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Configurable Solutions for Low-Cost Digital Manufacturing: a Building Block Approach

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Conference Object

Change log

Authors

Ling, Zhengyang 
Yilmaz, Gokcen 
Hawkridge, Gregory 

Abstract

The creation of digital manufacturing solutions at low cost is characterised by a successive development and a combination of disparate hardware and software elements. Modular building blocks address these limitations. This paper proposes and evaluates an explicit two-stage approach to develop configurable digital manufacturing solutions from bespoke solutions by using modular hardware and software building blocks. In the first stage, the solution is being made configurable through decomposition, while the second stage creates building blocks from resulting solution elements. For demonstration, the approach is applied to two tailor-made solutions. Resulting building blocks are then reused to create a new solution. We provide further insights by discussing challenges when applying our approach, and justifying its usage by qualitatively evaluating to what extent solution configurability can be achieved at low cost, which characterises the main objective of this study.

Description

Keywords

Building Block, Configurability, Software Reusability, Low-Cost, Digital Manufacturing

Journal Title

2022 IEEE 27th International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA)

Conference Name

IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, ETFA 2022

Journal ISSN

1946-0740
1946-0759

Volume Title

2022-September

Publisher

IEEE
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/R032777/1)