alarm may simultaneously comprise notification to key factory staff regarding the necessity to variously perform said maintenance, procure said part, or any additional action required to restore ideal operation.
- the Model Adjuster 2455 may or may not direct the Model of Component Behavior 2457 to adjust the model(s) for said conveyor part(s) in response to said disparity and alarm.
- the Model Adjustor 2455 filters the differences recorded in the comparator 2454 and said update is subsequently reflected in the model of component behavior 2457.
- the instruments used to carry out detection and sensing 2000 may be subject to variability and imprecision in the execution of their duties. Such disparities may in some scenarios be attributed overwhelmingly to the instruments themselves and far less (if at all) to the real-world operation underway. As a result, any update between the model adjuster 2455 and its corresponding model of component behavior 2457 occurs in iterative steps.
- the value(s) expected by the model of component behavior 2457 are brought in line with (or in another embodiment, merely closer to) value(s) recorded by sensors 2000, rather than causing values in the behavior model 2457 to immediately match those values detected 2000. This is done to mitigate any risk that disparities arising from instrumentation might cause the component's behavior model 2457 to be radically (or even modestly) adjusted unnecessarily - where taking into account such a situation might otherwise be entirely unwarranted.
- an embodiment of the present invention is likely to encounter operational problems which may broadly be attributed, on the one hand, to sensor failure (or instrumentation-related shortcomings more generally), or the actual occurrence of a real-world issue (such as an operational deficiency, actuator or wider mechanical failure of an assembly line), on the other. It will be appreciated that mechanisms to address such issues - when they occur - should be provided within an embodiment of the present invention in an effort to comply with the broad improvement and operational objectives described herein.
- SCENARIOS [0074] Returning to an embodiment featuring a cherry and pastry example described earlier, one can imagine, on the one hand, a first scenario in which a cherry is not deposited upon the pastry. Such an issue might occur, for example, as a result of a real- world issue encountered on the assembly line, such as actuator 2203 failure, or a shortage of cherry supplies. In such a case, the model of the pastry within said pastry's product simulator 2460 is updated to indicate - albeit inaccurately - that the cherry is present, even though said pastry's real-world counterpart lacks said cherry.
- the simulator's internal model 2460 will once again detect - inaccurately - a situation wherein the situation reported to and indicated in the model is at variance with the real-world events occurring on the product line.
- an alarm signal may be issued by the product simulator 2460 to warn the operator, some other individual, or any other responsible entity of the apparent mismatch between expected simulator 2460 observation and real-world input observations provided by way of sensors 2000.
- appropriate measures may be taken by said responsible entity.
- the operator may choose to perform an situation of the real-world automation scenario visually inspect the target, for example, (temporarily) compensate for this by visually inspecting the products coming off the line and in a further embodiment actuate the cherry-depositing mechanism for each pastry.
- a human operator might first perform a visual inspection of the real-world production line in an effort to determine whether or not a cherry is actually present on the pastry. Should no pastry be present, such as in the first scenario laid out above, said operator may update the pastry's model 2460 to indicate the real-world situation, namely, the absence of a cherry. In an embodiment, the Control logic 2460 may intervene as a result and direct the appropriate system actuator(s) to place a cherry upon the pastry.
- said human operator might once again perform a visual inspection of the actual production line, concluding in this case that the reason for which the "no cherry” case was triggered was because of a faulty or permanently defective sensor 2000.
- said operator does not update the pastry's product simulator's because 2460 because the problem at issue in the second scenario does not pose a problem with the model 2460 itself.
- said operator might attempt to correct or repair the cherry-detection sensor 2000.
- the operator may declare said sensor defective 2000 and nonetheless allow continued operation of the product line, the operator having ultimately determined which of the two broad scenarios above has occurred. In either case, once this determination has been made, said operator may take (and/or delegate) responsibility for said problem's resolution. For example, in the scenario in which the cherry is not physically present on the pastry, the operator may use the system's User interface 2600 to access the model for said cherry's product simulator 2460.
- the operator may modify the product model 2460 in such manner as to indicate the absence of the cherry.
- the user interface 2600 may include comprehensive GUI elements to facilitate such addition, removal, or modifications of various aspects of the system operation, such as in the foregoing.
- the operator may conclude that the issue occurred as a result of the sensor 2000 having failed, in which case said operator may take further action to correct the sensor 2000 issue (such as repairing, delegating said repairs to an authorized party).
- said operator may instead determine that a sensor 2000 failure has indeed occurred and nonetheless continue operation, having formulated or adopted a modified operation policy to be followed until a definitive resolution of the real-world is completed.
- the solution consists of elaborating, for all such critical trigger positions, a synchronization catch-up mechanism that ensures that only one such that the control logic will never skip and miss a critical trigger position. It will be appreciated that if no sensor 2000 or group of sensors 2000 is present to determine (or indirectly reconstruct a solution for) a particular operational issue, the model may not be easily updated autonomously. In such cases, an additional sensor 2000 or group of sensors 2000 may be added to the system. In a further embodiment, the use of a camera may be envisioned to partially compensate for such shortcomings.
- part or all of the elements described in a non-limiting manner herein, as well as other permutations thereof, may be implemented in whole or in part on one or more processors.
- said processor(s) may instead be one or more computers, tablets, or other similar devices, each operating either independently or networked variously.
- an intermediate scenario may be further contemplated. It will be appreciated that such a scenario may feature a situation in which said cherry is indeed present and accurately detected, but in which the specific cherry placed atop a specific pastry is of poor quality.
- Such intervention may include an action in which an operator uses GUI functionality made available through the User interface 2600, for example, to toggle (off, in this case) the presence of the cherry.
- the automated product assembly line may, in an embodiment, cause a new (and acceptable quality) cherry to be subsequently placed on the pastry.
- said pastry might instead be declared defective in its entirety if a cherry replacement procedure akin to the one described above is impossible.
- the Product simulator 2460 plays a key role in ensuring that the manufacturing process for the product under consideration unfolds successfully.
- Various information about the condition of the product throughout its manufacturing process must be variously collected, validated, consolidated, and updated to do so. A non-exhaustive discussion of the types of information stored for such purposes will be undertaken presently.
- the Product simulator 2460 may contain a register in which the real-world position of the product is stored. It will be further appreciated that said real-world position may be stored using any scheme, including without limitation, integers, real numbers, GPS coordinates, or physical position marker identifiers. Furthermore, said positioning may reflect any of multiple dimensions (defined in accordance with the manufacturing objectives of an embodiment of the invention). Likewise, such positioning information might also use as its basis the progress of a given product as it traverses the various manufacturing stages along its assembly line. In a further embodiment, one or more Boolean registers may be present. Said Boolean type register may serve to determine whether (or not) a product has reached one or more given real-world position(s).
- a register may indicate not merely the physical progression along the entire automated process, but the progress indicating a percentage of completeness of the product.
- register data stored in the product simulator model 2460 may also contain dimensions of the products.
- a state machine within the product simulator model 2460 may be used, keeping track of each operation enumerated above, to reflect the progression in the sequence.
- the product simulator model 2460 may also contain independent states to describe, for example the quality category of the product to manufacture.
- independent quality category states may include: product passed, product rejected, product defective, product to be refurbished, and others.
- the product simulator model 2460 may contain a register to identify the type or variant of product, so that various workstations may carry out operations required to correctly manufacture each product variant.
- product simulator 2460 may contain states for each of the subassemblies of the assembled product.
- the product simulator 2460 may contain traceability information which would allow for the implementation of one or more traceability standard (such as ISA- 88).
- a first aspect might include writing necessary aspects of each simulator 2453 manually.
- Such steps consist of developing a state observer for each of the components, developing product information (metadata) for each product to be manufactured within a given automated product line, developing the sequence of statements (further described herein) for each component and actor within the system, and finally, developing a user interface 2600 that allows a human to operate/control the system and visualize the states of simulators 2453 in addition to editing the states of simulators 2453 during operation. It will be appreciated that all such steps are manual, with no external assistance available (or provided) of any kind. It will further be appreciated that in the current state in the art, one may make use of development systems, or alternatively develop or use a system to help programming.
- the database of actuators and sensors may be extracted from the database of said drawings (at least for sensors and actuators).
- a fourth aspect of development for an embodiment of the present invention involves the reverse engineering of any type of system actor discussed herein. Such reverse engineering is carried out through a sampling of said system actor's input and output signals over a sufficiently long period.
- a first point of consideration to perform such reverse engineering requires that the system actor (sensor 2000, product 2460, simulator 2453, control logic 2470, user interface 2600) be considered and studied independently of its operation within the system and outside the context of any specific operational load, application, or active task.
- the reverse engineering of a part moved by a linear actuator 2203 for example, a variable speed drive that drives a worm drive upon which a moving mechanism is mounted
- the course of whose entire operation is detected by a total of three discrete sensors.
- a transport line may comprise more than one conveyor.
- To reengineer a transport line it is necessary to determine the relative length of each distinct conveyor and the relative speed of operation of all actuators 2203 on each conveyor. This may be achieved by measuring the speed ratio for a variable drive or the forward and reverse speed of an actuator 2203 (such as a motor) using a contactor (e.g. an on/off switch).
- the combination of the two conveyors becomes a non-linear system as a result of the two actuators 2203 in each conveyor being distinct from one another; however, this transport line may be linearized by considering active actuators 2203 on each portion corresponding to each conveyor.
- both conveyors are thus turned on and a product transits in turn on both conveyors, it will be appreciated that the result may be considered to form one single linear system.
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US14/374,947 US9720393B2 (en) | 2012-08-31 | 2014-02-27 | Automation system and method of manufacturing product using automated equipment |
CA2895078A CA2895078C (en) | 2013-03-15 | 2014-02-27 | Automation system and method of manufacturing products using automated equipment |
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CN114545867A (en) * | 2020-11-11 | 2022-05-27 | Abb瑞士股份有限公司 | Reverse engineering of modules of a modular industrial plant |
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- 2014-02-27 WO PCT/CA2014/050144 patent/WO2014138949A1/en active Application Filing
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