EPSCore: A didactic open architecture of an Evolvable Production System

Abstract

New production paradigms have been proposed along the industrial evolution in the attempt to solve problems like product customization, industrial manufacture of low quantities, and high variety of products in the same production plant (or even production line). Diverse architectures and devices have been used in order to achieve an optimum solution. Notably, the Evolvable Production Systems (EPS) proven to be an interesting alternative to deal with issues of mass customization. These systems make use of mechatronic and software agents to construct manufacturing plants, where the former may be associated to the systems' muscles (actuators and other mechanical devices), while the later are the systems' intelligence (software). Although such systems are becoming popular among many research groups all over the world, the construction of simulation plants capable of implementing the main EPS properties are not that easy. This paper describes a purpose of a Didactic Evolvable Production System, based on an open architecture, constructed purpose at the Federal University of Amazonas in Manaus - Brazil.