Closed-loop design evolution of engineering system using condition monitoring through internet of things and cloud computing

Xia, Min and Li, Teng and Zhang, Yunfei and De Silva, Clarence W. (2016) Closed-loop design evolution of engineering system using condition monitoring through internet of things and cloud computing. Computer Networks, 101. pp. 5-18. ISSN 1389-1286

Abstract

Flexibility of a manufacturing system is quite important and advantageous in modern industry, which function in a competitive environment where market diversity and the need for customized product are growing. Key machinery in a manufacturing system should be reliable, flexible, intelligent, less complex, and cost effective. To achieve these goals, the design methodologies for engineering systems should be revisited and improved. In particular, continuous or on-demand design improvements have to be incorporated rapidly and effectively in order to address new design requirements or resolve potential weaknesses of the original design. Design of an engineering system, which is typically a multi-domain system, can become complicated due to its complex structure and possible dynamic coupling between domains. An integrated and concurrent approach should be considered in the design process, in particular in the conceptual and detailed design phases. In the context of multi-domain design, attention has been given recently to such subjects as multi-criteria decision making, multi-domain modeling, evolutionary computing, and genetic programing. More recently, machine condition monitoring has been considered for integration into a scheme of design evolution even though many challenges exist for this to become a reality such as lack of systematic approaches and the existence of technical barriers in massive condition data acquisition, transmission, storage and mining. Recently, the internet of things (IoT) and cloud computing (CC) are being developed quickly and they offer new opportunities for evolutionary design for such tasks as data acquisition, storage and processing. In this paper, a framework for the closed-loop design evolution of engineering systems is proposed in order to achieve continuous design improvement for an engineering system through the use of a machine condition monitoring system assisted by IoT and CC. New design requirements or the detection of design weaknesses of an existing engineering system can be addressed through the proposed framework. A design knowledge base that is constructed by integrating design expertise from domain experts, on-line process information from condition monitoring and other design information from various sources is proposed to realize and supervise the design process so as to achieve increased efficiency, design speed, and effectiveness. The framework developed in this paper is illustrated by using a case study of design evolution of an industrial manufacturing system.