Heterogeneous, workload-optimized robot teams and production architectures »SWAP«

The Fraunhofer lighthouse project Heterogeneous, Workload-Optimized Robot Teams and Production Architectures (»SWAP«) is developing new technological concepts to shape the production of the future.

The foundation of this project is the scalable, cyber-physical production system "SWAP-IT". The versatility of the SWAP-IT architecture is demonstrated by four relevant industry use cases:

• Large component production through segmentation
• Precision component production
• Assembly automation in aircraft construction
• Components to distributed workstations

Under the project management of Prof. Dr.-Ing. W.-G. Drossel and Prof. Dr. rer nat. A. Tünnermann, the competencies of ten Fraunhofer Institutes from the Groups Production, Light & Surfaces and IuK are combined.

Traditional concepts in the manufacturing industry are at capacity.

Companies are expected to routinely produce large quantities in top quality and quickly deliver individualized single products or small series on demand. In addition, aspects such as energy efficiency and sustainability are also becoming increasingly important in manufacturing, requiring numerous adjustments. Classic production environments are not sufficiently equipped for all these requirements due to typically stiff processes, even if they have been updated by digitization in recent years.

The "SWAP-IT" architecture provides a solution to this problem.

As a scalable cyber-physical production system that is very lean and can be flexibly applied to a wide variety of production processes, the SWAP-IT production architecture disrupts the static structures and schematic processes of conventional production facilities and flexibilizes the work stages.

A uniform and semantically simplified description language for machines, processes and also products enables the integration of operating resources such as machines, robots or autonomous transport systems. The result is an intelligently acting and adaptable production environment.

Description Language »PFDL«

A key feature of SWAP-IT is the "PFDL" (Production Flow Description Language), an in-house development by Fraunhofer researchers.

The decisive advantage: Since the PFDL specifies the basic sequence of workflow steps, but not which machine takes over which task, the SWAP-IT software decides how exactly the job is to be executed and assigns individual tasks to machines that are currently available or conveniently located. The production system considers a variety of factors.

Each task is executed individually and efficiently according to the specifications. In classic manufacturing with its standardized workstations, this case-by-case flexibility is not achievable.

Individual Objectives

The responsible workers can also specify that the production process should be particularly energy-efficient or fast, or that it should be carried out with maximum utilization of the plants and machines.

If a spontaneous order peak occurs, employees can set fast production as a target for the system, even if this results in higher energy costs in individual cases. The production can thus easily react to repeat orders or to the modification of product features in the case of a new product version.

A logical complement to Industry 4.0

As part of the Industry 4.0 megatrend, technologies such as sensors, networking and digital twins have found their way onto factory floors. The lighthouse project SWAP aims to be a continuation of this trend.  SWAP-IT uses data to liberate production from stiff processes.