Virtual commissioning of manufacturing stations including PLC logics
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | CHALMERS TEKNISKA HÖGSKOLA AKTIEBOLAG - Institutionen för signaler och system |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 4 700 000 |
| Project duration | January 2009 - September 2012 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | FFI - Sustainable Production |
| End-of-project report | 2009-00317_publikrapport_EN.pdf (pdf, 4336 kB) |
Important results from the project
Reducing production preparation by 50% of the PLC development time, by bridging the gap between mechanical and electrical engineers in order to achieve more efficient cooperation. Performing virtual commissioning of entire manufacturing station, including complete robot programs and control logic, to increase production efficiency, and as a consequence reduce energy consumption and the number of discarded parts. Handle growing variety of vehicles related to environmental requirements on CO2 emissions by designing more flexible manufacturing stations. Increasing human and machine safety by performing virtual simulation and verification of all involved components within a station.
Expected long term effects
A reduction of the development and ramp-up time by complete virtual commissioning when new manufacturing systems are built or new products are launched in existing manufacturing lines. A reduction of the development time of manufacturing systems by decreasing the number of times information has to be specified, using a common information platform through all development phases. More efficient manufacturing systems by applying early verification and optimization of total behaviour including all devices within a system. A reduction of the development time by enabling automatic generation of both PLC and complete robot programs.
Approach and implementation
Vehicle manufacturing companies are today forced to handle a rapidly growing variety of vehicles, due to the environmental restriction on energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Today´s manufacturing systems have to be both efficient and flexible to manage this complexity. This places great demands on manufacturing systems design, development, and testing, before implementation. The purpose of this project is to bridge the gap between mechanical and electrical engineers in order to achieve a more efficient production preparation, enabling virtual commissioning and automatic generation of verified control programs. The project includes one PhD student and senior researchers together with ten companies. A demonstrator will be developed to verify the suggested concept.