An intersectoral reconfigurable manufacturing automation testbed: Preliminary design considerations

This paper presents the preliminary work towards the development of a generic manufacturing automation testbed intended for application to a range of different manufacturing sectors. This study is part of an academia-industry collaborative project aimed at increasing the competitiveness of a relatively large cluster of diverse manufacturing firms which are operating in a small and geographically isolated economy. Following an in-depth investigation of the target industry, various disadvantages to competitiveness are identified. To aid these manufacturing companies, this work aims to develop a generic intersectoral automation testbed, on which various unrelated manufacturing solutions will be developed, with a focus on implementing automated modular reconfigurable manufacturing systems. The testbed itself must be modular and reconfigurable since it must be capable of providing a large variety of different solutions to clients coming from various manufacturing sectors. The design and developmental considerations, approaches and guidelines for this intersectoral testbed, and the nature of subsequent manufacturing solutions, are discussed in this work.