(1) Concept the research on intelligent manufacturing has roughly gone through three stages: started from the application of artificial intelligence in the field of manufacturing in the 1980s, the concept of intelligent manufacturing was formally proposed, developed in the 1990s when intelligent manufacturing technology and intelligent manufacturing system were put forward, and matured in the new generation of information technology since the 21st century Manufacturing)”。
The 1980s: the concept was put forward. In 1998, Paul Kenneth Wright and David Alan Bourne published the first monograph smart in the field of intelligent manufacturing Intelligent manufacturing is defined as "modeling the skills and expert knowledge of manufacturing technicians by integrating knowledge engineering, manufacturing software system, robot vision and robot control, so that intelligent machines can carry out small batch production without human intervention". On this basis, Professor Williams of British Technical University has made a more extensive supplement to the above definition, and holds that "the scope of integration should also include the intelligent decision support system throughout the manufacturing organization". McGraw Hill Science and technology dictionary defines intelligent manufacturing as the activity of manufacturing goods by adopting production technology with adaptive environment and process requirements to minimize supervision and operation.
——The concept of development in the 1990s. In the 1990s, not long after the concept of intelligent manufacturing was put forward, the research of intelligent manufacturing was widely valued by the industrialized developed countries such as Europe, the United States and Japan, and international cooperation research on Intelligent Manufacturing Technology (IMT) and intelligent manufacturing system (IMS) was carried out. In 1991, Japan, the United States and Europe jointly initiated and implemented the "international cooperative research plan for intelligent manufacturing", which proposed: "intelligent manufacturing system is a kind of intelligent activity throughout the whole manufacturing process, and organically integrates this intelligent activity with intelligent machines, It is an advanced production system that integrates the whole manufacturing process from ordering, product design, production to marketing in a flexible way, which can maximize the productivity.
——Since the 21st century: the deepening of the concept. Since the 21st century, with the rapid development and application of new generation information technology such as Internet of things, big data and cloud computing, intelligent manufacturing has been given a new connotation, that is, smart manufacturing under the condition of new generation information technology. In September 2010, the United States held the "21st century intelligent manufacturing seminar" in Washington, D.C., pointed out that intelligent manufacturing is an enhanced application of advanced intelligent systems, which makes it possible to rapidly manufacture new products, respond to product demand dynamically, and optimize industrial production and supply chain network in real time. Germany officially launched the industry 4.0 strategy. Although it did not explicitly put forward the concept of intelligent manufacturing, it contained the connotation of intelligent manufacturing, that is, the enterprise's machines, storage systems and production facilities were integrated into the virtual network physical system (CPS). In the manufacturing system, these virtual network physical systems include intelligent machines, storage systems and production facilities, which can automatically exchange information, trigger actions and control each other independently.
To sum up, intelligent manufacturing is a new manufacturing system that combines the Internet of things, big data, cloud computing and other new generation information technologies with advanced automation technology, sensing technology, control technology and digital manufacturing technology, so as to realize real-time management and optimization of factories and enterprises, between enterprises and the whole life cycle of products.
(2) Characteristics
The characteristics of intelligent manufacturing lie in three aspects: real-time perception, optimal decision-making and dynamic execution. Intelligent manufacturing needs a lot of data support, through the use of efficient, standard methods of real-time information collection, automatic identification, and information transmission to the analysis and decision-making system; the second is to optimize decision-making. Through the mining and refining of massive heterogeneous information oriented to the whole life cycle of products, calculation analysis, reasoning and prediction, the decision-making instructions for optimizing the manufacturing process are formed. The third is dynamic execution. According to the decision-making instructions, the state of manufacturing process is controlled by the execution system to realize stable and safe operation and dynamic adjustment.
(3) Composition
1. Intelligent products (equipment)
Intelligent product is the basis and premise of intelligent manufacturing, which is composed of physical parts, intelligent components and connecting parts. The intelligent components are composed of sensors, microprocessors, data storage devices, control devices and software, as well as built-in operation and user interface; the connecting components are composed of interfaces, wired or wireless connection protocols; and the physical components are composed of mechanical and electronic parts. Intelligent components can strengthen the function and value of physical components, while connecting components further strengthen the functions and values of intelligent components, so that information can be connected among products, operating systems, manufacturers and users, and part of the value and function can be separated from the existence of physical products.
Intelligent products have the functions of monitoring, control, optimization and autonomy. Monitoring means that through sensors and external data sources, intelligent products can comprehensively monitor the state, operation and external environment of products; with the help of data, once the environment and operation status change, the product will send a warning to users or related parties. Control refers to remote control through commands and algorithms built into the product or in the product cloud. Algorithms can make products respond to specific changes in conditions and environments; optimization refers to analyzing real-time data or historical records and embedding algorithms, so as to greatly improve the output ratio, utilization rate and production efficiency of products; autonomy refers to the integration of detection, control and optimization functions, and the product can achieve an unprecedented degree of automation.
2. Intelligent production intelligent production refers to the intelligent manufacturing system as the core, intelligent factory as the carrier, through the factory and enterprise internal, between enterprises and product life cycle to form a manufacturing network characterized by data interconnection, to achieve real-time management and optimization of the production process. Intelligent production covers digital design and Simulation of product, process design and factory planning, bottom intelligent equipment, manufacturing unit, automatic production line, manufacturing execution system, logistics automation and management system, etc.
3. The intelligent service collects the equipment operation data and uploads it to the enterprise data center (business cloud). The system software monitors and controls the equipment online in real time, and carries out equipment maintenance in advance through data analysis. For example, Vestas installed sensors, memory, processor and SCADA system in the engine room, hub, blade, tower and ground control box of the fan to realize real-time monitoring of the fan operation. In addition, through the built-in micro controller in the wind turbine, the angle of the fan blade can be controlled in each rotation, so as to capture the wind energy to the maximum extent, and each turbine can be controlled to minimize the impact on adjacent turbines while maximizing energy efficiency. Vestas processes the real-time data to predict the possible faults of the fan components, so as to reduce the possible instability of the fan, and uses different tools to optimize these data to achieve the optimization of the fan performance.
(4) The core of the development of intelligent manufacturing is to improve the production efficiency of enterprises and expand the value-added space of enterprises, mainly in the following aspects: first, shorten the development cycle of products. Through intelligent manufacturing, the time from R & D to marketing, from order to delivery can be shortened. Through remote monitoring and predictive maintenance, high downtime for machines and plants is reduced, and production interruptions are continuously reduced.