Implementation of a Prototype Production Line based on concept of Industrial Digitalization in an existing Learning Factory environment

Abstract

The “Lernfabrik Fallenbrunnen” is a privately funded Learning Factory in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Its concept is to provide a platform to build and develop technical competences in different aspects of industrial digitalization, focused on collaborative robotics, industrial communication in production, computer vision and artificial intelligence. This paper describes how these state-of-the-art technologies can be deployed simultaneously in interaction with each other to develop a flexible and efficient production line in a manufacturing industry. The paper further introduces the aimed contributions of this research towards the training modules of learning factory. Having developed various applications in every segment separately since establishment in 2017 by student-projects, the idea has grown to combine the developed hard- and software applications to form a connected production flow. There are robot applications such as Pick-and-Place with the robotic arm HORST600 from fruitcore, an automatic screwing application supported by the robotic arm UR5 and controlled by SIEMENS S7-1200, a KUKA IIWA 7 controlled via Robot Operating System (ROS), a conveyor system controlled by a SIEMENS S7-1200 device and a demo storage unit for a warehouse simulation controlled by SIEMENS S7-1500. There is also a guided manual assembly station surveilled by a camera and AI algorithm programmed with Python, and finally an autonomous mobile robot to transport the mobile stations. For the combination of different applications configuration of an overall control unit is mandatory. Not only can the process be controlled and monitored, but also visually supervised, indicating key figures and digital twins on screens and mobile devices.

Keywords: Learning Factory; Collaborative Robotics; ROS; Artificial Intelligence; Computer Vision; Production Line; Student-projects; Training; MES; ERP