Title: RI-MACS: an innovative approach for future automation systems

Authors: Roberto Checcozzo, Fulvio Rusina, Leonardo Mangeruca, Andrea Ballarino, Claude Abadie, Alessandro Brusaferri, Robert Harrison, Radmehr Monfared

Addresses: COMAU SPA, Strada Borgaretto 22, 10092 Borgaretto, Turin, Italy. ' COMAU SPA, Via Rivalta 30, 10095 Grugliasco, Turin, Italy. ' PARADES S.c.a.r.l. – via San Pantaleo 66, 00186 Rome, Italy. ' CNR-ITIA – National Research Council – Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation, Viale Lombardia 20/A, 20131, Milan, Italy. ' Schneider Electric – Automation B.U.End User Solutions, Dept. Connectivity Products – Schneider Automation SAS, France. ' CNR-ITIA – National Research Council – Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation, Viale Lombardia 20/A, 20131, Milan, Italy. ' Wolfson School of Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK. ' Wolfson School of Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

Abstract: The European funded Radically Innovative Mechatronics and Advanced Control Systems (RI-MACS) research project was initiated to address some of the challenges in the future automation systems. Its mission is to bring the innovation offered by the Information Technology (IT) domain into the production life cycle, improving some of the existing inflexibilities in typical manufacturing automation plants. In this paper, some of the key aspects of automation systems engineering that require changes to ensure future competitiveness are highlighted. An overview of current approaches to automation are reviewed in relation to wired and wireless networking, automation architectures, and design environments.

Keywords: future automation; web-based manufacturing; service-oriented architectures; SOA; wireless networks; automated manufacturing; virtual engineering; distributed systems; advanced control; mechatronics; automation systems engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMS.2009.026046

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, 2009 Vol.2 No.3, pp.242 - 264

Published online: 26 May 2009 *

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