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Flavors Technology Incorporated |
PIM/Paracell Application Notes |
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Purpose of the Project
The Manufacturing Agility Server (MAS) dynamically reassigns operations from failed manufacturing devices to other similar devices. The need for MAS is illustrated by the structure and operation of a line of welding robots in an automotive body assembly shop, though the technology has far broader applicability. A typical body assembly line (Figure 1) consists of a series of cells, each containing several robots. Each auto body moves sequentially from cell to cell through the line. At each cell, the robots in the cell perform a series of operations. Using today's technology, failure of a single robot forces the entire line to stop, even though other devices may be physically capable of filling in for the failed device. The MAS detects a failed robot and reassigns its operations to other robots.
Personnel Experience and Qualifications
Flavors' experience in emergent and agent-based systems dates back more than a decade. President, Richard Morley, was involved in the early research for software agents. This research is the basis for Flavors Technology. Flavors has taken these concepts and developed both hardware and software products for manufacturing applications. Flavors is the world leader in supplying commercial software agent-based systems and has been delivering systems to customers for over 6 years.
J. Howell Mitchell is Flavors' Principal Investigator on the MAS Project. Howell has worked on a numbr of agent-based system implementations of Flavors' products in both the public and private sector, in applications ranging from industrial control to simulation and scheduling.
The technical subcontractor is ERIM Center for Electronic Commerce (ERIM CEC), which will provide expertise and access to the most current research regarding the use of software agents. In addition, CEC engineers will provide applications experience in industrial control systems.
The project includes participation from other firms that are industry leaders at various stages of the product life cycle. These firms include Rockwell Automation / Allen-Bradley (Controls Vendor), Lamb Technicon (Manufacturing Systems Integrator), and General Motors (Manufacturing Production). In addition, this project is coordinated under the Auto Body Consortium (ABC), which currently serves three other ATP projects, Intelligent Resistance Welding, Near-Zero Stamping, and the Wet Film Measurement System.
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Flavors Technology,
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