What is intelligent manufacturing?
Intelligent manufacturing originates from the study of artificial intelligence, which is the intelligence realized on computers by artificial methods. The concept of intelligent manufacturing was put forward in the 1980s. Japan put forward the intelligent manufacturing system in 1989, and launched the international cooperation research project of advanced manufacturing in 1994, including company integration and global manufacturing, manufacturing knowledge system, distributed intelligent system control, distributed intelligent system technology of rapid product realization, etc. Canada's 1994-1998 development strategy plan, think the future knowledge intensive industry is driving the global economy and the foundation for the development of the Canadian economy, think it's vital to development and application of intelligent system, and put the specific research project selection for intelligent computer, man-machine interface, mechanical sensor, the robot control system integration, the new device, the dynamic environment. The European Union's information technology-related research includes the ESPRIT project, which heavily funds information technologies with market potential, and its new R&D project, launched in 1994, which selected 39 core technologies, three of which (information technology, molecular biology and advanced manufacturing technology) highlight intelligent manufacturing. In the late 1980s, "intelligent simulation" was included in the national science and technology development plan, and a number of achievements have been made in expert system, pattern recognition, robotics and Chinese machine understanding. In 2015, "Made in China 2025", as an action program for China to implement the manufacturing power strategy in the next 10 years and a foundational document to realize the manufacturing power dream in the next 30 years, clearly stated that "intelligent manufacturing is the core of a new round of scientific and technological revolution, and is also the main direction of digitalization, networking and intellectualization of the manufacturing industry". Intelligent manufacturing has gained a new opportunity of rapid development in China and has become the new development direction of modern advanced manufacturing industry in China.
Intelligent Manufacturing (IM) refers to a human-machine integrated Intelligent system composed of Intelligent machines and human experts. It can carry out Intelligent activities in the Manufacturing process, such as analysis, reasoning, judgment, conception and decision making. Intelligent manufacturing expands, extends and partially replaces the brain work of human experts in the manufacturing process through the cooperation of people and intelligent machines. Intelligent manufacturing is not just "artificial intelligence system, but man-machine integration intelligent system, is a hybrid intelligence". Intelligent manufacturing system can independently undertake analysis, judgment, decision-making and other tasks, highlighting the core position of human in the manufacturing system, at the same time, machine intelligence and human intelligence really integrate together, cooperate with each other, complement each other, the essence is man-machine integration.
Typical characteristics of intelligent manufacturing are as follows:
(1) State awareness: accurate and ubiquitous perception of the real-time operating state of external input;
(2) Real-time analysis: rapid and accurate analysis of acquired real-time operating status data;
(3) Accurate execution: make quick response and accurate execution to external demand, enterprise operation status, research and development and production, etc.;
(4) Independent decision making: according to the set rules, according to the results of data analysis, make decisions and choices independently, and have the ability of self-learning.
According to the general development law of manufacturing technology, in the development process of intelligent manufacturing system, it is usually the single technology point on the level of intelligent equipment that first achieves the intelligent breakthrough, and then the group line technology for intelligent equipment appears, and gradually forms the highly automated and flexible intelligent production line. On this basis, the intelligent workshop can be formed only when the workshop control, intelligent scheduling, Internet of Things and other technologies for multiple production lines are mature. It can be seen that the development of intelligent manufacturing system is gradually evolving from low level to high level, and in different development stages, the intelligent level of manufacturing system shows its unique characteristics. From the technical basis and implementation scope of intelligent manufacturing system, intelligent manufacturing system can be divided into six levels: unit level, equipment level, production line level, workshop level, factory level and alliance level.
Intelligent manufacturing unit is the lowest and most basic component of intelligent manufacturing system. It is a basic logical structure composed of basic components with certain ability of perception, analysis and decision-making. Intelligent manufacturing equipment contains a number of intelligent manufacturing units, and can achieve relatively complete intelligent manufacturing activities, including the equipment itself, as well as the software system running in the equipment and matching facilities; The intelligent production line connects several intelligent manufacturing units physically or logically, and realizes the cooperation of each manufacturing unit through the intelligent scheduling and control system inside the production line. The intelligent workshop is composed of several intelligent production lines and intelligent decision-making system at the workshop level, warehousing/logistics system, etc. A number of intelligent workshops formed the production capacity of the intelligent factory, in addition to the intelligent factory also includes management decision system, procurement system, ordering and delivery system, etc.; Based on the Internet of Things and the Internet of Things, the intelligent alliance supports the business collaboration among enterprises, and then realizes the end-to-end integration in the whole value chain. The operation of the alliance has the characteristics of flexibility and dynamics. This new enterprise organization model is promoting the structural reform and the transformation of the business model in the manufacturing field.
What is Industry 4.0?
"Industry 4.0" is a concept put forward by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology at the Hannover Messe in 2013. The connotation of "Industry 4.0" is to make use of the CPS of cyberphysics system to digify and intelligently the information of supply, manufacturing and sales in production, and finally achieve rapid, effective and personalized product supply. After the emergence of "Industry 4.0", it has attracted great attention and recognition in the industrial business field in Europe and even the world. German academia and industry believe that "Industry 4.0" is the fourth industrial revolution led by intelligent manufacturing. It describes the future vision of manufacturing industry, which is the following three industrial revolutions. Based on Cyber-physical System (CPS), the fourth industrial revolution ushered in by mankind is characterized by highly digital, networked and self-organized machines.
"Industry 4.0" has three main themes:
(1) "Intelligent Factory", focusing on intelligent production systems and processes, as well as the realization of networked distributed production facilities;
(2) "Intelligent production", which mainly involves the production logistics management of the whole enterprise, human-computer interaction and the application of 3D technology in the industrial production process. Special attention will be paid to the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to enable them to become users and beneficiaries of the new generation of intelligent production technologies, as well as creators and suppliers of advanced industrial production technologies;
(3) "Intelligent logistics", mainly through the Internet, the Internet of things, the Internet of things, etc., to integrate logistics resources, give full play to the efficiency of the existing logistics resource suppliers, while the demand side can quickly get service matching, logistics support.
Intelligent manufacturing is similar to "Industry 4.0". The essence of "Industry 4.0" is to push the manufacturing industry to the intelligent transformation by making full use of cyberphysical system CPS. And intelligent manufacturing is a new manufacturing mode. From the perspective of intelligent manufacturing system gradually evolving from low level to high level, the connotation of intelligent manufacturing contains three themes of "Industry 4.0".
What is digital manufacturing?
In February 2014, the Department of Defense led the creation of the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDI). In December 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy also announced that it is spearheading the Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute on Smart Manufacturing (CEMI). Why did the United States successively set up two digital manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing organizations? What is the division of labor between the two organizations? What are the main differences between their respective research fields?
First of all, what is digital manufacturing? Digital technology refers to the process and method of digital definition, modeling, storage, processing, transmission, analysis and optimization of the described object by using computer software (hardware) and network and communication technology, so as to achieve accurate description and scientific decision-making. Digital technology has the characteristics of accurate description, programmable, rapid transmission, easy storage, transformation and integration. Therefore, digital technology provides a new tool for scientific and technological progress and innovation in various fields. The combination of digital technology and traditional manufacturing technology is called digital manufacturing technology. The connotation of digital manufacturing technology is very extensive. The "manufacturing" in digital manufacturing is a concept of large manufacturing, which includes the whole process from design to technology, from processing to assembly, until the scrap and recycling of products. Therefore, the digital manufacturing generally understood by people is a broad concept. It refers to the application of digital technology to product design, manufacturing and management in the whole life cycle of products, in order to improve manufacturing efficiency and quality, reduce manufacturing costs, and achieve the purpose of rapid response to the market. Generally, it includes digital design, digital process, digital processing, digital assembly, digital management, digital detection and digital test. Therefore, the traditional digital manufacturing technology mainly emphasizes the application of digital technology in the whole life cycle of the product, and does not particularly emphasize the application of artificial intelligence technology.
Second, let us analyze the vision of DMDI and CEMI, the US digital manufacturing institutions:
(1) DMDI, an American digital manufacturing organization:
Objectives: To comprehensively improve product design and manufacturing processes using enhanced, interoperable information technology systems throughout the supply chain.
② Focus: integrate and apply the data from design, production and product use to reduce manufacturing cycle and cost; Digital the manufacturing process, enhance the product life cycle modeling and advanced analysis tools, improve product performance, process efficiency and enterprise performance. All industrial sectors achieved comprehensive cost reduction.
③ Core technology: through the computer-based integrated system (composed of simulation, three-dimensional visualization, analytics and various collaborative tools), the design, manufacturing, support and scrap system requirements are connected, perfect and mature the whole "digital line". Smart sensors, controllers and software are used to enhance the assurance while considering the security of the system. For sensors, the agency investigates the use of existing sensors to optimize product and process operations and provides input to requirements for the development of future sensors.
(2) American intelligent manufacturing organization CEMI:
Objective: to reduce manufacturing costs from the perspective of real-time energy management, energy productivity and process energy efficiency. The agency will build a process platform driven by interconnected data, using innovative modeling and simulation methods and advanced sensing and control technologies.
② Focus: real-time integration of efficiency information throughout the entire production operation, focusing on minimizing energy and material use; Especially for energy-intensive manufacturing sectors.
③ Sensors -- capable of operating in high temperature and pressure environments, control systems -- using data from these sensors, computational models -- simulating the operation of sensors and control systems, and open platforms -- verifying how the integration of these technologies can improve energy efficiency.
Technical objectives may include: commercialization of a durable sensor for process monitoring, demonstrating a 25% reduction in energy costs within 5 years for selected manufacturing processes; It plans to achieve up to 50% reductions in energy costs within 10 years. The agency's overall goal is to reduce life-cycle energy use, increase energy productivity, boost regional economies, jobs and homegrown production, and ensure the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing. It can be seen from the above that both DMDI and CEMI in the United States are inevitably studying various kinds of intelligent manufacturing technologies. Among them, the technical direction and R&D content of DMDI in the United States are more in line with the intelligent manufacturing needs of discrete manufacturing. The technology direction and research and development content of American intelligent manufacturing organization CEMI are more consistent with the intelligent manufacturing needs of process manufacturing industry.
Conclusion: similarities and differences among the three
Therefore, we can think that the traditional digital manufacturing technology different from the current focus of intelligent manufacturing technology, the traditional digital manufacture technology focuses on the product whole life cycle of the application of digital technology, intelligent manufacturing and focused on the application of artificial intelligence technology, digital manufacturing technology is the foundation of is the realization of intelligent manufacturing, At the same time, intelligent is one of the development directions of digital manufacturing technology, that is, the use of intelligent methods to achieve intelligent design, intelligent process, intelligent processing, intelligent assembly, intelligent management, and so on, to further improve the efficiency of the whole process of product design and manufacturing management.
