EVOLVABLE ASSEMBLY SYSTEMS - TOWARDS OPEN, ADAPTABLE AND CONTEXT-AWARE EQUIPMENT AND SYSTEMS

Lead Research Organisation: University of Nottingham
Department Name: Faculty of Engineering

Abstract

Assembly of final products in sectors such as automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical and medical industries is a key production process in high labour cost areas such as the UK. To respond to the current challenges manufacturers need to transform current capital-intensive assembly lines into smart systems that can react to external and internal changes and can self-heal, self-adapt and reconfigure. This need is dictated by: (1) demand for rapid ramp-up and downscale of production systems; (2) the fact that current assembly systems lack autonomous responsiveness to disruptive events and demand fluctuations; (3) an economics and societal drive towards 'manufacturing as a service'. Consequently, there is a need for a radically new approach towards development of future assembly systems able to continuously evolve to respond to changes in product requirements and demand with extremely short set-up times combined with low cost of maintenance, system reconfiguration and capability upgrade with emerging new technologies. As the level and type of automation changes, future assembly systems will also require a different type of engagement of human operators in hybrid decision-making, monitoring and system adaptation.

The proposed research brings together a multidisciplinary and multi-sector partnership drawing upon skills from across the University of Nottingham with an established track record in multi-disciplinary transformative research, and industries representing key high value manufacturing companies together with their representative bodies. The goal of the research programme is to define and validate the vision and support architecture, theoretical models, methods and algorithms for Evolvable Assembly Systems as a new platform for open, adaptable, context-aware and cost effective production.

The research programme will deliver a new paradigm shift in adaptable and cost effective manufacture that breaks with traditional approaches and is predicated on an innovative intertwining of the following foundational research challenges in complex collective adaptive manufacturing systems: Product-Process-System Evolution; Data Analytics; Knowledge Modelling; Emergence Engineering; and Open Manufacturing. These fundamentally 'collective', pillars for a new extremely flexible and evolvable manufacturing infrastructure are expected to shed new insights on the self-configuration, self-organisation, self-adaptation and evolution of future production platforms. Together the pillars will presage a game-changing strategy for industry's ability to respond and solve current and future societal grand challenges linked to retaining and expanding manufacturing operations in the UK.

The research will ultimately enable a compressed product life cycle through the delivery of robust and compliant manufacturing systems that can be rapidly configured and optimised, thus reducing production ramp-up times and programme switchovers. This will lead to increased opportunities for new, small and independent production stakeholders, particularly those involved in the realisation of product, process and assembly system co-evolution. Our approach of building an underlying architecture, using simulated and real-world data to test and populate models, and working closely with industry stakeholders, will ensure scalable and adaptable approaches that will be transferable between different manufacturing sectors.

Planned Impact

The programme will benefit two key beneficiary groups: the commercial private sector (large OEMs, SMEs and supply chain organisations) and the wider community. Our work will benefit the national and international commercial private sector, with particular focus on UK manufacturing companies. They will have the potential to engage with new manufacturing partners, enhance the utilisation of capital infrastructure and contribute to and exploit new integrated adaptable resources, evolutionary system knowledge, skills and data sets. Our close collaboration with the industry stakeholders will ensure direct impact across multiple manufacturing sectors. The wider public will benefit from the research by the increased ability of organisations to respond to customer needs and to reduce product cost through the increased responsiveness of systems, as well as accelerated development of new products. Our work will ultimately enable a compressed product life cycle through the delivery of robust and compliant manufacturing systems that can be rapidly configured and optimised, thus reducing production ramp-up times and programme switchovers. This will lead to increased opportunities for new, small and independent production stakeholders, particularly those involved in the realisation of product, process and assembly system co-evolution. Our approach of building an underlying architecture, using simulated and real-world data to test and populate models, and working closely with industry stakeholders, will ensure scalable and adaptable approaches that will be transferable between different manufacturing sectors.

The programme has been designed to deliver early industrial pilot demonstrators, thus although the focus of the programme is basic research with a long-term application agenda, some of the results will have an earlier impact. To meet new demands in the sector Airbus and BAE Systems will apply the results in future concepts of assembly lines for airframes and structures of future aircraft. Astra Zeneca as a leading UK pharmaceutical company will utilise the research to meet the need for future globally transformable and variability controlled manufacturing systems with emphasis on fast ramp-up to full scale GMP compliant production. GE will benefit from applying the evolvable assembly concept for manufacture of future customised high precision instrumentation. The research will aid technology driven SMEs (TQC, Hyde, MAA members) from established and emerging UK industries in implementing a new generation of small footprint highly adaptable automated assembly cells for high value complex products in variable volumes. Module and control systems manufactures (ABB, De-Sta-Co, Siemens) will utilise a new common approach to reconfiguration and adaptation with particular emphasis on seamless integration of multivendor components and devices. Wider industrial impact is ensured via our role in the MTC (Manufacturing Technology Centre) and its membership in the HVM Catapult as well as our joint activities with the Midlands Aerospace Alliance (MAA), who are a partner in the project. Both the MTC and HVM Catapult will provide access to a wider industrial audience and the mechanisms for developing future industrial prototypes at higher TRL levels after the end of the project. The MAA will provide access to in excess of 200 SMEs for data collection and early pilots.

From a policy perspective the programme will provide a national focal point for future research in this exciting topic. Through a series of roadmapping activities supported by the University of Nottingham Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, we aim to produce a cross-sectorial roadmap on Evolvable Assembly Systems. In addition, our existing engagement in formulating future policies and research programmes in Horizon 2020 and Factory of the Future PPP (S Ratchev) will provide the link to informing EU policies in this emerging technology area.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description The Evolvable Assembly Systems (EAS) research programme aimed to create a framework for autonomous context-aware and adaptable assembly systems that can co-evolve with products, processes and the business and social environment, and in achieving this goal generated the following key findings:

- A roadmap for the future of UK manufacturing: a joint activity with the EPSRC Cloud Manufacturing programme, the roadmap is a multi-level view of the challenges and requirements faced by both SMEs and larger modern manufacturing companies. The roadmap was created through a series of group and individual activities with industry and other interested stakeholders and contains: 11 business cases detailing the business drivers future manufacturing systems must address; 25 high-level use cases detailing project application context and usage; and, 44 conventional use cases giving descriptions of functions that must be realised in future digital manufacturing projects.

- Evolvable Assembly Systems Architecture: a unified architecture has been developed to enable, connect, and unify the other elements of the project. The framework defines the software, hardware and communication architectures, with interfaces, a distributed control methodology, and reference implementation methods defined and demonstrated. All elements of the framework have been matched to use cases defined in the roadmap and is compatible with the Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI4) and Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA).

- System-wide context awareness: a methodology and associated tools have been developed for modelling resources and products, automatic matching of capabilities to requirements, and synthesis of production control routines. This includes the development of embedded intelligence and resource agents enabling all resources in a manufacturing system to be self- and context aware, allowing them to communicate and collaboratively plan production. The shared context model has been developed such that information in a system is decoupled, allowing resources to subscribe to information relevant to them to make decisions, dramatically simplifying the addition or removal of resources within a manufacturing system. This approach is facilitated by Data Distribution Systems (DDS), which are standards based, secure, scalable and robust. The function-behaviour-structure (FBS) model developed allows formal modelling of a manufacturing system's behaviour to ensure correctness, enabling matching of possible system behaviours to required behaviours to assess manufacturability of a desired product. The formal correctness of the approach allows for application to highly regulated domains.

- Hybrid decision-making: recognising that not all system intelligence lies within algorithms and software agents, a joint cognitive systems approach has been implemented to support human and machine co-operation based on the joint control requirements of the whole system. This allows for effective joint decision-making, greater operator system state awareness, improved agent reasoning based on teamwork, and mutual predictability.

- Demonstrators: four demonstrators and testbeds have been developed over the course of the project to demonstrate project developments, enabling the realisation of case studies identified within the roadmapping activities. These demonstrators are described in further detail in "Narrative Impact".
Exploitation Route As noted in "Narrative Impact", research findings are already being taken forward through a series of funded follow-on projects. Many of these funded projects will deliver the key findings of the Evolvable Assembly Systems project to higher technology readiness levels suitable for deployment in SMEs and larger manufacturing companies, particularly in the aerospace sector. In addition, the specific needs of UK SMEs are being supported with the EPSRC Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring project, a collaborative project with University of Cambridge. This project will use developments from EAS to develop low cost-and deskilled manufacturing digitisation solutions and industrial pilots. The Shoestring project is also attracting substantial attention from larger companies seeking low-cost pilot manufacturing digitalisation implementations, and a further project proposal is being developed to support this. The planned Evolvable Assembly Systems book will be finalized over the coming year and will provide more detailed information concerning these research publications and their implementation, making them accessible to a wider audience. The Digit-T digital manufacturing training platform will include developments from the Evolvable Assembly Systems project to upskill workers in the SME manufacturing companies and enable wider deployment of digital manufacturing techniques.
Sectors Aerospace

Defence and Marine

Agriculture

Food and Drink

Construction

Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)

Electronics

Energy

Manufacturing

including Industrial Biotechology

Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology

Transport

 
Description The initial phase of the Evolvable Assembly Systems research programme involved mapping user requirements and building a reference architecture to address both the research and industrial challenges. This, together with further discussions and activities in partnership with industry has allowed the project to build a roadmap of the needs and requirements of UK manufacturing which has been used to guide both this project, and subsequent projects. The research was developed to meet the roadmap of industrial needs, and the research findings have been implemented in several demonstrators as follows: - Variation aware assembly demonstrator: demonstrating integrated measurement of part supply quality; analysis of part quality to determine optimum assembly strategy and best fit; and automatically adjusting tooling and fixturing to mitigate part variation. Applications identified: metallic and composite high-precision assembly for aerospace and automotive. - Smart manufacturing and reconfigurable technology (SMART) demonstrator: demonstrating system-wide control with embedded computers and intelligent agents; on demand production of uniquely formulated products and batch-size-of-one; product tracking and labelling to ensure correct verifiable execution of production recipes; wireless communication and modular approach for ease of system reconfiguration; and integration of legacy resources to modern manufacturing infrastructures and architectures. Applications identified: stratified and customised pharmaceuticals; on-demand food and beverage; SME manufacturing digitalisation. - Hybrid decision making testbed: implementation and testing of software agent and human operator co-operation logic for optimum combined decision making; simulation of decision-making scenarios between agents and operators. Applications identified: facilitating SMEs transitioning from manual systems to automated systems, and understanding where the optimal balance lies; batch-size-of-one operations with high customisation requiring manual processes. - Future automated aerospace assembly demonstrator (FA3D): context awareness and embedded intelligence to manage and leverage in-line metrology; application of laser radar for large volume non-contact measurement to assess and correct for variability in large structures; adaptive robot control with external optical coordinate measurement machine (CMM) positioning to <0.1 mm accuracy; implementation of radio frequency identification (RFID) for part identification and spatial tracking. Applications identified: large scale accurate assembly for aerospace, automotive and construction. We have engaged with multiple companies throughout the project, including our industry partners. The companies come from a broad range of sectors, notably aerospace, automotive, food, pharmaceuticals and the IT sector. A series of follow-on projects - primarily within the aerospace sector - have already been funded which build on the outputs of the Evolvable Assembly Systems project and demonstrators. Many of the project's researchers and engineers are now transferring the knowledge gained within the EAS project, and many are working directly on these follow-on projects. In the latter part of the project we have built new relationships with several automotive manufacturers and are currently discussing feasibility studies to explore how some outputs of the project can be applied to the automotive sector. In addition, the use of low-cost embedded and single board computers (such as Raspberry Pis) to connect with legacy programmable logic controllers (PLCs) in the SMART demonstrator has helped inspired the recently funded EPSRC Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring project which focusses on low-cost and deskilled Digital Manufacturing resources for SMEs. The project has also helped articulate the need for training in the area of Digital Manufacturing and Nottingham has recently finished an ERASMUS+ project to develop a free online training course for Digital Manufacturing (with accompanying e-book) which focusses on the needs of SMEs. Materials developed as part of this project can be found at https://www.digit-t.eu/ and are available in English, Spanish and Italian. We are exploring opportunities to develop MSc and CPD courses with training programmes for apprentices as a longer term goal.
Sector Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology
Impact Types Economic

 
Description Connected Factories : contributing towards setting the H2020 research agenda
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Leadership Group
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Integration of Key Enabling Technologies in H2020 (EU-Knights)
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description Membership of Aerostructures of the Future Specialist Advisory Group of Aerospact Technology Institute
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
 
Description "DiManD": Digital Manufacturing Training Network
Amount € 60,634,512 (EUR)
Funding ID 814078 
Organisation European Commission 
Sector Public
Country European Union (EU)
Start 03/2019 
End 03/2023
 
Description ANTELOPE- Supply of Generic Assembly Cell requirements capture and enabling technology trials
Amount £19,923,686 (GBP)
Organisation Safran Nacelles Ltd 
Sector Private
Country United Kingdom
Start 11/2018 
End 10/2019
 
Description Advanced Inlet Systems Architecture (AISA)
Amount £1,563,087 (GBP)
Organisation Aerospace Technology Institute 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 02/2020 
End 01/2022
 
Description Aerospace Growth Partnership
Amount £979,817 (GBP)
Funding ID Application No. 38279-263183 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 06/2014 
End 06/2016
 
Description Automation of Wing Assembly for Rate and Ramp (AUTORAMP)
Amount £7,354,789 (GBP)
Funding ID 10611 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2018 
End 12/2021
 
Description Computer Integrated Device for Assembly Gap and Tool Wear Diagnosis (EPSRC IAA)
Amount £50,579 (GBP)
Organisation University of Nottingham 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2019 
End 03/2020
 
Description ConnectedFactories CSA - Industrial scenarios for connected factories (Call: H2020-IND-CE-2016-17 (Industry 2020 in the Circular Economy))
Amount € 1,919,391 (EUR)
Funding ID 723777 
Organisation European Commission 
Department Horizon 2020
Sector Public
Country European Union (EU)
Start 08/2016 
End 08/2019
 
Description Design and Manufacturing of an Advanced Wing Structure for Rotorcraft Additional Lift (ASTRAL)
Amount € 5,492,885 (EUR)
Funding ID CS2-AIR-GAM-2014-2015-01 
Organisation Clean Sky 
Sector Private
Country Belgium
Start 06/2015 
End 12/2020
 
Description Digital Manufacturing Training System for SMEs (Digit-T)
Amount € 333,920 (EUR)
Funding ID 2017-1-UK01-KA202-036807 
Organisation Erasmus + 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2017 
End 08/2020
 
Description Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring [Digital Shoestring]
Amount £1,667,134 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/R032777/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2018 
End 09/2022
 
Description EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account
Amount £9,348 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/K503800/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 02/2015 
End 09/2015
 
Description Elastic Manufacturing systems - a platform for dynamic, resilient and cost-effective manufacturing services
Amount £2,803,658 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/T024429/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2020 
End 09/2024
 
Description Enhanced Low Cost Automation Technology (ELCAT)
Amount £3,855,506 (GBP)
Funding ID TS/S023577/1 
Organisation Aerospace Technology Institute 
Sector Charity/Non Profit
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2019 
End 10/2022
 
Description FA3D: Strategic Development Fund
Amount £1,600,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of Nottingham 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2014 
End 03/2016
 
Description Flexcelle- Flexible Nacelle Manufacturing Strategy
Amount £4,269,123 (GBP)
Funding ID TS/S002650/1 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2019 
End 07/2021
 
Description Future Automated Aerospace Assembly Demonstrator Phase 2 (FA3D2)
Amount £3,800,000 (GBP)
Funding ID 98322-263277 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2018 
End 12/2022
 
Description Made Smarter Innovation - Research Centre for Connected Factories
Amount £5,091,836 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/V062123/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2021 
End 03/2025
 
Description Network Plus: Industrial Systems in the Digital Age
Amount £1,003,586 (GBP)
Funding ID EP/P001246/1 
Organisation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2016 
End 08/2019
 
Description OPTIMISED
Amount € 576,988 (EUR)
Funding ID 680515 
Organisation European Commission 
Sector Public
Country European Union (EU)
Start 11/2015 
End 10/2018
 
Description SMARTER - Space Manufacturing, Assembly and Repair Technology Exploration and Realisation
Amount £516,025 (GBP)
Funding ID 104057 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2018 
End 12/2019
 
Description Variance Aware Determinate assembly Integrated System (VADIS)
Amount € 1,699,987 (EUR)
Organisation Clean Sky 
Sector Private
Country Belgium
Start 09/2017 
End 09/2020
 
Description Wing Lean Innovative Future Technology (Wing LIFT)
Amount £8,247,913 (GBP)
Funding ID 113162 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2017 
End 06/2020
 
Title Evolvable Assembly Systems Architecture and Communication Model 
Description The EAS architecture is a distributed, agent-based, and data-centric framework for batch size of one manufacturing of high-value products. It enables automatic matching of the requirements of a product and the capabilities of a production line through implementation of manufacturability algorithms, automatic execution of industry standard process controllers to enact the manufacturing process, coordination of the manufacturing process through distributed BDI intelligent agents embedded in the manufacturing resources (including legacy resources) and system context awareness and data logging with a data distribution services-based data-centric communication strategy. 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Year Produced 2015 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The architecture was implemented in the EAS project demonstrators, in particular the SMART and FA3D demonstrators. The architecture facilitated the other research developments in the EAS project. The follow-on projects extending the EAS project will continue to use the EAS architecture as a basis for continued research. 
 
Title Process Plan Controller Generation Algorithms for Evolvable Assembly Systems 
Description For Evolvable Assembly Systems, the manufacturing company defines the capabilities of their manufacturing resources such that their embedded intelligent agents understand what they are capable of. Workers can define recipes that detail the process steps required to create products on a uniquely customised and batch size of one basis. However, there exists a need for the automated matching of the two, so that a manufacturing line can evaluate if it's capable of creating a product given its current configuration. What's more, the process also requires the generation of control routines, enabling the automated execution of the manufacturing process on the production line. The process plan controller generation algorithms produced as part of the Evolvable Assembly Systems project achieve this, demonstrating a formal approach to determining the capabilities of individual manufacturing resources, the combined capabilities of a production line, definition of product requirements as a unique recipe, matching the requirements to capabilities and producing the sequence of steps required to execute the process in an industry standard controller format. The method used is related to but distinct from the process used in the Cloud Manufacturing project, as it is able to utilise finer-grained information about the manufacturing line, and utilise the embedded intelligence to manage, execute, and log the process. 
Type Of Material Computer model/algorithm 
Year Produced 2016 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The implementation of controller synthesis algorithms was validated in the EAS project demonstrators, notably the FA3D demonstrator where the automatic generation of controllers was used to autonomously execute unique manufacturing processes on a full-scale industrial robotics manufacturing cell. The algorithms remain an active area of research, with several papers due to appear or in development. Many of the follow-on projects from the EAS projects will use the synthesis algorithms, either directly or tailored to their specific research. 
 
Description Strategic Partnership with BAE SYSTEMS 
Organisation BAE Systems
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Knowledge
Collaborator Contribution Knowledge and setting of industrial challenges
Impact No outputs or outcomes to date. This formal partnership is still new. We are now identifying areas of common interest within both MSI Connected Factories and Elastic Manufacturing Systems projects to which BAE Systems can contribute.
Start Year 2021
 
Title Evolvable Assembly Systems Architecture Implementation 
Description An implementation of the EAS project architecture, the implementation is a combined communication, control, and management system for batch-size-of-one production systems using industry standards where possible. It utilises homogeneous embedded legacy-compatible software based on two principle third party packages: • the Java Agent Development Framework used as the basis for developing bespoke intelligent agents using the Belief-Desire-Intention model to control the execution of recipes on the evolvable system. • RTI's Connext DDS Professional Data Distribution System for data-centric public/subscribe communications between the BDI agents, enabling a distributed flat-hierarchy of control with no central points of failure. In addition the software uses the manufacturability analysis algorithm implementation detailed in a separate outcome. Together, the system receives recipes (defining products) from a manufacturing execution system, validates their manufacturability on the system, automatically executes the production of the product, and logs all data for future integration. The system is designed from the ground up to both be resilient to, and to embrace change in terms of the system and the products being produced, with reconfiguration of systems significantly simplified, every product considered on a unique basis, and automated reaction and mitigation of failures. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2017 
Impact The architecture enables automated, formally-proven correct, standards-compliant execution of unique products on manufacturing systems as a basis for the future of digital manufacturing, industrial internet, and industry 4.0. It is compatible with and compliments the industrial internet reference architecture (IIRA) and reference architecture model industrie 4.0 (RAMI4). The architecture remains an active area of research with more papers due for publication. The architecture is the foundation for research in several of the follow-on projects from the EAS project. 
 
Title Production Resource and Recipe Definition and Matching Algorithms Implementation 
Description An implementation of the production resource definition model, the recipe definition model, and manufacturability and controller synthesis algorithms. The software provides a user interface to the underlying models and algorithms, allowing for users to define resources and recipes and validate the generation of manufacturing controllers. The software is also deployable as a module for inclusion in other software. 
Type Of Technology Software 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact The implementation allowed for the testing and validation of the models and algorithms core to the EAS project. The software was used as a module to enable the EAS demonstrators to execute the algorithms for real manufacturing execution. The interface also serves as a visualisation for the underlying models and algorithms, which are otherwise difficult to conceptualise and understand, and the software was demoed as conferences and industrial meetings and uses to generate images for publications. 
 
Description 1-1 industry meetings 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The project and results of the project has been presented in multiple meetings with different companies, especially within the aerospace, food, automotive and IT sector. These discussions are ongoing, but have in part led various follow-on funding proposals including many listed within this report.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019
 
Description Advanced Manufacturing Summer School 2015 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact The Advanced Manufacturing Summer School was a joint event organized by the EPSRC funded Manufacturing Technology EngD Centre and EPSRC funded Evolvable Assembly systems and Cloud Manufacturing projects. The overarching theme of the school was manufacturing informatics and included speakers from Siemens, HP and the MTC. The 3-day Summer School aimed to train students in creative problem solving. Led by Prof Simon Mosey from the Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Nottingham University Business School, the summer school took the students through the Ingenuity Process, a framework which embeds innovation activities in creative problem solving and decision making.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Centrally organised company visits 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact A large number of companies and government departments (e.g. BEIS, EPSRC) have visited the university over the duration of the project. These have been centrally organized and covered a wide range of university activities. The project has been presented as part of these visits.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019
 
Description Collaboration in the Digital Supply Chain 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Financial Times Future of Manufacturing Summit, 3 October 2017. The aim of the event was to bring together the key stakeholders from Global Manufacturing Industries. Prof Ratchev participated in the panel discussion "Collaboration in the Digital Supply Chain". The purpose of this discussion was that supply chains are being reinvented as digital technologies open the way to new forms of collaboration and more integrated approaches. How are organisations leveraging business networks to create partnerships and increase efficiency in the supply chain? What successful collaboration models are emerging between young, dynamic firms and large, established businesses? In which way are they creating value? What are the best practices in exchanges of physical products and how is it being extended to encompass innovations, data, talent and financial flows? How are companies taking advantage of synergies to disseminate innovation and achieve scale? What initiatives are aiming for further strengthening of collaboration between actors in the value chain?
The discussion panel comprised: David Ingram, European Vice President Supply Chain, Unilever; Ivanka Janssen, Vice President Supply Chain, Europe, Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, PepsiCo; Andrew McCreath, Director, Enterprise Field Development, Equinix; Svetan Ratchev, Cripps Professor of Production Engineering, Director of the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, The University of Nottingham. Moderated by: Michael Pooler, Industry Reporter, Financial Times
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://live.ft.com/Events/2017/FT-Future-of-Manufacturing-Summit
 
Description Deployment of a distributed multiagent architecture for transformable assembly 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation at IPAS conference to disseminate research results. Paper authors: Jack Chaplin, Svetan Ratchev; Presented by Jack Chaplin
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://www.ipas-seminar.com/
 
Description Digital Technologies for Manufacturing Innovation: Embracing Industry 4.0 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact This event was organised by the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing (IfAM) at Tthe University of Nottingham, with support from EPSRC and Innovate UK. This was the first time the UK's industrial and academic community was brought together on such a large scale to showcase the UK's world-leading research and provide an open forum for charting future directions in developing the UK's strategy in this rapidly evolving area. The two day event included presentations from policymakers and industrialists, together with EPSRC and Innovate project presentations, culminating in a panel discussion on UK opportunities for Industry 4.0 and how to make this happen.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description EPSRC Projects Annual industrial meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact To inform project partners and other industrial collaborators of progress within the EPSRC Cloud Manufacturing and Evolvable Assembly Systems projects, and obtain feedback on progress to date and future directions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016,2017,2018,2019
 
Description European Scenario Building Workshop 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Organised by EFFRA as part of the ConnectedFactories project, the purpose of the workshop was to build scenarios for Digital Manufacturing within Europe
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Evolvable and Adaptive Manuafcturing Systems special workshop at INCOM 2015 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact This special session of INCOM 2015 was organized by the project research team.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.incom2015.org/
 
Description FA3D2 Roadmapping event and Industrial Advisory Boards 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The Future Automated Aircraft Assembly Demonstrator Phase 2 (FA3D2), funded by the UK Government's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), will deliver a national experimental testbed and technology demonstrator in digital and informatics enabled aerospace manufacturing technologies. It is an enhancement of FA3D Phase 1, the £1.5M proof of concept demonstrator developed and funded by the University of Nottingham. Much of the work of the Evolvable Assembly Systems project will translate into this project. FA3D2 will provide a unique opportunity for UK based aerospace manufacturing organisations to test and validate world leading technologies to compete on cost and quality with the best rival offshore businesses. It aims to reduce the non-recurring costs of a product line by implementing a flexible assembly approach. Aerospace companies will benefit from increased productivity, upskilled labour force, rate increase and dramatically reduced recurring costs through utilisation of higher levels of automation, manufacturing informatics and advanced assembly technologies. This will enable UK industry to successfully compete with lower wage economies.

FA3D2 aims to address the following key technology themes:
? Large volume assembly
? Reconfigurable assembly cells
? Human centred assembly
? Multi-product automation
? Advanced joining systems
? Component handling
? Precision assembly
? Advanced factories and Industry 4.0
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018,2019
 
Description Factories of the Future Consultation Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact To contribute to the scoping of forthcoming H2020 Factories of the Future funding calls
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Farnborough International Airshow 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Promotion of project activities as part of wider showcase of University of Nottingham activities
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.farnboroughairshow.com/
 
Description Functional modelling in evolvable assembly systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation at IPAS by Dave Sanderson. Authors: Dave Sanderson, Jack Chaplin and Svetan Ratchev
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://www.ipas-seminar.com/
 
Description H2020 EU-Robotics Multi-Annual Roadmap 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Participation in the Multi-Annual Roadmap for EU-Robotics H2020
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016
 
Description IPAS 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact This is the 8th edition of the seminar series which had a specific focus on informatics and digital technologies for precision assembly. Originally conceived by the micro-assembly community, the seminar has now grown to include a wide scope of assembly processes and applications from micro products to large aerostructures where precision, efficiency and quality are of critical importance. The event included several presentations arising from EPSRC Evolvable Assembly Systems and Cloud Manufacturing projects
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://www.ipas-seminar.com/
 
Description Industry 4.0 with ConnectedFactories 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The purpose of this activity was to bring together academia and industry with an interest in Industry 4.0. The second day included a workshop to understand the needs of SMEs.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description OMNIFACTORY Launch Event 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The event was the official launch of the OMNIFACTORY, a 2 day event which showcased the new facility, the current projects which were using the new facility, and previous projects which have informed the development of the facility.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/world-first-multi-million-manufacturing-facility-opens-at-the-univ...
 
Description Official opening of the Advanced Manufacturing Buliding 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The official opening of the Advanced Manufacturing Building took place in December 2018. The building was officially opened by Siemens UK CEO, Juergen Maier. The event included tours of the building and the project and associated follow-on projects formed part of the projects promoted.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/engineering/newsevents/newslist/advanced-manufacturing-building-opens-o...
 
Description Realisability of production recipes 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The biennial European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI) is Europe's premier venue for presenting scientific results in AI. Supported by the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI), the ECAI conference provides an opportunity for researchers to present and hear about the very best research in contemporary AI. Presenation by Lavindra de Silva; authors de Silva, Felli, Chaplin, Logan, Sanderson, Ratchev
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.ecai2016.org/
 
Description Research Prioritisation Exercise (Industry & Academia) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Participants in your research and patient groups
Results and Impact The Prioritisation Exercise sparked significant discussion. There is a distinction between those aspects of both the Cloud Manufacturing and Evolvable Assembly Systems projects that are perceived as being essential for groundwork and early success. Legacy, IP and security and reconfigurable assembly systems were perceived as being more important at the outset. Looking at the detail of comments, these outputs could be classed as 'enablers' of later project outputs. On the other hand, customisation / personalisation and data analysis, which were perceived as more relevant later in the project, could be perceived as 'applications'.

There was general agreement between industrialists and academics during the Prioritisation Exercise. However, there were two notable differences. Firstly, industry was very concerned with a strategy for legacy, particularly in the early stages of the projects, contributing all of the responses that fell under this theme, which also formed the second priority theme for industry. This clearly reflects a need to understand how to continue to draw from value from existing capital expenditure, and to evolve systems rather than replace. Related feedback reflected the importance of integration, legacy, and exploring and extending existing capabilities.

Secondly, while there were a high number of both short and long term objectives attributed to self-learning and adapting assembly from the group overall, cyber-physical systems arose as the most prominent category. This reflects an acknowledgement that rather than a pure research concept of totally autonomous assembly, industry stakeholders are conscious of how technology will be used in combination with human supervision and integration.

Overall, the thematic analysis points to a need to demonstrating capabilities and essential enablers early in both projects, moving to applications later in the project timescales.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Showcase for Future Automated Aerospace Assembly Demonstrator 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The event was to showcase the University's new £1.5 million Future Automated Aerospace Assembly Demonstrator to the aerospace sector. This included plans for how the demonstrator would be used by the EPSRC Evolvable Assembly Systems and Cloud Manufacturing projects.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Smart manufacturing and reconfigurable technologies: towards an integrated environment for evolvable assembly systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The aim of the Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing systems conference series (SASO) is to provide a forum for the foundations of a principled approach to engineering systems, networks and services based on self-adaptation and self-organization. Conference paper presentation by Sanderson. Authors Sanderson, Chaplin, de Silva, Holmes, Ratchev.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://saso2016.informatik.uni-augsburg.de/
 
Description Strategic Landscape Activity 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact As part of the initial stages in the development of the EPSRC Evolvable Assembly Systems and Cloud Manufacturing projects, a delegation from the University of Nottingham met a broad spectrum of participants from [company] to discuss the trends, drivers and challenges that face manufacturing in [company], and the technologies and capabilities that the participants felt need adopting to meet these challenges. This sparked significant discussion on the importance of key technological challenges to meet future market/product demand.

Following the initial facilitated landscaping exercise/discussion the outputs were categorised and ranked according to importance as voted for by the workshop participants. These outputs were then analysed and structured into major themes that the identified trends and drives represent, thus creating business cases for each of the challenges. Each business case details the critical gaps and key actions required to mitigate or leverage the business case. In total 10 business cases were identified and are currently being used by [company] to form the basis for their future research programme in autonomous vehicles, looking ahead to 2050.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Synthesising industry-standard manufacturing process controllers 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact AAMAS is the largest and most influential conference in the area of agents and multiagent systems. The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers and practitioners in all areas of agent technology and to provide a single, high-profile, internationally renowned forum for research in the theory and practice of autonomous agents and multiagent systems.

AAMAS is the flagship conference of the non-profit International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems
Presenter: Lavindra de Silva; authors: de Silva, Felli, Chaplin, Logan, Sanderson, Ratchev
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.aamas2017.org/
 
Description Synthesising provably correct controllers for manufacturing 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Presentation by Lavindra de Silva. This was given as part of the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory (DIAL) Seminar Series, Institute for Manufacturing, Cambridge University.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/94054
 
Description The Digitisation of Industry: Business Summit at The Times Cheltenham Science Festival 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Extract from press release: "The Times Cheltenham Science Festival is holding its first Science and Business Summit for business leaders and senior Government, research and policy representatives in the UK to consider the "Fourth Industrial Revolution".

Hosted by Emma Tucker, Deputy Editor of The Times and Juergen Maier, Chief Executive of Siemens, 'The Digitisation of Industry' will examine the role of industry leaders in shaping the future of technology and innovation - from smart factories to the Internet of Things.

Alongside the Chair Emma Tucker and principal speaker Juergen Maier will Dr Mark Thompson, Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at Cambridge Judge Business School and Neil Rawlinson Director, Strategic Development, Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and Svetan Ratchev, Cripps Professor of Production Engineering at the University of Nottingham

Emma Tucker said: "The evolution of digital technology in the past 20 years has been more rapid and potentially more disruptive than the original industrial revolution. The exciting question for the UK is how far the fourth industrial revolution will revive British industry."

Juergen Maier said: "The UK has an opportunity to be at the forefront of the fourth industrial revolution, called 'Industry 4.0', improving productivity through digital manufacturing to create growth and new jobs in the economy.

"To succeed, we must inspire the next generation to be interested in science, technology, engineering and maths - especially in computer sciences and analytics, which are essential skills for our future engineering workforce.

"This fantastic opportunity is in front of us and we need to have the ambition and skills to grasp it."


More Information for Editors

The Digitisation of Industry Science and Business Summit is an invitation-only event. It will be held on Wednesday 8 June
4.00-4.30pm - Welcome tea/coffee at The Queens Hotel
4.30-6.15pm - Science & Business Summit
6.30-7.30pm - Drinks reception & networking, Space Dome, Imperial Square"
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://pressdispensary.co.uk/releases/c994071/The-Digitisation-Of-Industry:-Business-Summit-At-The-...
 
Description Towards Future Transformable Production Systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Welcome to Manufacturing Performance Days 2017 was an executive and visionary industrial renewal summit. The event brought together manufacturing industries, researchers as well as technology and service providers from all around the world to meet and exchange views in Tampere Hall Finland. In 2017 more than 600 participants were expected to attend which offered views of top class invited speakers from leading industry and academia on different aspects of outcome economy as well as the topical Industrie 4.0 and Industrial Internet as enablers for new efficiency, productivity and business gains. Presenter: Atanas Popov
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://mes.eventos.fi/uploads/735b967/MPD2017_Programme_Final_Full_160517-3708.pdf
 
Description Towards Industry 4.0: the future automated aircraft assembly demonstator 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The 8th edition of the IPAS seminar had a specific focus on informatics and digital technologies for precision assembly. Originally conceived by the micro-assembly community, the seminar has now grown to include a wide scope of assembly processes and applications from micro products to large aerostructures where precision, efficiency and quality are of critical importance. Presenter: Dave Sanderson; Authors: Sanderson, Drouot, Zhao, Irving, Ratchev
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://www.ipas-seminar.com/
 
Description Towards a cloud-based analytics framework for assembly systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The 8th IPAS Seminar had a specific focus on informatics and digital technologies for precision assembly. Originally conceived by the micro-assembly community, the seminar has now grown to include a wide scope of assembly processes and applications from micro products to large aerostructures where precision, efficiency and quality are of critical importance. Presentater: de Silva; Authors: Terrazas, de Silva, Ratchev
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
URL http://www.ipas-seminar.com/
 
Description Towards process control from formal models of transformable manufacturing systems 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 50th CIRP conference. Presenter: Chaplin; Authors Chaplin, Bakker, de Silva, Felli, Sanderson, Logan, Ratchev
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.cirp-cms2017.org/index.php
 
Description What are the career options for PhD graduatesin academia? - career advice panel discussion 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Career advice panel discussion at the AAMAS 2017 Doctoral Consortium. Lavindra de Silva was recognized as a 'young and energetic researcher' and invited to participate in the panel discussion. The remaining panelists were: Edith Elkind (Professor, Oxford), Gal Kaminka (Professor, Bar Ilan Uni); Milind Tambe (Professor, UCLA), Janusz Marecki (Senior Researcher, Google), Michael Winikoff (Professor, Otago Uni)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL http://www.aamas2017.org/DC_call-for-papers_aamas2017.php