SmartF-IT – Cyber-physical IT systems to master complexness of a new generation of multi-adaptive factories

Soft­ware tools for multi-adaptive cyber-physical pro­duc­tion systems

For the fac­tory of the future tech­no­lo­gies are deve­l­o­ped with Indus­trie 4.0 that make the pro­duc­tion of small quan­ti­ties in real time with maxi­mum qua­lity, yet low cost mana­ge­able. Thus, manufacturers can handle pro­fi­ta­bly fluc­tua­ting mar­kets and glo­bal trends, offer a high num­ber of vari­ants or small series productions and meet indi­vi­dual cust­o­mer requi­re­ments. The SmartF-IT pro­ject faces this chal­lenge, with the use of adap­tive cyber-physical IT sys­tems at all levels of pro­duc­tion to achieve the intro­duc­tion, imple­men­ta­tion and ope­ra­tion of inte­gra­ted pro­duc­tion sys­tems. SmartF-IT pla­ces spe­cial empha­sis on each unit of pro­duc­tion and focu­ses on the use of IT pro­ce­du­res to imple­ment agi­lity and mul­ti­ple adap­ti­vity as essen­tial com­ponents of the smart fac­tory. With SmartF-IT, mul­ti­ple adap­ti­vity is used at a hig­h level throughout the ent­ire pro­duc­tion sys­tem and inclu­des plan­ning, mana­ging and ope­ra­ting the inter­play of pro­ces­ses, pro­ducts, equip­ment and employees.

SmartF-IT- is established as the basis of the Smart­Fac­tory, an IT-based, inte­gra­ted and exe­cu­ta­ble model, with the need-based adapta­tion to the human work force and as such, takes into account the sus­tainable well-being of the people invol­ved. The focus lies, on the ver­sa­tile recon­fi­gu­ra­ble pro­duc­tion unit for the opti­mi­zed pro­duc­tion of multi-variant cust­o­mi­zed pro­ducts in terms of “high-mix, low-volume manu­fac­tu­ring” to the “Lot Size 1″ in a hybrid com­po­si­tion of resour­ces and man­power, sup­por­ted by new cust­o­mi­zed indus­trial assis­tance sys­tems.
SmartF-IT exami­nes two typi­cal app­li­ca­ti­ons of new tech­no­lo­gies: the migra­tion of an exis­ting pro­duc­tion as well as the rede­sign and sub­se­quent ope­ra­tion of a pro­duc­tion line to be esta­blis­hed. It is the three sce­na­rios from indus­trial prac­tice, that vali­date in hybrid adapta­ble working environ­ments of a CPPS, the deve­l­o­ped methods for esta­blis­hing con­trollable multi-adaptivity. A CPPS cock­pit brings trans­pa­rency into the rela­ti­onships of multi-adaptive pro­ces­ses and the con­sis­tent IT inte­gra­tion for mas­te­ring com­ple­xity in plan­ning and con­trol of the CPPS.
The close col­la­bo­ra­tion of rep­re­sen­ta­ti­ves from indus­try and aca­de­mia ensu­res, that the desi­red results and solu­ti­ons meet both the imme­diate indus­trial needs and that gene­ric models, methods and tools emerge, that can be used and uti­li­zed beyond their indi­vi­dual capa­ci­ties in the indus­try, for example by also being incor­po­ra­ted into the natio­nal “Platt­form Indus­trie 4.0″. The con­den­sed best prac­tice recom­men­da­ti­ons from the addres­sed inte­gra­tive use situa­ti­ons of migra­tion and re-planning on the one hand and human-centric, as well as cyber-physical sys­tem approach on the other hand, are also having a for­ma­tive influ­ence on the fur­ther deve­lop­ment of cyber-physical pro­duc­tion sys­tems, for con­trol­ling com­ple­xity in a new family of multi-adaptive agile factories.

Results:

SmartF-IT was laun­ched in June 2013 and is pro­mo­ted for a term of three years with a volume of € 12 mil­lion by the BMBF, Unit 514 IT sys­tems.
DFKI is the con­sor­tium lea­der, pro­ject lea­der is Prof. Dr. Wolf­gang Wahls­ter. Other part­ners include: Bosch Rex­roth AG, for­tiss GmbH, imperial-Werke oHG, PLATOS GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, TU Darm­stadt and Zen­trum für Mecha­tro­nik und Auto­ma­ti­sie­rungs­tech­nik gGmbH (ZeMA) and as an asso­ciate part­ner BMW AG. The project was completed successfully in 2016.
The SmartF-IT demonstrator implements a modular self-organizing production line of realistic Industrie 4.0 production which realizes the multi-variety production of real CPS control modules in lot size 1. Thereby workers, plant supervisors, team leaders and planners are supported by specific human-centered assistance systems and IT tools in specific tasks, such as production planning, staff planning, fault management, quality assurance and workplace accommodation in a variety of industrial applications. The basis for the IT integration here is a cross-application semantic factory memory linking the latest information about products, processes, facilities and employees. It can provide an integrated, dynamic detailed planning of the production process, individual support of staff as well as a self-regulating CPS-based networking of processes and control systems.
SmartF-IT shows with a variety of assistance systems, how flexibility and individuality in cooperation with a lightweight robot is achieved in the production context of Industrie 4.0.

For further information please consult: www.smartf-it-projekt.de

Project Duration: 06/2013 – 05/2016

Project Sheet: SmartF-IT (english)

Contact:
DFKI GmbH
Cognitive Assistants (COS)
Dr.-Ing. Dietmar Dengler/Dr. Anselm Blocher
Phone: +49 681 85775 5259
E-Mail: sfit-info@dfki.de
Internet: www.dfki.de