Digitization of production processes

As part of the R2D - Road to Digital Production project, Fraunhofer IIS, its SCS Center for Applied Research, and industrial partners are developing a system for digital recording and control of industrial production processes. This is intended to improve the cooperation between humans and technology in individualized production with a batch size of 1 and thus increase efficiency and quality.

© R2D – Road to Digital Production
© Fraunhofer SCS
The assembly of an electric motor is used to show the specialist audience the production process of the future.

The Cyber-Physical Production System (CPPS) replaces the linear assembly line with modular production cells. After each work step, the workpiece is automatically transported by driverless vehicles to the next production cell. What is known as a smart production tag accompanies the product through the entire manufacturing process and recognizes, controls, and logs the individual steps independently. Smart apps and eye tracking programs round off the project result at the human/machine interface.

From the essentials to the finished system

The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS has been entrusted with the production and realization of smart production tags and is developing the software components for status acquisition, control, and interaction with the production environment. The Center for Applied Research on Supply Chain Services, which is part of the institute, is responsible for the process capturing and evaluation methodology. The Center is also developing software components for initializing the smart production tags at the start of production and for visualizing internal CPPS communication.

Live demonstration in Nürnberg

As part of the project’s closing event, a 1,500 m² proof-of-concept demonstrator of the CPPS was presented at the L.I.N.K Test and Application Center of Fraunhofer IIS. The specialist audience was given the opportunity to see the system's functionality for itself in an industrial environment by watching the production process for large electric motors. The plant handover of the project results and possible follow-up projects are currently already being considered. The live demonstration was planned and accompanied by Fraunhofer SCS. You can find more impressions of the event at s.fhg.de/R2D-Downloadbereich.

You can view the project trailer here:

About R2D:

R2D is being funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs as part of the Bayern Digital initiative.

The following partners are involved:

    • Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS

    • Fraunhofer Center for Applied Research on Supply Chain Services SCS

    • Siemens AG

    • Simplifier AG

    • KINEXON Industries GmbH

For more information, see:

www.road2digitalproduction.com

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