A system used in a factory for manufacture of a vehicle comprises: a remote controller remotely controlling running of the vehicle capable of running in the factory during a course of manufacture in the factory, the vehicle including a communication device having a communication function for remote control and a secondary battery for running; a power feeder available for charging the secondary battery; a manufacturing status acquisition unit acquiring information about a manufacturing status in the factory; and a feeding judgment unit judging whether to feed the vehicle using the acquired information about the manufacturing status. When the feeding judgment unit judges that the vehicle is to be fed, the vehicle is fed using the power feeder.

The present system is a software defined manufacturing (SDM) system that integrates several technologies and methods into a system that automates the process of engineering and operating automated manufacturing systems (aka automating automation). In one embodiment, some or all of the below aspects of the automating automation system are integrated: modular, configurable, reusable manufacturing cells; computer vision systems; autocalibration systems; a recipe-based programming environment; configuration management system; production analytics; and a marketplace for sharing recipes.

In a robot system including at least two manipulators with a common work area, a method for optimizing a work cycle having the steps of: defining a layout; and dividing the common work area between the at least two manipulators to thereby obtain a work area division. At least one of the previous steps is repeated to thereby obtain a plurality of different combinations of layouts and work area divisions. For each of the plurality of combinations, a cycle time for at least one work cycle is calculated. By calculating cycle times for work cycles on different combinations of layouts and work area divisions, the work area division becomes part of the optimization problem and a better optimized work cycle can be achieved.

A method for identifying at least one fixed setup for an assembly line includes a circuit board double transport system of which the first transport track and second transport track transport double-sided circuit boards. The method includes acquiring a quantity of circuit board types which are each associated with double-sided circuit boards acquiring a quantity of component types acquiring a production time for synchronous population of the first and second side of each associated double-sided circuit; acquiring a production time for asynchronous population; acquiring a number of fixed setup clusters; assigning circuit board types to each fixed setup cluster; and optimizing the assignment process in such a way that the production time saving identified from the acquired production times of the synchronous and asynchronous population over all associated double-sided circuit boards is maximized.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and apparatus for optimizing performance of a robotic cell. The robotic cell comprises at least one workstation and at least one robot. The method may comprise determining a factor and a corresponding workstation sensitive to the performance of the robotic cell by performing a sensitivity analysis on an initial cell layout for the robotic cell; and performing a performance optimization process on the corresponding workstation based on the determined factor to obtain an improved cell layout for the robotic cell. With embodiments of the present disclosure, it is possible to perform performance optimization of the robotic cell on the sensitive workstation regarding to the sensitive factor, and thus it may efficiently determine an improved cell layout which may achieve performance improvement.

A production facility is provided with: an AGV for transporting a plurality of fuselage panels of multiple types having different shapes in a mixed state on a previously determined transport path; a plurality of A/Rs for riveting the fuselage panels; work areas set so as to correspond to the respective A/Rs in which the A/Rs move to rivet the fuselage panels; and a buffer area, set beforehand in the transport path adjacent to the work area, to which the A/R corresponding to the adjacent work area moves so as to rivet the fuselage panel. When there is no fuselage panel to be riveted in the work area adjacent to the buffer area and the fuselage panel to be riveted is present in the buffer area, a control device moves the A/R corresponding to the work area adjacent to the buffer area to the buffer area to rivet the fuselage panel.

A computer-implemented method includes obtaining an amount of a resource and/or capability of a process module, and dividing this amount by the maximum amount of the respective resource and/or capability to obtain a theoretical utilization of the resource and/or capability as the theoretical utilization of the process module. A pool of available process modules is searched to identify candidate process modules to replace the process module. The theoretical utilization for each candidate module is determined and an optimized topology of the plant is generated by replacing the process module with a candidate process module that has a same or a higher theoretical utilization than process module.

A manufacturing matrix can include a plurality of work cells. The manufacturing matrix can include a plurality of robotic arms disposed in the plurality of work cells to produce a construction product. The manufacturing matrix can include a storage location to store inventory including at least one of the material, the tool, the subassembly of the construction product, or a completed construction product. The manufacturing matrix can include a transportation system to move the inventory within the manufacturing matrix. The manufacturing matrix can include a data processing system communicably coupled with the plurality of robotic arms and the transportation system. The data processing system can provide a first instruction to a first robotic arm cell and a second instruction to a second robotic arm of the second work cell.