UB-led team advances cyber-manufacturing systems with $2.3 million NSF grant

BUFFALO, N.Y. – A College at Buffalo-led analysis group is working to modernize manufacturing techniques, bringing the elaborate world-wide-web of ways and procedures involved in creating business items beneath the watchful eyes of laptop or computer systems that guarantee increased efficiencies.

The work, which is funded by a $2.3 million Countrywide Science Basis grant, aims to support an array of industries – which include semiconductor manufacturing and 3D printing – by increasing excellent, manufacturing and performance.

“A industrial products is the finish outcome of a lengthy chain of interwoven methods that could span geography, industries and different production processes,” states the grant’s principal investigator, Hongyue Sunshine, PhD, assistant professor of industrial and programs engineering at UB.

He provides: “Each action could be optimized, but that does not usually signify it’s for the increased superior of the all round creation system. What we’re doing is building an analytical framework that connects and coordinates all these processes. The finish end result will be a cyber-actual physical method that works by using artificial intelligence and other tools to improve and ultimately boost manufacturing programs.”

The task aligns with UB’s strategic designs to be a throughout the world leader in superior production, which includes initiatives to advance Market 4., which is a term applied to explain a fourth industrial revolution that consists of remarkably intelligent and interactive production ecosystems that integrate product structure, production and logistics.

The do the job also supports UB’s efforts to advance the larger Buffalo area’s economic system.

Co-principal investigators from UB contain Wenyao Xu, PhD, affiliate professor of computer system science and engineering, and Chi Zhou, PhD, affiliate professor of industrial and techniques engineering. Equally Hongyue Sun and Chi Zhou are affiliated with UB’s (Sustainable Production and Advanced Robotic Technologies (Clever) neighborhood of excellence.

Further co-principal investigators consist of Rong Pan, PhD, associate professor of computing and augmented intelligence, and Guilia Pedrielli, PhD, assistant professor of computing and augmented intelligence both equally from Arizona Point out University.

The framework, which the crew is contacting STREAM, consists of the use of artificial intelligence, simulation and other systems. It will build a public on-line repository wherever researchers and sector experts can share information and facts and their encounters relating to facts, designs, simulators, controllers, analytics and empirical scientific studies.

Also, the challenge features a few interconnected exploration tasks:

• Building program that enables effective communication and computing in cyber-manufacturing devices.
• Producing a modeling technique to reach an precise and efficient procedure quality command.
• Developing a simulation and generation regulate program for steady advancement of high-quality, manufacturability, and productiveness of long term multistage and distributed production methods.

In the semiconductor production process, for example, Sunlight suggests there are various dependent methods.

“This contains tens of phases such as crystal growth, ingot slicing, wafer lapping and polishing, lithography, etching, chemical mechanical planarization,” he suggests. “These stages have strong dynamics and dependencies. The operations at downstream stages are impacted by operations at upstream levels, top quality-wise and efficiency-sensible.”

He adds: “For instance, various lapping equipment will need to collaboratively course of action hundreds of wafers from ingot slicing and the true-time procedure and manufacturing data of equipment are interdependent and jointly establishes the system’s functionality.”

As element of the task, researchers will build new outreach and workforce advancement activities for K-12, undergraduate and graduate learners. They also will perform with gurus in the subject of producing.

These analysis final results, Solar suggests, could be bundled in college curriculum for highly developed producing, architecture layout, machine learning, simulation, and program command and optimization.

The grant is element of NSF’s Future Manufacturing Research Grant CyberManufacturing undertaking. It is jointly funded by the agency’s Division of Pc and Network Devices in the Directorate for Personal computer and Facts Science and Engineering, and the divisions of Civil, Mechanical and Production Innovation and Engineering Schooling and Centers in the Directorate for Engineering.