Abstract
Nowadays, the concept of industry 4.0 frequently occur in the literature. The digitalization of manufacturing grows rapidly. The basic structure of the approach is to transform the hardware and equipment in the manufacturing into intelligent elements that communicate each other. In this study, based on the idea of intelligent equipment; we propose to transform traditional power screwdrivers into smart devices that communicate with various IoT applications or cloud applications by including electronic cards and software components. Our approach aims to minimize the percentage of human error in the manufacturing process.
There are four main elements in our system. These are Web/Cloud Server, NGP Operator panels, RF I/O card and power screwdriver RF card. All these elements communicate with each other. The overall working principle of the system is briefly as follows. There is a database on the Web/Cloud Server. In this database, there are job parameters related to the assembly ID(CIS) number which defined for each assembly job. Various operations to be performed according to the assembly ID(CIS) number are defined in detail in the database, for example, for power screwdrivers, the number of tightening information is defined on a rule-based basis. With the Web API developed in C# language, the web/cloud server communicates with the linux computer that executes the NGP operator panel. When an assembly job starts, if the assembly ID(CIS) number matches the stock definition, then the relevant transaction data is retrieved from the web server and displayed on the NGP operator panel. The front-end software on the NGP operator panel was developed using Microsoft.NET and compiled using Mono Framework to support Linux OS. As soon as an assembly job starts, the number of screws to be tightened determined according to the assembly ID(CIS) related rules. After that, the gun MAC (TMAC) address information is transmitted from the NGP operator panel to the RF I/O Card via RS232 serial port communication. The ZigBee protocol carries the information about how many screws will be tightened from the RF I/O Card to the Gun RF card mounted on power screwdriver. A special RF based protocol developed for that purpose. By means of our proposed protocol, "OK" or "Not OK" information is sent to the RF I/O card of the NGP operator panel every time the operator performs the tightening operation. With the bidirectional RS232 serial port communication, an information message is returned for each completed operation to the NGP operator panel via the RF I/O card. When all the operations related to the assembly ID(CIS) number are completed, the relevant data is transmitted over the Web Server API and recorded in the database, and the assembly life cycle is completed.
This study demonstrates how traditional power screwdrivers may be transformed into an IoT-enabled smart manufacturing device without extensive modification. Thanks to the proposed solution, the digital transformation of traditional devices will be affordable and applicable to many different manufacturing tools.
Keywords: Intelligent Manufacturing Tools, Industry 4.0, Digital Transformation
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of today's information technologies, the smartening of the machinery, equipment and equipment used and their conversations with each other have led to the rapid digitalization of the processes in factories. In this transformation, it is aimed to transform and smarten a large number and variety of non-smart hand tools in factories and to include them in the digitalization process.
When the studies in the literature are examined; it is seen that making human behavior traceable in production environments is beneficial in terms of productivity performance, speed and accident prevention, and labor inputs have been provided with a measurable structure [1][2].
The traceability of work activities has not only been limited to project management in factories, but has also enabled the monitoring of construction sites in the construction industry. The work performed on construction sites is more complex than in factory production environments. In their work published in 2019 and 2020, Yang et al. developed a low-cost, user input controlled and portable tool system that enables monitoring and tracking these activities[3][4].
In this study, non-smart traditional screwdrivers are transformed into IoT devices by making them smart and included in the digitalization process. In the second part of the article, the methodology and method, in the third part, the findings and in the fourth part, the results obtained are mentioned.
2. Method and Methods
The structure developed in this study consists of four main components. These components are Web/Cloud Server, NGP operator panels, RF I/O board and electric screwdriver RF board as shown in Figure 1. There is two-way communication between all these components.
2.1. Web/Cloud Server
There is a database of the system on the Web/Cloud Server. In this database, there are job parameters based on the assembly ID (CIS) number defined for each assembly job. The different operations to be performed according to the assembly ID (CIS) number are specified in detail in the database, for example, the number of tightening and tightening time for electric screwdrivers are defined rule-based.
2.2. NGP Operator Panels
The touchscreen operator panel developed by Mert Software is an industrial computer that can interact with the user and has the possibility of electronic communication with various devices thanks to the I/O ports and RF module (Figure 2).
The Linux computer that manages the NGP operator panel communicates with the web/cloud server via the Web API developed in C#. When a task is to start, if the assembly ID (CIS) number matches the stock description, then the relevant process data is retrieved from the web server and displayed on the NGP operator panel. The front-end software on the NGP operator panel was developed in Microsoft.NET and made to run on Linux using Mono Framework [5]
2.3. RF I/O card
The RF I/O card used in this project was also developed by Mert software. When a task starts, according to the assembly ID (CIS) number of the task, the number of screws to be tightened in the specified operation and the gun MAC (TMAC) address information is transmitted from the NGP operator panel to the RF I/O Card via RS232 serial port communication.
2.4. Electric Screwdriver RF Board
From the RF I/O card in the NGP operator panel, the information about how many screws to be tightened is transferred to the Gun RF card installed on the electric screwdrivers via the ZigBee protocol channel. Although the ZigBee protocol is used as a communication infrastructure, a special data transmission protocol developed within the scope of the project provides data transfer suitable for the purpose. When the led on the card mounted on the hand tool is green, it is informed that the screw information to be tightened is loaded to the card without any problem and the work is ready to be done (Figure 3). If the led is red, the information about the screw to be tightened is not loaded to the card and the device is not ready. If the LED is blue, it means that the work order is pending and manual execution of the screw to be tightened is allowed. With the same protocol, "OK" or "Not OK" information is sent to the RF I/O card on the NGP operator panel every time the operator performs the tightening operation.
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With bi-directional RS232 serial port communication, an information message for each completed operation is returned to the NGP operator panel via the RF I/O card in the electric screwdriver. When all operations connected to the assembly ID (CIS) number are completed, the relevant data is transmitted again via the Web Server API and saved in the database. Thus, the assembly life cycle is completed.
3. Findings
Thanks to the system proposed in this paper, all tasks performed during the production process are recorded. Thus, production lines with incomplete/incorrect operations can be prevented from progressing and faulty product production can be prevented. In addition, since it will be predetermined which operations should be performed on the relevant products during the production process, an incorrect or incomplete operation is prevented.
By reporting the operations that a product undergoes throughout the entire process together with the part number information, it is possible to monitor which personnel, at which location, on which date, and which operations were performed. In this way, businesses benefit from analyzing common production errors and finding the root cause of the problem. Finally, by ensuring that the right personnel can carry out the right operation, unauthorized or incompetent personnel are prevented from intervening in operations that are not their duty. All these are very valuable gains for production enterprises.
4. Discussion and Conclusion
The project described in this article aims to increase the level of digitalization, one of the main elements of Industry 4.0 for businesses. The existing non-smart devices currently used in the enterprises are made smart at a lower cost than the smart devices and the digitalization costs for the enterprises are reduced.
By minimizing time and resource losses, enterprises will be able to realize more efficient production with less loss in their planned production times, thus becoming more efficient both in their own scale and in terms of supporting national development.
In the later stages of the project, it is aimed to collect various information from all hand tools with electro-mechanical systems, regardless of brand-model, and to make various inferences for prediction, classification and prediction purposes from the data obtained from hand tools using artificial neural networks.
Publication Address : https://journals.orclever.com/oprd/article/view/156/98
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