The ISW presents the latest manufacturing concepts for optimising production tasks.

A demonstrator will show how a cable robot solves the problem of automation in dynamic environments by utilising a flexible, lightweight design to cover large workspaces with high dynamics. The innovative feature of this demonstrator is the ability to reconfigure during operation to avoid rope collisions and flexibly adapt the workspace to the task at hand. In addition, the rigidity and energy consumption can be optimised using suitable strategies.

A demonstrator in the field of laser material processing shows how the open control architecture enables dynamic adjustment of the operating parameters during the process. By integrating sensors for monitoring and an optimisation model based on recorded data, faults such as material anomalies can be detected quickly and the process stabilised in real time. What is new here is the open architecture, which allows optimisation algorithms to be flexibly integrated and thus enables process control that was previously not possible.

For assembly technology, it will be demonstrated how energy measurement during operation is made possible by an integrated monitoring system that provides data for processing via MQTT and integrates it into the production cell's administration shell via OPC UA. The interesting thing about this is that it not only offers real-time monitoring of energy consumption, but also enables seamless communication between different systems and devices and thus forms the basis for innovative monitoring concepts or calculations of the product-specific carbon footprint.

Demanding customer requirements and fragile markets require state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies and adaptable production networks - across company boundaries.

The ISW at the University of Stuttgart is rethinking the interaction between different industrial partners and demonstrating a software-defined value creation network in which customised products are manufactured collaboratively in batch size 1 on the basis of digital twins.

Visit our stand and configure a customised component that serves as the basis for a manufacturing process using various demonstrators. An interactive world map shows the various manufacturing stations represented. A presented development for intuitive data management enables operating data to be processed and stored regardless of their protocol (OPC UA, MQTT, AAS, ...).

A diverse supply network requires trustworthy protection of the database across company boundaries. In order to ensure collaborative and trusting cooperation, product data must not only be securely exchanged, but also protected against manipulation. A demonstrator shows an approach for this by integrating the automated enrichment of digital product passports through the administration shell, secure and decentralised exchange across supply chains using Gaia-X mechanisms and tamper-proof protection using blockchain technology.

The ongoing digitisation of production, driven by trends like Industry 4.0 or software-defined manufacturing, requires end-to-end communication from field to cloud. However, interoperability between different systems in the field and with IT systems is often not possible or only at considerable cost. Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), which extends Ethernet IEEE 802.1 with various features to ensure deterministic communication, has emerged as a possible enabling technology for convergent real-time networks.

However, current fieldbus systems that are not TSN-capable will remain in use for several decades. Moreover, even new TSN-based approaches implement TSN in different ways at higher levels. One way to overcome these obstacles is to use TSN as a resource. The Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units presents this as part of the integration of various established fieldbus protocols, new TSN-based approaches and IT communication in one convergent TSN-based real-time network.

In today's industry, efficiency and flexibility are decisive factors in remaining competitive. Simulations, virtualisation and digital twins make it possible to digitally map and test products and processes in the planning phase before they are physically implemented. This can shorten development times, reduce costs and minimise errors. The ability to test different scenarios and optimisation potential virtually reduces risks and ensures a faster market launch of new products or production systems.

A demonstrator with new approaches to visualising the material flow of piece goods in production plants shows the added value of these technologies. The movement of these goods is often inadequately visualised in conventional simulations. The demonstrator presented here goes one step further by using a physics-based model for the exact simulation of individual piece goods. For larger quantities, a macroscopic flow model based on a conservation equation is also used. A material flow model supported by AI models, such as Graph Neural Networks, also ensures faster calculations, even with a large number of goods. This combination enables the material flow in various production scenarios to be analysed in a situation-specific and realistic manner.

The combination of virtualisation and digital twins also offers great advantages in production, for example with CNC milling machines. A digital twin can monitor process data in real time, adapt itself and thus ensure better quality assurance. The demonstrator shows this by linking different technologies: a simulation of the 5-axis milling machine, a self-adaptive digital twin and the administration shell for self-description. This interlinking enables precise monitoring of the machine and its processes, which leads to higher product quality, reduced downtimes and optimised production.

Manufacturing of individualized products in small quantities combined with short innovation cycles poses challenges for production technology. Reconfigurable production systems with flexible functionality and technology can be part of the solution. A novel concept for a modular machine tool incorporates interchangeable process modules and a flexible control system. The machine is used for research in the fields of control and machine technology.