Provided is a method for populating printed circuit boards, which includes the steps of registering jobs in each case relating to the population of a number of printed circuit boards of a printed circuit board type with components of predetermined component types, assigning printed circuit board types of the registered jobs to a predetermined number of fixed set-up families, optimizing the assignment in such a way that a characteristic number relating to all the pick-and-place lines of the pick-and-place system is optimized as far as possible, and populating the printed circuit boards on one of the pick-and-place lines by using one of the fixed set-ups.

This disclosure describes a system for presenting items to a user at a presentation area within a materials handling facility. In some instances, a predicted items list that identifies items that are likely to be picked by a user are determined and, when the user arrives at the materials handling facility, those predicted items are presented to the user for selection. For example, predicted items may be determined and inventory holders that contain the predicted items may be routed to a presentation area and positioned for presentation to the user. The user may browse the presented items and pick the items they desire.

The present invention provides a method for time synchronizing one or more devices in a control network using a first device. The method comprises selecting a first device from information of the topology of the control network. The method further comprises sending a first set of packets to the second device, receiving a first set of delay requests in response to the first set of packets, and sending a first set of delay responses in response to the first set of delay requests. The method further comprises, determining a first set of forward times and first set of backward times. The method further comprises, determining a first minimum forward time and a first minimum backward time. Further the method comprises determining a first correction factor. The method also comprises, applying the first correction factor to a clock provided at the second device and storing the first correction factor.

The present disclosure describes transaction-enabling systems and methods. A system can include a controller and a fleet of machines, each having at least one of a compute task requirement, a networking task requirement, and an energy consumption task requirement. The controller may include a resource requirement circuit to determine an amount of a resource for each of the machines to service the task requirement for each machine, a forward resource market circuit to access a forward resource market, and a resource distribution circuit to execute an aggregated transaction of the resource on the forward resource market.

A method and apparatus for detecting an abnormality of a manufacturing facility is disclosed. According to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, a learning model generating method for manufacturing facility abnormality detection may include receiving a measured value for a normal state of a manufacturing facility collected through a multi-sensor on a time-by-time basis, generating a learning model including a predetermined weight set and training the learning model using the measured value, and determining, using the learning model, a threshold corresponding to a boundary between the normal state and an abnormal state of the manufacturing facility and a criterion for determining the abnormal state in a local window representing a predetermined time interval.

Systems and methods for autonomous provision replenishment are disclosed. Parts used in a manufacturing process are stored in an intermediate stock queue. When the parts are consumed by the manufacturing process and the number of parts in the queue falls below a threshold, a provision-replenishment signal is generated. One or more self-driving material-transport vehicles, a fleet-management system, and a provision-notification device.

Computerized RPA methods and systems that increase the flexibility and lower the cost with which RPA systems may be deployed are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, an RPA system and method avoids the need for preinstalled RPA software on a device employed by a user to create and/or execute software robots to perform RPA. In another embodiment, an RPA system and method provides a capability to execute software robots that may have been encoded in one or more programming languages to execute on an operating system different than that employed by a server of the RPA system.

Control of a facility is performed in accordance with a common action plan. Further, a plurality of controllers provided in the facility are caused to control the facility in coordination. A control coordination apparatus includes a control information generation unit and a control information transmission unit. The control information generation unit generates control data which include information for specifying a control content of the facility to be controlled by the plurality of controllers and are received by each of the controllers, from an action plan file which includes an action plan made by an action plan generation apparatus and is generated by the action plan generation apparatus. The control information transmission unit transmits the control data to each of the controllers on the basis of facility design information including information on connection with the facility.

When a general-purpose operation part (22, 23) is hidden by a window part (24), it becomes hard for an operator to visually check an association state between a field device (10A, 10B) and a hardware switch (3). If such a display state has occurred, an HMI server (5) stops a health check signal which is being output to a PLC (6). The PLC (6) detects the stop of the health check signal and forcibly cancels the association state between the field device (10A, 10B) and the hardware switch (3). Thus, a human error can be prevented.

A cutting control apparatus for a cutting control system includes: machine tools each processing an object to be processed; and cutting control apparatuses controlling the machine tools. The cutting control apparatus includes a weight coefficient obtaining unit configured to obtain a first weight coefficient in accordance with: first weight coefficient information in which a tool model and a first weight coefficient are associated for material information on each of materials; material information; and the tool model; and a revolution speed calculating unit configured to calculate a revolution speed of a tool in accordance with: cutting condition information; cutting speed obtained in accordance with tool information and dimension information; and the first weight coefficient. The first weight coefficient is an average value of values based on a plurality of the first weight coefficients obtained from the plurality of cutting control apparatuses.