The concept of digital factories is becoming more popular among the manufactures due to its contributions in simplifying the work of plant engineers and reducing time to market of the products [1]. The main aim of this thesis was to investigate the possible applications of a digital copy of production processes by creating a virtual model of a seam sealing line in the paint department at Scania in Oskarshamn. The main usage of the virtual model was to perform offline programming of the robots. The benefits of offline programming were investigated and compared to online programming. Some comparisons between offline and online programming were made when it comes to the time needed for programming, the accuracy of generated robot paths, the workflow of both approaches and the required knowledge to turn from online programming to offline programming.

The result of the conducted experiment showed that the time of robot programming can be reduced, and the accuracy of robot paths increases by implementing an offline programming tool. The other application of virtual which was investigated in this thesis was virtual commissioning. Virtual commissioning is a method used to test and validate robot and control (PLC) programs in a virtual environment before implementing in the real plant. The software in the loop was selected as an approach for building the virtual commissioning model after presenting the different existed approaches. The result of the model showed great benefits of virtual commissioning not just in reducing the time of traditional of the new built line but even when replacing parts in an already existing manufacturing. Virtual commissioning is still new in the manufacturing, therefore, there are many issues which should be solved to get an optimal model that imitates perfectly the real plant.

In this work, a ROS (Robot Operating System) version of Open RatSLAM, [1] [2], was tested with Viso2 [3] as an alternative monocular odometer. A land based rover [4] was used to perform data acquisition and a remote control tool was developed to facilitate this procedure, implemented as ROS nodes on both Ubuntu 16.04 and on Android 7.0.An additional requirement that comes from using Viso2 is the need for camera information together with the image stream, which might require camera calibration. A ROS node to manually add this camera information was made as well as a node to change the generated odometry message from Viso2 to a form that RatSLAM uses. The implemented odometer uses feature tracking to estimate motion, which is fundamentally different to matching intensity profiles which the original method does and can hence be used when different properties of the visual odometry function is desired. From experiments, it was seen that the feature tracking method from Viso2 generated amore robust motion estimate in terms of real world scale and it was also able to better handle environments of varying illumination or that contains large continuous surfaces of the same colour. However, the feature tracking may give slight variations in the generated data upon successive runs due to the random selection of features to track. Since the structure of RatSLAM gives the system ability to make loop closures even with large differences in position, an alternative odometry does not necessarily give a significant improvement in performance of the system in environments that the original system operates well in. Even though both algorithms show difficulty with estimating fast rotations, especially when the camera view contains areas with few features, the performance improvement in Viso2 together with its ability to better maintain the real-world scale motivates its usefulness. The source code, as well as instructions for installation and usage is public

In this work, a ROS (Robot Operating System) version of OpenRatSLAM, [1] [2], was tested with Viso2 [3] as an alternative monocular odometer. A land based rover [4] was used to perform data acquisition and a remote control tool was developed to facilitate this procedure, implemented as ROS nodes on both Ubuntu 16.04 and on Android 7.0.  An additional requirement that comes from using Viso2 is the need for camera information together with the image stream, which might require camera calibration. A ROS node to manually add this camera information was made as well as a node to change the generated odometry message from Viso2 to a form that RatSLAM uses. The implemented odometer uses feature tracking to estimate motion, which is fundamentally different to matching intensity profiles which the original method does and can hence be used when different properties of the visual odometry function is desired. From experiments, it was seen that the feature tracking method from Viso2 generated a more robust motion estimate in terms of real world scale and it was also able to better handle environments of varying illumination or that contains large continuous surfaces of the same colour. However, the feature tracking may give slight variations in the generated data upon successive runs due to the random selection of features to track. Since the structure of RatSLAM gives the system ability to make loop closures even with large differences in position, an alternative odometry does not necessarily give a significant improvement in performance of the system in environments that the original system operates well in. Even though both algorithms show difficulty with estimating fast rotations, especially when the camera view contains areas with few features, the performance improvement in Viso2 together with its ability to better maintain the real-world scale motivates its usefulness.  The source code, as well as instructions for installation and usage is public.

Parker Hannifin Manufacturing Sweden AB is an international company with manufactory sites all around the world. The site in Trollhättan is part of the Pump & Motor Division Europe. The Factory has worked a lot with automating the manufacturing section. Many robots are implemented in the factory to produce the simple parts which need to be assembled to interduce the last product. Parker are now interested in starting the process of automating the assembly stations for the 3 products they produce in this site. The three products are Truck pumps, fixed and variable displacement pumps (LBP), variable hydraulic motors (VM) and fixed hydraulic motors (FM). Each one of the three types has different sizes and different series.

This work focuses on analysing the current system which consists of seven assembly station, 101, 102, 201, 202, 203, 301 and 302. After analysing the current system, a work on finding the potentials for moving from manual to semi-or automated stations for each station is presented. Seven potentials were found. The first potential which handle a bout a central pressing robot cell is a common potential for all the stations, and the other potentials are for each station separately. Testing and validation for all the potentials where the automation can be implemented and started with, the cycle time for the operations and the productivity, the workspace and material handling in addition to the level of the ergonomics for these stations.

The complexity of these solutions, the advantages and disadvantages and a safety analyses are also presented. And how to optimize the current system for reaching a high level of automation is discussed.

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is getting attention recently, and the number of connected devices is rising rapidly, climbing above one billion. Combining both IoT and Robotics ends up with the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT). This paper aims to explore the ethical standards of IoT and Robotics to build up the ethical margins and structures of IoRT in the healthcare sector. Thus, an ethical pyramid consists of security, privacy, and safety in such systems; this pyramid helps to understand the current ethical principles and how to adjust and translate them into protocols suite IoRT in the medical sector. These protocols are formulated in the form of responsibilities and rights of IoRT subdivision which is Internet of Medical Robotic Things (IoMRT

The manufacturing industry and associated systems are being developed in an increasing manner to cover the market needs, where the manufacturing companies are continuously racing and competing to achieve high productivity rate and better production quality. In this thesis work, an advanced method for motion control of industrial robots has been investigated and implemented. This method is based on motion tracking of a 3DSpaceMouse, which was used to perform movements by the operator. The benefits and disadvantages of this method were discussed in this thesis work. It mainly showed a high accuracy in response to the motion applied by the 3DSpaceMouse, and a great stability regarding the programming environment that was used to build it. The movements applied by the 3DSpaceMouse were successfully captured and stored in variables in the programming platform. The capturing and storing process was successfully created as a package and prepared to be exported for usage by other software. Complete simulation was performed for an industrial robot, and successful communications among the various hardware and software components of this solution were accomplished. This has formed a complete integrated solution that has also included a user-friendly HRI. This HRI made it easy and simple to track the motion control processes and establish connections with the robot controller. Thus, it can be considered a feasible solution for motion control of industrial robots, which can be used by the manufacturing companies. Several tests and verification processes were carried out to obtain accepted results and to succeed in implementing a working model. Some errors and unexpected events have appeared during the work, which required handling in order to achieve a working integrated system.

This thesis work investigates the possibilities and limitations of using digital twin technology to create virtual automation lines which can be used in education and research to conduct automation labs virtually. The PTC automation line at University West has been used as a case study in this thesis. The digital twin created in this work consists of three key parts: a virtual model of the automation line created in Visual Components Premium 4.2, system control (PLC-control program) created in TwinCat 3, and a Beckhoff ADS communication protocol that connects the virtual model with the PLC program.

Using a virtual model of industrial-like lab equipment in place of a real system can bring several benefits. It can increase visibility and safety in the system. It can also increase the accessibility of the system. Conducting virtual labs and experiments can also help in reducing the total cost of the system. The virtual twin of the automation line built in this work can be used to help the users to conduct automation labs and experiments virtually and to test their PLC programs offline.

To be a successful competitor among other technologies, metallic laser-directed energy depositionusing a laser beam would benefit from the support of intelligent automation making the processrobust, repeatable, and cost-efficient. This calls for technology leaps towards robust and accuratedetection and estimation of the conditions during processing and control schemes for robustperformance. This chapter discusses how developments in sensor technology and model-basedsignal processing can contribute to advancements in in-process monitoring of directed energydeposition using a laser beam and how developments in model-based feedforward- and feedbackcontrol can support automation. The focus is on how machine vision, optical emission spectroscopy,thermal sensing, and electrical process signals can support monitoring, control and better processunderstanding. These approaches are industrially relevant and have a high potential to support amore sustainable manufacturing. 

Collaboration between those working in product development and production is essential for successful product realization. The Swedish Production Academy (SPA) was founded in 2006 with the aim of driving and developing production research and higher education in Sweden, and increasing national cooperation in research and education within the area of production.

This book presents the proceedings of SPS2024, the 11th Swedish Production Symposium, held from 23 to 26 April 2024 in Trollhättan, Sweden. The conference provided a platform for SPA members, as well as for professionals from industry and academia interested in production research and education from around the world, to share insights and ideas. The title and overarching theme of SPS2024 was Sustainable Production through Advanced Manufacturing, Intelligent Automation and Work Integrated Learning, and the conference emphasized stakeholder value, the societal role of industry, worker wellbeing, and environmental sustainability, in alignment with the European Commission's vision for the future of manufacturing. The 59 papers included here were accepted for publication and presentation at the symposium after a thorough review process. They are divided into 6 sections reflecting the thematic areas of the conference, which were: sustainable manufacturing, smart production and automation, digitalization for efficient product realization, circular production, industrial transformation for sustainability, and the integration of education and research.

Highlighting the latest developments and advances in automation and sustainable production, the book will be of interest to all those working in the field.

Thermo-fluid dynamic and experimental approaches are used to investigate the influence of 20° uphill, downhill and sideway substrate orientation during metal deposition over a previously deposited bead in a V-groove. The computational fluid dynamic model with free surface deformation and metal transfer gives insight into the melt pool flow and causes of defect formation observed on the solidified beads. The experimental metallographs, high-speed images and computational results show good agreement. It is found that the deposition of a second layer on a smooth first layer cooled down to room temperature leads to large changes in melt pool flow patternat 20° substrate inclination compared to flat condition. It results in undercut and humps with the uphill orientation and undercut with the side inclination. Therefore, lower angle range is necessary for multilayer gas metal arc deposition for these two last configurations.

The present work concerns the electromagnetic force models in computational fluid dynamics simulations of melt pools produced with electric arcs. These are commonly applied to gas metal arcs with metal transfer, in welding and additive manufacturing. Metal drop impact on the melt pool is thus included in this study. The electromagnetic force models applied in literature use either numerical solutions of Poisson equations or one of the two analytical models developed by Kou and Sun, or Tsao and Wu. These models rely on assumptions for which the effect on the melt pool predictions remains to be understood. The present work thoroughly investigates those assumptions and their effects. It has been supported by dedicated experimental tests that did provide estimates of unknown model parameters and validation data. The obtained results show that the assumptions that fundamentally distinguish these three models change the electromagnetic force, including the relation between its components. These changes, which can also be spatially non-uniform, are large. As a result, these models lead to significantly different recirculation flow pattern, thermal convection, melt pool morphology, bead dimensions, and free surface response to the metal transfer. We conclude by proposing conditions in which each of these models is suited or questionable.

In industries, the management tools of Lean Production are used to develop and streamline operations in a way to reduce waste and lead times in all processes. Parker PMDE in Trollhättan manufactures hydraulic machines. Since the 90´s, Parker has pursued business development under the management principles of Lean Production. One of the next steps in Parkers continuous improvement was to explore opportunities to develop a kitting department so that a worker could provide the assembly with the material quickly without surplus resources. In the current situation, there is an imbalance from the kitting station towards the tact times in the assembly station because it takes longer at the kitting station to pick materials for four hydraulic machines, than it takes for the assembly station to consume these kits of materials.The aim of the thesis was to develop suggestions for improvement where a worker could perform the kitting process in less than 16 minutes. The interim objectives were to do a survey of the times and activities within the kitting process. The boundaries of the project was not to examine processes outside the kitting station. The project was designed according to DMAIC methodology, which is a project model for fact-based problem solving and clear structure. The methods used in the data collection were observation and analysis of video footage applying the software called AviX Method. Video recordings were categorized as different activities in the kitting process such as transport, picking, scanner time, pre-assembly and uncategorized time. Activities that were time consuming and did not add value to the process were identified. These data measures were the basis for the solution proposals.Based on these results and using brainstorming, solution proposals were generated together with the engineers and material handlers. The solution proposals that met the objective of the project of picking a 4-set of materials in 16 minutes were: Pick by voice, Pick-by-light, Ring Scanner and Relocation of one pre-assembly operation. Pick by voice is considered to be the most appropriate solution for the company since it reduces picking times, scanning times and is a flexible system. Two more proposed solutions were developed that did not meet the objective of the project, but are considered worth investigating further based on Lean Production and ergonomic reasons. These proposed solutions consisted of changing the picking route and the installation of a magnetic lift.

In the recent times many hybrid renewable energy sources are developed. In that, hybrid PV/Thermal gains the more attention than other hybrid sources. In the present work, made a performance analysis of different PV/Thermal configurations. The flat plate configurations have the more feasibility for the domestic applications than the concentrated type. In this paper, liquid, air, nano fluid, phase change material and Thermoelectric generator type configurations are presented. The performance analysis of all configurations done with energy output generation and efficiency of the system. 

This paper presents a power monitoring and control system for a medium voltage smart grid system. The smart grid interconnects the power sources between solar PV panel and 220V distribution network. This system consisting major components of inverters, measuring meters, solar charge controllers, relays, Arduino NANO and Raspberry Pi. The Current, power and energy readings are duly recorded. The Internet of Things (IoT) plays the vital role in the data communication between the sensors and electric power system. The voltage and current sensor data is used for the protection of power system network. In the traditional systems only the communication is uni-directional. The reliability of power supply is increased by used the bi directional network communication medium such as IoT. The tabulated results of voltage levels between 203.5V up to 212.8V shows the feasibility and effectiveness of proposed design. The proposed IoT model demonstrated the bidirectional communication from the sensors to the control unit and vice versa.

The present endeavour is to augment mechanical attributes via friction stir processing (FSP) in hypereutectic aluminium-silicon castings by the means of microstructural modifications and defects reduction. Wherein, the study proceeds with mainly two approaches namely, alteration in tool revolution (TR) and the number of FSP passes. The prepared specimens were evaluated investigating volume fraction of porosities, microstructural characterizations and microhardness. Therefrom, the specimen with highest number of passes delivered most uniform properties resulting from the reduction in casting porosities and refined silicon particle uniform distribution throughout friction stir processed zone. This endeavour may be considered as a footstep towards more industrial readied material transformation.

Manufacturing and automation lines are getting expanded to include Digital Twins as stepstowards Industry 4.0. In this regard, apart from the issues that Digital Twin designers commonly experience during the process, implementing the virtual model on the real system while transferring the codes and data can be challenging as well. Using Digital Twin as part of the future laboratory facility of University West for the automation line at Production Technology Centre (PTC), it first needs to be tested on the real line to discover possible problems that future students might face. In this master thesis, these errors and faults are investigated to help the automation line staff and students avoid them by possible solutions.The assembly routine in the Digital Twin of the automation line was tested with an HMI using the OPCUA platform both in manual mode and automatic mode. The automation line was tested in manual mode by changing the function blocks which work with the real PLC. Moreover, the students can use the conversion table to understand the difference between the Digital Twin and its real entity function blocks. However, it can take much time for students to make their HMI and PLC code compatible with the automation line at PTC. As a result, suggestions are made, and attention to some minor details of the test procedure are emphasized. Although, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and packed schedule of PTC staff, the automation line was not completely assembled and for safety reasons the automatic mode of the tests was withdrawn.

Customized products and low-volume production are becoming more popular resulting in a problem for dedicated manufacturing systems that are designed for mass production. Adapting a system to new demands is expensive and requires many products to be produced before it becomes a reasonable investment. This has forced factories to use human workers for manufacturing tasks that often change. This thesis focuses on a concept called Plug & Produce, which makes it easier to move, add, and remove resources in manufacturing systems. This is done by containing resources in process modules that all have the same physical connectors. To handle the control of the manufacturing system a multi-agent system is considered where each part to be produced for products has a part agent software running that represents that part. Each part agent takes care of their own manufacturing goals by communicating with resource agents that control the resources in the system. In this thesis, a Plug & Produce framework is describedthat consists of a configurable multi-agent system, together with a configuration tool for defining agent behaviours. Methods for identifying the resource that has been connected to a Plug & Produce system are investigated. Communication between agents in Plug & Produce is investigated. Scheduling is described for the presented systems to avoid conflicts when running multiple agents. Also, a pathfinding method for Plug & Produce is presented, which automatically gathers the necessary information for finding paths to transport parts through the manufacturing system.

This thesis presents methods for simplifying the use of multi-agent systems in Plug & Produce. The demand for customized products and low volume production is constantly increasing. The industry has for many years used dedicated manufacturing systems where it is difficult and expensive to adapt to new product designs. Instead, factories are forced to use human workers for certain tasks that demand high flexibility and rapid adaption for new product designs. Several solutions have been proposed over the years to create highly flexible automation systems that automatically handles rapid adaption for new products. A concept called Plug & Produce aims at creating a system where resources and parts can be added in minutes rather than days in dedicated systems. One promising solution for implementing Plug & Produce is the distributed approach called multi-agent systems, where each resource and part get its own controller that communicates with each other to reach manufacturing goals. The idea is that the system automatically handles the adaption for new products. However, still today the use of such systems is extremely limited in the industry. One reason is the lack of mature multi-agent systems that are easy to use and that hides the complexity of the underlying agent system from the users. This is a huge problem since these systems tend to be more complex than traditional approaches. Thus, this thesis focuses on simplifying the use of multi-agent systems by proposing various methods for bringing the multi-agent technology for Plug & Produce closer to the industry.

Today, multi-agent systems are still uncommon in the industry because they require more time to be implemented than traditional manufacturing systems. In this paper, a conceptual model and guidelines are defined for communication and negotiation between agents for Plug & Produce systems. Standards for agent communication exists today, such as the FIPA collection of specifications. However, FIPA is a broad and general standard for any kind of system and leaves a lot of room for interpretation. This paper presents a new conceptual model and guidelines on how to simplify the implementation phase by limiting the choices an engineer must make when implementing a multi-agent system for a manufacturing system. © 2020 The Authors.

Multi-agent technology, used for implementing Plug & Produce systems have many proposed benefits for fast adaption of manufacturing systems. However, still today multi-agent technology is not ready for the industry, due to the lack of mature supporting tools and guidelines. The result is that today, multi-agent systems are more complicated and time-consuming to use than traditional approaches. This hides their true benefits. In this paper, a new method for configuring agents is presented that includes automated deployment to manufacturing systems and by its flexible design opens the possibility to connect many other supporting tools when needed. A configuration tool is also designed that works with the proposed method by connecting to an agent configuration database. The overall aim of the method is to simplify the steps taken for adapting a manufacturing system for new parts and resources.  

This paper describes a method together with an implementation for automating the detection, identification and configuration of newly added resources and parts in a Plug and Produce system using OPC UA. In a Plug and Produce system, resources and parts are usually controlled by agents, forming a multi-agent system of collaborating resources. Hence, when a resource or part is connected to the system, a corresponding agent must be instantiated and associated with that specific device. In order to automate this, the system needs information about newly connected devices. This information could, for example, be positional data describing where the device is connected. Some devices like tools and parts to be processed have no own network connection, but still, they should get an agent with correct configuration instantiated. In this work, OPC UA is used for communication between devices and the corresponding agents. All agents and their communication are handled by an Agent Handling System, consisting of an OPC UA HUB together with functions for device detection and agent instantiation. The HUB is used for transferring data between devices and their agents in the network by OPC UA protocols. When a device is connected to the network, it is detected, and a connection is automatically created to the HUB that becomes configured for transmitting data between the device and its corresponding agent. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

This article presents a framework for Plug & Produce that makes it possible to use configurations rather than programming to adapt a manufacturing system for new resources and parts. This is solved by defining skills on resources, and goals for parts. To reach these goals, process plans are defined with a sequence of skills to be utilized without specifying specific resources. This makes it possible to separate the physical world from the process plans. When a process plan requires a skill, e.g., grip with a gripper resource, then that skill may require further skills, e.g., move with a robot resource. This creates a tree of connected resources that are not defined in the process plan. Physical and logical compatibility between resources in this tree is checked by comparing several parameters defined on the resources and the part. This article presents an algorithm together with a multiagent system framework that handles the search and matching required for selecting the correct resources.

This paper presents a method for automating the generation, verification and deployment of robot programs used in prefabrication of walls for family houses. The making of robot programs is today performed manually by experts, i.e. implying high costs. This is a huge disadvantage since each wall can be unique. The work demonstrates, with implementation and testing, a method to automate the generation of robot programs for fabrication of walls made of wood. This includes the task of generating collision free paths, automatic verification of path performance and deploying to a real industrial robot with minimal human interaction. © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

We are describing a fully automatic in-line shape inspection system for controlling the shape of moving objects on a conveyor belt. The shapes of the objects are measured using a full-field optical shape measurement method based on photogrammetry. The photogrammetry system consists of four cameras, a flash, and a triggering device. When an object to be measured arrives at a given position relative to the system, the flash and cameras are synchronously triggered to capture images of the moving object.From the captured images a point-cloud representing the measured shape is created. The point-cloud is then aligned to a CAD-model, which defines the nominal shape of the measured object, using a best-fit method and a feature-based alignment method. Deviations between the point-cloud and the CAD-model are computed giving the output of the inspection process. The computational time to create a point-cloud from the captured images is about 30 seconds and the computational time for the comparison with the CAD-model is about ten milliseconds. We report on recent progress with the shape inspection system.

A car's interior uses many different surface materials. For the interior design scheme to uphold a high level of quality, these materials must harmonise and be visually compatible. Experience and research have proven that a material's appearance and colour can be subject to change when under various types of light. Compositions of surface materials can also influence the way they are perceived together when the light they are illuminated by changes.

A study was performed where 21 interior surface materials were examined under a selection of white and coloured light. The materials consisted of ten décor samples, four grained plastic samples, four grained vinyl and leather samples and three chrome samples. The white light used consisted of daylight (CIE illuminant D65 at 6500 °K), fluorescent light (CIE illuminant F11 at 4000 °K) and incandescent light (CIE illuminant A at 2800 °K). The coloured light used consisted of six colours: red, green, blue, yellow, violet and turquoise. The materials were examined using the paired comparison method under all nine types of light, and the results were documented. Patterns were identified in the results and conclusions regarding different aspects of the materials were drawn.

The results showed that light has a strong impact on the perceivability and compatibility of materials, which aligned with previous research. Light materials were more affected by changes in light than dark materials, often taking on the colour of the light entirely. Red, green and blue light caused many metameric issues and materials were often straining to observe. Violet light caused less issues, and yellow and turquoise light even fewer. The results were summarised into a list of conclusions relating to the materials and their properties.

Implications of the results were discussed for three separate aspects: perceived quality, design and environmental. It is also important to keep in mind that conclusions drawn from results based on subjective judgements will always be prone to inaccuracies. Therefore, caution is advised when applying the results of this thesis, and compatibility tests should always be performed in addition to applying the conclusions.

The ongoing trend towards manufacturing of customized products generates an increased demand on highly efficient work methods to manage product variants through flexible automation. Adopting robots for automation is not always feasible in low batch production. However, the combination of humans together with robots performing tasks in collaboration provides a complementary mix of skill and creativity of humans, and precision and strength of robots which support flexible production in small series down to one-off production. Through this, collaboration can be used with implications on reconfiguration and production. In this paper, the focus and study is on designing safety for efficient collaboration operator—robot in selected work task scenarios. The recently published ISO/TS 15066:2016 describing collaboration between operator and robot is in this context an important document for development and implementation of robotic systems designed for collaboration between operator and robot.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid state process for joining materials which has demonstrated advantages compares with other methods which include joining of mixed materials, hard to weld alloys and consistent and high quality. This paper presents a study of robotic FSW initiated by Volvo Skövde plant to join an insert workpiece of extruded aluminium with a cylinder block of aluminium casting. A three-stage procedure was decided to determine the feasibility to apply robotic FSW. The stages included study of welding the mixed materials, weld along the complex joint line with holes and channels close to the joint, and finally welding the cylinder block. The results based on preliminary analysis indicate that the final tests were successful and the process is feasible for the challenging case study. However, further studies are recommended in order to identify the operating parameters window, tool design, and control of the process in order to optimize productivity and quality. © VDE VERLAG GMBH

The work explores the possibility to build a breakout box which is used as a testing equipment in the labs to measure multi voltages i.e. as an oscilloscope which generates the electrical signal over time to measure and record the change in voltage data. The introduction to building a new compact system as the working of breakout box creates new challenges as with the accuracy and compatibility. Wiretronics is a company which aims to build an application-based unit, Data acquisition system with ROS 2 as a middleware. This work aims to build a system with the help of Teensy 3.6, Raspberry pi4, microphone sensor where the ROS 2.0 will act as a middleware. Then this built system will be applicable in finding the squeaking, cranking sounds in the cars. Also, this system can be placed over a boat and the variable change in data can be recorded and studied after the journey. Making such a unit will have econom-ically beneficial as it will replace the breakout box i.e. reducing the system cost and more-over the system will be mobile and compact to use.The part of the project will be also concerned about getting the data sets from the microphone in the form of graph and stored it in CSV files. These data sets will be used by the Machine Learning team as training datasets for machines so as to make a system which will be responsible for calculating the speed and distance travelled by any object. Testing and validation of the system described above that the wanted functionality could be obtained. It also showed limitation to the system as getting the output at a faster rate was a challenge. To build a fast system we will require fast processor. The presented concept has proven to work and can be applied not only for the testing industries for variable voltage testing. But also the output of the data can be obtained in form of graphical view than it can created as dataset for machine learning which will help in future projects like calculating the distance travelled by an object when passed through a designated path. This system further has a potential to use it an ECG machine with further reference and research.

Surface crack defects can be detected by IR thermograpgy due to the high absorption of energy within the crack cavity. It is often difficult to detect the defect in the raw data, since the signal easily drowns in the background. It is therefore important to have good analysis algorithms that can reduce the background and enhance the defect. Here an analysis algorithm is presented which significantly increases the signal to noise ratio of the defects and reduces the image sequence from the camera to one image.

Flexible automation cells with rapid product changes are an important competitive advantage for industries today. These cells can increase a company’s productivity and thereby increase their profits. A flexible cell shall be able to handle different products with none or minimal changes to the cell itself. A powerful tool, which can be used to analyse and verify such cells, is discrete event system simulation. Problems such as potential bottlenecks, deadlocks, answers to "what-if" questions and the level of resource utilisation can be gathered. The drawback of discrete event system simulation is that the modelling task is both time consuming and difficult to accomplish. Furthermore, state-of-the-art discrete event system simulation tools that are used in the industry today are not suitable for flexible automation. If the production scenario is changed, e.g. introduction of a new product, the simulation and modelling has to be redone and this is both time consuming and tedious. In this paper a new approach will be presented that enables discrete event simulation models to be generated automatically. The models are generated from information retrieved from a PLM/PDM database system, which is shared among other engineering tools such as robot simulation, CAD and process planning. Hence, when the cell and the database are updated a new model can easily be generated. The database is also connected to the real cell so up-to-date data can be retrieved from the real cell. The model generator described in this paper was implemented and tested in a discrete event system simulation tool and showed promising results. With this approach it is possible to handle flexible automation cells more effectively in a process planning stage.

This study focuses on managers’ perceptions of organisational capabilities for strategy formulation related to industrial digitalisation. A qualitative case study based on ten interviews in two manufacturing companies explores managers’ perceptions of industrial digitalisation. A dynamic capability framework, consisting of the organisational capabilities sensing, seizing, and transforming opportunities, is applied to recognise and analyse nuances in managers’ interpretation of prevailing organisational capabilities. Findings reveal that the studied companies have a limited maturity concerning knowledge, skills, and resources for industrial digitalisation which is needed in order to formulate a digital strategy. An additional core capability was discerned, i.e., ’seeking’. Seeking includes actions for articulating, appropriating, and involving in the very early phases of understanding and formulating a digital strategy. This article contributes to the existing dynamic capability framework by adding the core capability seeking illustrated in an elaborated and holistic ’dynamic capability loop’. The loop frames industrial digitalisation as a continuous process closely integrated with strategy formulation.  

In this article, an employee perspective has been applied in aiming to explore how organizations face challenges and take responsibility for industrial digitalization, thus extending the research on the human-centric perspective in relation to Industry 4.0 technologies. To give emphasis to the human-centric perspective, the co-workership wheel was applied to identify and analyze data. The findings of an explorative longitudinal qualitative case study consisting of 35 in-depth interviews with informants from a manufacturing company were used. Additional data collection consisted of documents and project meetings. By applying a human-centric perspective, llessons learned from this case study show that taking responsibility for industrial digitalization is challenging and the importance of an adaptive organizational culture and a focus on learning and competence are crucial. We argue that the findings give useful implications for manufacturing organizations navigating the challenges of industrial digitalization to sense and seize the benefits of Industry 4.0 technologies.

Sensor systems of industrial Autonomous Mobile Robots (ARM) constitute the main part of its information and measurement systems. The purpose of these systems is to form and provide information about the state of objects and processes in the environment and about the robot itself. This information is required for the functioning of the robot.

A sensitive device or a sensor is a primary transducer that reacts to the value to be detected (temperature, pressure, displacement, current, etc.) and converts it into another value, convenient for further use, giving a signal about its presence and intensity. This signal can be of any physical nature, determined by the principle of operation of the sensitive device. It is preferable that it is electrical, since most technical systems in which it will be used are electrical. However, there are systems of a different nature, for example, completely pneumatic, designed to work in conditions that do not allow electricity. In these cases, signals of a different nature must be used.

Requirements for sensor systems substantially depend on the level of the control system at which their information is used. Sensor systems used at control levels operating in real time should have the highest performance, with the inevitable simplification of this information. On the contrary, at the strategic level of controlling the behaviour of the robot, the most complete information is required, possibly to the detriment of performance.

Robotics is a complex and fascinating method for investigation of the surrounding space. A profound moment within the history of most robotics is that the expected value a robot performed a task below the influence of software package or electronics.

This work is devoted to the study of the possibilities of modernization and improvement of the navigation system of mobile robots in order to move in a space with obstacles. The research was carried out at the Industrial In-novation Arena in Skövde (Sweden).

The aim of the work is to develop the most sensitive sensor system of the robot to ensure easy movement in space with movable and fixed obstacles.

In this report, two methods will be used, the main method - Ullmans method and the evaluation method to select the optimal solution - Quality function deployment (QFD) method.

Based on the QFD, it was concluded that the most optimal is to use Simultaneous Localization and Mapping method (SLAM). For a more accurate result, further research in the laboratory will be required.

Nowadays companies aim to become more and more competitive. More production with less wastes of time, energy, matter is the aim of these new tools which are composing the industry 4.0. This new era of digitalization has already started.This paper will present the technologies and concepts necessary to understand the setting up of a digital solution, and its implementation in a factory which would have evolved step by step, by enlarging and creating new sections, with different PLCs.

 It will be explained how the different communication protocols, due to the different brands of PLCs, are creating problems in the communication when it is about implementing a digital solution. It will also propose several potential solutions, and several solutions will be proposed and compared. Also, the reasons of the chosen final solution will be explained. These results have been obtained by consulting several studies concerning the new technologies about industry 4.0, but also by going directly on the field, to notice the problems and applicable solution beyond the theoretical aspect. Interviews on several occasions with the actual leader of the market for the implementation of digital solution is composing a solid and precious testimony about what could be done to implement such solutions for now. Indeed, papers are presenting technologies which could be developed, or already existing, as the one which will revolutionize the interconnectivity, but it seems that this is for a near future, while the actual reality seems to be different. The final decision which has been taken will be explained regarding the methodology followed to solve the problem. It will be presented that a solution which is more appealing is not always the optimal solution, depending of the company configuration, needs and long term goal. This document will present the explaining why and how to determine the corresponding solution for a specific company.

With the intent of contributing to the research of alternative fermentation process of beer, a PLC-driven system was designed, programmed and simulated. The resultant system includes a user friendly HMI and a modular structure. The proposed configuration of modules includes two fermentor stages, four buffers and a clean-in-place module. The configuration proposed is intended to be capable of starting-up and controlling both primary and secondary fermentation in a continuous stationary state, as well as perform automated cleaning.

The HMI allows the user to operate the system in seven different run modes. Initialization, Steady state, Batch mode, Change of beer style, Manual mode, Auto clean and, Settings control. Each run mode has different intended functions and enable or disable different elements in the system. The designed HMI also allows the user to continuously visualise and monitor all of the system variables, as well as customizing each of the programed PID temperature controls contained in each module.

The proposed modular structure was embedded into the PLC programs, the HMI and the simulation. This structure was carefully designed to allow both the programmer and the user the flexibility to increase or decrease the amount of modules as well as their relative positions in the system with a few minor changes in code and a drag-and-drop action in the visualisations of the HMI.

There is still much to learn about the continuous fermentation process before the technology is ready to become commercially available. However, the present work intends to provide an approach to address the practical complexity of controlling the process and allow researchers to iterate faster between experiments.

The manufacturing industry is currently under extreme pressure to transform their organizations and competencies to reap the benefits of industry 4.0. The main driver for industry 4.0 is digitalization with disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things, digital platforms, etc. Industrial applications and research studies have shown promising results, but they rarely involve a human-centric perspective. Given this, we argue there is a lack of knowledge on how disruptive technologies take part in human decision-making and learning practices, and to what extent disruptive technologies may support both employees and organizations to “learn”. In recent research the importance and need of including a human-centric perspective in industry 4.0 is raised including a human learning and decision-making approach. Hence, disruptive technologies, by themselves, no longer consider to solve the actual problems.

Considering the richness of this topic, we propose an industrial work-integrated-learning research agenda to illuminate a human-centric perspective in Industry 4.0. This work-in-progress literature review aims to provide a research agenda on what and how application areas are covered in earlier research. Furthermore, the review identifies obstacles and opportunities that may affect manufacturing to reap the benefits of Industry 4.0. As part of the research, several inter-disciplinary areas are identified, in which industrial work-integrated-learning should be considered to enhance the design, implementation, and use of Industry 4.0 technologies. In conclusion, this study proposes a research agenda aimed at furthering research on how industrial digitalization can approach human and artificial intelligence through industrial work-integrated-learning for a future digitalized manufacturing.

The thesis is about finding a solution for the manual assembly process of making the industrial pumps which is currently present in the company named Parker in Boras. A number solutions is formed and simulated with the help of the software known as ABB Robot Studio. From all the solutions one final solution is thought through the project.

The result is automation solution which is simulated with using two robots and other components to reduce the cycle time, improve the quality of the product, ensures safety for the workers thus resulting in overall higher production rate.

This article proposes real-time speed tracking of two-link surface swimming robotic fish using a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) controller. Hydrodynamic modelling of robotic fish is done by virtue of Newtonian dynamics and Lighthill’s kinematic model. However, this includes external unsteady reactive forces that cannot be modeled accurately due to the distributed nature of hydrodynamic behavior. Therefore, a novel data-assisted dynamic model and control method is proposed for the speed tracking of robotic fish. Initially, the cruise speed motion data are collected through experiments. The water-resistance coefficient is estimated using the least mean square fit, which is then adopted in the model. Subsequently, a closed-loop discrete-time DRL controller trained through a soft actor-critic (SAC) agent is implemented through simulations. SAC overcomes the brittleness problem encountered by other policy gradient approaches by encouraging the policy network for maximum exploration and not assigning a higher probability to any single part of actions. Due to this robustness in the policy learning, the convergence error becomes low in RL-SAC than RL-DDPG controller. The simulation results verify that the DRL-SAC control with data-assisted modelling substantially improves the speed tracking performance. Further, this controller is validated in real-time, and it is observed that the SAC-trained controller tracks the desired speed more accurately than the DDPG controller.

Robotized laser beam welding of closed-square-butt joints is sensitive to the positioning of the laser beam with respect to the joint since even a small offset may result in a detrimental lack of sidewall fusion. An evaluation of a system using a photodiode aligned coaxial to the processing laser beam confirms the ability to detect variations of the process conditions, such as when there is an evolution of an offset between the laser beam and the joint. Welding with different robot trajectories and with the processing laser operating in both continuous and pulsed mode provided data for this evaluation. The detection method uses wavelet analysis of the photodetector signal that carries information of the process condition revealed by the plasma plume optical emissions during welding. This experimental data have been evaluated offline. The results show the potential of this detection method that is clearly beneficial for the development of a system for welding joint tracking.

This bachelor's thesis treats the production of a fixture for manual physical and visual weld inspection of an aircraft engine stand, 30k TEC (Turbine Exhaust Case), for GKN Aerospace in Trollhättan. The main problem is that the inspection of 30k TEC had not previously occurred to the extent that is current today. The purpose was to facilitate the inspection staff's work situation and to determine whether it is possible to use parts of a fixture adapted to a different aircraft engine stand.The work is based, for the project, on relevant methods that includes data collection, inter¬pretation of collected data, concept generation and concept selection. Interested parties were identified with their respective demands on the fixture and the environment. Concept proposals were generated along with interviews and observations of similar fixtures. The concept proposals went through a concept selection process, which resulted in a final concept.The final concept allows motorized rotation of the aircraft engine stand and it is equipped with supports which prevents the aircraft engine stand to fall off the fixture. The support prevents the turbine exhaust case from falling off during the inspection, which could result in both material damage to the aircraft engine stand and equipment as well as physical damage to the inspection staff. Due to the possibility to rotate the aircraft engine stand with a motor the fixture is classified as a machine and must therefore be CE marked by the manufacturer. The work therefore includes in-depth knowledge in the Machinery Directive and the requirements for CE marking of machines. To meet the ergonomic aspects for the inspection staff, guidelines for ergonomic work.The report presents the final concept and its included components. The employer's work deliverables consists of order documents ready to be sent to the manufacturer of the fix-ture containing drawings and parts lists. Both manufacturers and inspection staff have shown a positive attitude towards the outcome.

Small enterprises face multiple and complex challenges when developing digital technologies. The aim of this article is to explore the role of sustainable innovation in small enterprises in relation to the ongoing transformation of the primary healthcare sector. The purpose is to gain understanding of innovation processes within the framework of sustainable development, applied to a local primary healthcare center. Data were collected through seven semi-structured interviews. A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted. Five themes appeared in relation to the ongoing transformation of the primary healthcare sector: (1) The process of sustainable innovation in a long-term perspective; (2) the companies’ views on innovations in healthcare; (3) effects of innovations in healthcare; (4) sustainable product or service development, and (5) the role of collaboration in the innovation process. The companies expressed a positive attitude to new innovations, as a natural part of developing the companies. The article concludes that incremental development of tools in small businesses supports the transformation of processes and services in the primary healthcare sector. Cross-disciplinary teams in collaboration facilitates the necessary learning and the required creation and sharing of knowledge.

This bachelor's thesis has been carried out at PTC in Trollhättan. The work has been a part of the larger project "Trämanufaktur – Tillverka i trä" where a potential product for manufacturing in a test & demo environment has been explored.

The purpose of the thesis was to investigate how window modules are produced, but also to visualize and to evaluate a concept for manufacturing the window module. This manufacturing is planned to be carried out with the flexible robot cell, which is available at PTC in Trollhättan. The goal of the thesis was to find out if the window module is a suitable manufacturing product for the test & demo environment for the project "Trämanufaktur – Tillverka i trä".

The development of manufacturing concepts required a definition of the window module, this was to clarify what its components are and what steps are made in the production. A definition of the module and an in-depth study of the woodworking industry was made through case studies on manufacturing companies and through a literature study.

To visualize manufacturing concepts in RobotStudio, 3D models were produced of the manufacturing environment and the window module. With the help of visualizations, the concept that was best suited for the test & demo environment could be developed. This was done by evaluating different concepts regarding the project's limitations. The concept chosen was further evaluated, the result included a scope study and a time study for workflow in the current range of the robot.

A discussion is made in the report on development potential for further studies, the result and concepts for manufacturing the window module outside the project's limitations.

The conclusion that was established was that the product, window module is not suitable for being manufactured in existing robot cell as a part of the test & demo environment. This is because it will require either major reconstructions, a complicated fixture or a less than full reachability around the window module.

The theory and applications of Smart Factories and Industry 4.0 are increasing the entry into the industry. It is common in industry to start converting exclusive parts, of their production, into this new paradigm rather than converting whole production lines all at once. In Europe and Sweden, recent political decisions are taken to reach the target of greenhouse gas emission reduction. One possible solution is to replace concrete in buildings with Cross Laminated Timber. In the last years, equipment and software that have been custom made for a certain task, are now cheaper and can be adapted to fit more processes than earlier possible. This in combination, with lessons learned from the automotive industry, makes it possible to take the necessary steps and start redesigning and building tomorrows automated and flexible production systems in the wood industry. This paper presents a proof of concept of an automated inspection system, for wood surfaces, where concepts found in Industry 4.0, such as industrial Internet of things (IIoT), smart factory, flexible automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and cyber physical systems, are utilized. The inspection system encompasses, among other things, of the shelf software and hardware, open source software, and standardized, modular, and mobile process modules. The design of the system is conducted with future expansion in mind, where new parts and functions can be added as well as removed.

New aero engine design puts new demands on the manufacturing methods with increased automation level. Therefore, the use of vision sensors for control and guiding of industrial robots is being increasingly used. In such system, it is need to customise the machine vision system with real components in the real environment which is normally done close to the start-up of the production. This paper addresses a new concept for designing, programming, analysing, testing and verifying a machine vision application early in the design phase, called Virtual Machine Vision. It is based on a robot simulation software where the real machine vision application is simulated before the implementation in the production line. To verify the Virtual Machine Vision concept an advanced stereo vision application was used. Using two captured images from the robot simulated environment, camera calibration, image analysis and stereo vision algorithms are applied to determine a desired welding joint. The information of the weld joint, i.e. robot position and orientation for the weld path, are sent from the machine vision system to the robot control system in the simulation environment and the weld path is updated. The validation of the Virtual Machine Vision concept using the stereo vision application is promising for industrial use, and it is emphasised that the same programs are used in the virtual and real word.

The research in this thesis has investigated scheduling and Changeover Sensitive Heuristics (CSHs). The overall aim was to investigate the relationship between scheduling and changeovers and to develop and examine new scheduling heuristics that are intelligent enough to optimise both due dates and changeover requirements. Two new heuristics that incorporated the sequencing of jobs both according to product families and sub-product families were introduced. The new heuristics are named CSH12 and CSH12-K. A body of case studies have been undertaken. These are based on extensive data collected from the key collaborating company. In order to create generic data sets for a job shop environment, the case studies were extended to incorporate a range of parameters, such as several levels of processing times and job grouping strategies. Through discrete event simulation studies, the performance of the new heuristics has been compared to simple heuristics, semi-heuristics and existing changeover sensitive heuristics. In total, ten heuristics and two semi-heuristics were investigated. Scheduling according to product family (CSH1) compared to subproduct family (CSH2) was also studied and it is concluded that sub-product family sequencing performance better. Overall the new heuristics CSH12 and CSH12-Kshow a worthy performance and can reduce the changeover time the most through effective sequencing in a job shop environment with longer and shorter processing times. The research has also concluded that exhaustive heuristics perform better than non-exhaustive heuristics. Furthermore, CSHs are particularly effective for shorter processing times. This suggests that the choice of heuristic is more important for amix of jobs with shorter processing times. Or the reverse, a mix of jobs with comparatively long processing times is less sensitive to the choice of heuristic.

Additionally, the research revealed that product families with overall longer processing times result in higher percentage of tardy jobs. Thus, suggesting that dissimilar due date setting is beneficial for different product families. The research has determined the importance of considering appropriate scheduling and sequencing approaches, especially when changeovers have been addressed through design and organisational changes. The application of CSHs has demonstrated that an increase of jobs into the shop is possible. Hence, applying CSHs will achieve a strong competitive advantage.