Toward designing an integration architecture for a mobile manipulator in production systems: Industry 4.0

Nowadays, organizations need to follow the new trends and concepts to stay in the competitive environment and achieve a higher level of operational efficiency and productivity. Among all of the critical aspects affecting the performance of an enterprise, the technical side of a manufacturing system, from design to the final product, is in the area of this research. A great revolution occurred in manufacturing systems with the appearance of Industry 4.0. Manufacturing techniques are continuously evolving, especially due to shortening the products lifecycle. In fact, mobile robot systems need to be highly flexible. Increasing the mobility and flexibility beside the right design for manufacturing and assembly regarding an autonomous production system simultaneously results in the reduction of the overall manufacturing time and costs. This study aims to investigate the production performance improvement and flexibility growth through the successful integration of mobile manipulators into manufacturing systems. In this regard, a diagnostic method is required to investigate the existence of the prerequisites regarding industry 4.0. Integration should be considered from several different perspectives, such as suitable design for manufacturing and assembly, functionalities, connectivity, control, maintenance, skills, environment typology, management questions, etc. The new functionalities and features offered by this new technology are impressive and will contribute to more performance in the whole lifecycle. However, mobile robots embed a complex technology, and their integration requires a methodological approach. In this article some research topics have been reviewed from literatures: a) Existing mobile robot technologies and new features that will increase the operational performance of industry 4.0-based production systems, b) Integrate a mobile robot into a connected production line considering different phases in product lifecycle, and c) Design a new architecture to help integrating mobile robots into industry 4.0-based production sites.