The framework design of smart factory in discrete manufacturing industry based on cyber-physical system

ABSTRACT

A cyber-physical system (CPS) is a new trend in smart manufacturing-related research, where the physical system acts as a data access role with sensors and communication systems to collect real-world information and communicate to computation modules (i.e. cyber layer), which further analyse and notify the findings to the corresponding physical systems through multiple feedback loops. This paper develops a conceptual framework for a new paradigm called smart factory based on CPS by applying virtual-real mapping and fusion, digital twin, big data-driven, virtualisation, and edge-to-cloud service technology to the manufacturing system. The definitions, characteristics, architectures and previous case studies on smart factory based on CPS are explained in detail. In the paradigm, the digital twin merges the physical system modelling and cyberspace simulation to provide an intelligence solution simulation analysis ability. This generates a variety of digital designs of production processes, quality, cost, efficiency and environmental impact analysis about smart factory business mode in the preproduction phase based on big data which can be analysed, and provide authoritative solutions for actual physical space. The proposed system is applied and validated in a real case study from the circuit breaker production industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Smart factory framework
• cyber-physical system architecture
• digital twin
• big data-driven prediction
• virtual and real merge and interact
• reference model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work is financially supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 51805401), in part by the project supported by Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shannxi Province of China (Program No. 2019JQ-549) and in part by the Free Exploration Fund No. JB170404.