Search

Thermal error modeling (TEM) stands as a pivotal factor in maintaining the machining accuracy of electric spindles. Deep learning (DL) techniques have shown promising potential in this area, however, they face formidable challenges including domain shift issue between training and testing datasets, as well as scarce samples due to the dynamic nature of variable working conditions. Deep transfer learning (DTL) emerges as an encouraging tool, leveraging knowledge obtained from the source domain to elevate learning outcomes within the target domain, notably addressing complicated cross-domain modeling predicaments. Nonetheless, prevailing research largely focuses on enhancing the prediction accuracy within the specific working condition, inadvertently sidestepping the problems of domain shift and scarce sample modeling. To address these issues, a novel weakly supervised adversarial network (WSAN) is proposed for cross-domain TEM with scarce samples. Firstly, the multi-scale convolutional neural network (MSCNN) is constructed to adeptly extract predictive information from multi-sensor data, effectively capturing the time-series patterns embedded within. Furthermore, the adversarial training technique is adopted to address distribution discrepancies that often manifest between distinct domains. To overcome the challenge of scarce labeled samples in the target domain, a weakly supervised learning strategy is employed to deftly control the gradient within the target domain, significantly enhancing the efficacy of positive transfer. The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method are assessed through extensive experiments using datasets from variable working conditions. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves satisfactory performance and outperforms state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordinating order acceptance decisions with production scheduling to maximize revenue is challenging for Mass Individualized Prototyping (MIP) service providers. This paper presents a dual deep reinforcement learning agents-based (DDRLA) integrated order acceptance and scheduling (IOAS) for improving revenue. Firstly, a deep reinforcement learning-based virtual production scheduling (VPS) agent together with 8 state features and 11 action rules is designed. The VPS agent quickly and virtually reschedules a dynamically-arriving accepted order to evaluate the overall impact of accepting this order, including consumed capacity and increased revenue. Then, a deep reinforcement learning-based order acceptance decision (OAD) agent is designed. Based on the information guidance resulting from an interaction with the VPS agent, the OAD agent selectively accepts orders to maximize long-term gains, as well as to improve system resilience in the presence of a high ratio of urgent orders. The experiment results show that the proposed DDRLA method has better performance, compared with other IOAS approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Digital twins-based flexible operating of open architecture production line. • The reconfigurability based on open architectural architecting of cyber system and physical system. • Integration of online system-level logistics simulation and equipment-level multi-physical field simulation. Individualized manufacturing implies high flexibility of both the hardware and software of the production lines based on a fast physical and logical system (de)commissioning. This paper proposes an open architecture production line (OAPL) design together with a digital twins-based flexible operating approach for individualized manufacturing. Firstly, an OAPL is designed and implemented with physical reconfigurability by orchestrating different open architectural platforms together with open architecture machine tools (OAMTs). Secondly, an open architectural style modeling and configuration method is presented to enable the software reconfigurability of the controls of the OAPL. Thirdly, a digital twin-based online process emulating and multi-physics simulation is integrated to aid the comprehensive characterizing of the operation status of the OAPL. Based on the system reconfigurability and digital twins system, a triple-layer Learning-Optimization-Reacting approach together with an ensemble algorithm for flexible operating of the OAPL is proposed. The digital twins are formed with the ability to flexibly operate the OAPL for catering to different individualized requirements. A demonstrative implementation of a stepping-motor assembly OAPL is presented finally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultra-Precision Machining (UPM) is a kind of highly accurate processing technology developed to satisfy the manufacturing requirements of high-end cutting-edge products including nuclear energy producers, very large-scale integrated circuits, lasers, and aircraft. The information asymmetry phenomenon widely exists in the design and control of ultra-precision machining. It may lead to inconsistency between the designed performance and operational performance of the UPM equipment on stiffness, thermal stability, and motion accuracy, which result from its design, manufacturing, and control, and determine the form accuracy and surface roughness of machined parts. The performance of the UPM equipment should be improved continuously. It is still challenging to realize the real-time and self-adaptive control, in which building a high-fidelity and computationally efficient digital twin is a valuable solution. Nevertheless, the incorporation of the digital twin technology into the UPM design and control remains vague and sometimes contradictory. Based on a literature search in the Google Scholar database, the critical issues in the UPM design and control, and how to use the digital twin technologies to promote it, are reviewed. Firstly, the digital twins-based UPM design, including bearings module design, spindle-drive module design, stage system module design, servo module design, and clamping module design, are reviewed. Secondly, the digital twins-based UPM control studies, including voxel modeling, process planning, process monitoring, vibration control, and quality prediction, are reviewed. The key enabling technologies and research directions of digital twins-based design and control are discussed to deal with the information asymmetry phenomenon in UPM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 has become a global pandemic that dramatically impacted human lives and economic activities. Due to the high risk of getting affected in high-density population areas and the implementation of national emergency measures under the COVID-19 pandemic, both travel and transportation among cities become difficult for engineers and equipment. Consequently, the costly physical commissioning of a new manufacturing system is greatly hindered. As an emerging technology, digital twins can achieve semi-physical simulation to avoid the vast cost of physical commissioning of the manufacturing system. Therefore, this paper proposes a digital twins-based remote semi-physical commissioning (DT-RSPC) approach for open architecture flow-type smart manufacturing systems. A digital twin system is developed to enable the remote semi-physical commissioning. The proposed approach is validated through a case study of digital twins-based remote semi-physical commissioning of a smartphone assembly line. The results showed that combining the open architecture design paradigm with the proposed digital twins-based approach makes the commissioning of a new flow-type smart manufacturing system more sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing demand for automotive glass, improving the efficiency of automotive glass manufacturing systems can make full use of production resources and reduce the waste of natural and social resources. Therefore, this work aims to provide an efficient method for a real-world two-stage hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with small batches in an automotive glass manufacturing system. For the investigated problem, there is a significant setup time at the first stage, the second stage is served by machines that should not be interrupted, and each batch has a due date. Such constraints make this scheduling problem challenging. To solve this problem, a mixed integer linear programming model is established. Also, two properties and three theorems are given to enhance the problem-solving process. Subsequently, an efficient genetic algorithm is carefully designed to solve large-scale problems by considering the properties of the system. Meanwhile, an improvement scheme is proposed to decrease the running time of the algorithm, and experimental results show that this scheme can reduce the running time by 280 s at most from the average results of different scale problems. Finally, extensive experiments are carried out and a real-world case is solved to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the designed genetic algorithm. Also, the Taguchi method is adopted to tune the parameters for the designed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy-saving potential of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for electronic products is substantial owing to the huge market size of assembling industry in China. A semi-automatic electronic assembly line (SAEAL) for smart-phones is introduced, and its digital twin (DT) enabled energy-saving platform is developed as the hardware foundation. We propose a stochastic dynamics model via max-plus algebra to characterize the spatio-temporal nature of state transition, which provides dynamical opportunity windows for further energy-saving control strategy. Accordingly, model linearization is conducted to obtain linear state and output equations. Then, a model predictive control (MPC) approach for energy saving optimization is provided to determine the optimal start-stop control signal. The dynamics modeling and MPC approach have been applied and verified in the case of assembly line. The results show that the optimization approach could reach a proportion of 49% for the equipment sleep time of total running time and save a considerable amount of energy for normal production of OEMs. [Display omitted] • A digital twin prototype system of smart-phone assembly line is developed as the testing platform for energy-saving control. • The assembling behaviors of assembly line are depicted by linear state equations via max-plus semiring algebra. • A spatio-temporal dynamics model is provided to evaluate the system performance based on max-plus semiring algebra. • An energy-saving MPC approach is proposed to determine the start-stop control sequences of automatic machines. • The equipment's sleeping time can reach a proportion of 49% of total running time without production efficiency loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the number of lower-level function evaluations (LFEs) is crucial to designing a bilevel evolutionary algorithm (BLEA) for bilevel optimization. Direct neighbor solution transfer (DST) is regularly used in BLEA because it can improve the lower-level search efficiency and reduce the number of LFEs. But this method still faces the challenge of misleading searches to make the algorithm converge to the wrong optimum. This paper proposes a bilevel improved multi-operator differential evolution algorithm (BL-IMODE) for bilevel optimization, which uses the knowledge transfer and adaptive coordinate systems approach. Specifically, this paper proposes a lower-level search knowledge transfer (LLS-KT) and a lower-level (LL) optimal solution distribution information transfer (LLO-DIT) mechanism to implement knowledge transfer. In LLS-KT, transferring LL solutions to the LL optimizer is similar to DST, but the LLS-KT transfers multiple solutions and thus has less possibility of misleading searches than DST. Moreover, the LLO-DIT transfers the LL optimal solution distribution information to the LL optimizer for generating promising offspring solutions. Since this method does not directly transfer LL solutions, it avoids misleading searches. Additionally, the adaptive coordinate systems (ACS) approach is used in two-level optimizers to suit different fitness landscapes and further reduce the number of LFEs. In ACS, three differential evolution mutation operators are produced in two coordinate systems. An adaptive strategy is used to select the suitable differential evolution mutation operator to generate promising offspring solutions in the Eigen coordinate or original coordinate system. Experimental studies on three test suites benchmark problems for comparison with seven state-of-the-art algorithms are conducted. The results show BL-IMODE has a significant advantage over the comparative algorithms. Finally, BL-IMODE is applied to tackle the inverse optimal control problem. • We propose a bilevel improved multi-operator differential evolution algorithm. • We propose a knowledge transfer approach to avoid misleading search. • We propose an adaptive coordinate systems approach to improve search efficiency. • We outperform all existing approaches in most test instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First-article inspection of flexographic printing labels (FPLs) is significant before the mass production of FPLs, which is manually implemented by quality check (QC) workers in real industries. In this paper, an adaptive coarse-to-fine framework is proposed for automatic first-article inspection of FPLs based on design drawings, consisting of coarse matching, fine matching, and defect detection. Specifically, a deep learning method integrating SuperPoint and SuperGlue is used for coarse matching between the design drawings and the corresponding FPL image to reveal their inherent characteristics. To deal with local deviations of the characters in the FPL image, a character-wise normalized cross-correlation (NCC) method is proposed to finely align each character in the design drawings with that in the FPL image, which utilizes different searching windows for different characters. Next, a constrained clustering method is proposed to accurately extract the contents of interest (COIs) in the FPL image. Finally, an edge distance measure with an adaptive threshold scheme is proposed to evaluate the COIs for inspection. Comparison experiments show that the proposed framework achieves better inspection performance for first-article inspection of FPLs than other fabric inspection methods. Specifically, it achieves the inspection performance of 1.3% missing rate, 2.0% false rate, and 0.951 Dice at an acceptable inspection speed of 2.735 s/pcs, which demonstrates that it is applicable to facilitate the QC task in real industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared manufacturing (SM) is an advanced manufacturing mode to solve the problems of information asymmetry and resource imbalance in the complex supply and demand relationship under the background of mass personalization. Blockchain can provide technical solutions for trust issues between manufacturing service providers and demanders, but less research has focused on the stable maintenance of a blockchained shared manufacturing network (BSMN). Industrial knowledge graph and cognitive intelligence play an important role in designing incentive mechanisms for BSMN. Based on the evolutionary game theory, this paper designs various incentive models and develops the corresponding smart contracts to encourage different enterprises to participate in the "accounting" operations, to enhance the trust and maintain the operational stability of BSMN. Firstly, the evolution mechanism of BSMN was analyzed. Then, an evolutionary game model between shared manufacturing enterprise nodes was established to deduce the stable state of BSMN. Based on the analysis of the evolutionarily stable state, an incentive model with three strategies to encourage different enterprise nodes to participate in "accounting" operations was determined, and smart contracts of the incentive models were developed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed incentive models was verified by simulation experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]