Advances in Factories of the Future, CIM and Robotics

Productivity enhancement is a major concern for all manufacturing enterprises. Productivity enhancement can be achieved in many ways and many facets of its problems have been investigated over the last decades. A number of methods, tools and technologies have emerged to efficiently increase productivity and rationalize management of manufacturing enterprises. International experts from both academia and industry share their experiences in this collection of articles, contributing to the latest advances in the many facets of productivity enhancement in manufacturing enterprises. Themes and visions are detailed on factories of the future, new management approaches, manufacturing system integration and manufacturing information systems. These technical areas can be grouped into four major sections: Factories of the future; Techniques and tools for automated manufacturing; Robotics; and Industrial applications. The papers illustrate a pattern of valuable and interesting approaches to the fascinating problem of designing a new generation of robots with high enough performance capabilities to be used in an industrial context.

Abbreviated. Factories of the Future. Future factories and today's organizations (P.R. Duimering et al.). New Management Approaches. Project definition: Some methodological problems (V. Giard). CIM Modelling. A methodology to improve manufacturing systems integration (G.A. Peoples et al.). A method for developing CIM-systems with coloured Petri nets (A. Borusan, D. Moldt). Information Systems. Multiple representation, multiple definition and object oriented representation (K. Chelghoum, D. Vandorpe). Knowledge-Based Systems for Manufacturing System Simulation. Productivity enhancement for process simulation using knowledge based approach (S.M. Reddy et al.). CAED: Computer-Aided Engineering and Design. A new element for symmetrically laminated cross-ply beams based on a higher-order theory (R.K. Kapania, A.W. Obst). Configuration of technical products using a knowledge-based model concept (C. Sommer). Metal Cutting and Assembly Processes. Interactive tool for decision-making in cutting (D. Blanchard-Gaillard et al.). Subassemblies and common fitting nodes in determination of assembly sequences (C. Mascle). Manufacturing Cell Layout. A generalized approach of the part machine grouping problem for the design of cellular manufacturing systems (R. De Guio, B. Mutel). Workshop layout guided by neural networks (F. Biennier et al.). Scheduling and Multi-Level Control of FMS. Scheduling problem in some production processes (T.C.E. Cheng, A. Janiak). FMS Analysis with Petri Nets. Task driven multi-level control of FMS (H. Chen, B. Hu). Fault Diagnosis and Maintenance. Availability optimization of randomly failing equipments (D. Ait-Kadi). Robotics System Representation. Recursive flexible multibody dynamics using spatial operators (A. Jain, G. Rodriguez). Collision Avoidance and Trajectory Generation. Polyhedron placement for planar motions (T. Siméon et al.). Robotics System Control. Model-based variable structure adaptive control of robot manipulators (S.K. Tso et al.). Industrial Applications. Design the standard of low magnetic field by computer simulation (L-J. Ma, B. Wang). Author index. Key words index.