Intelligent Manufacturing Systems

The IMS Centre was established in 1994 and comprisesthree state of the Art research Laboratories dealing withproduct design, manufacturing systems design andoperation and intelligent automation. The Centre researchis supported by NSERC, AUTO21, CFI, OIT, IndustryCollaborators, NRC/IMTI, and many Universityresearchers nationally and internationally.

CONTACTS

Directors:Dr. Hoda A. ElMaraghy, Ph.D., P. Eng.E-mail: hae@uwindsor.ca

Dr. Waguih ElMaraghy, Ph.D., P. Eng.E-mail: wem@uwindsor.caFax: (519) 973-7053/971-3656

Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Centre204 Odette Building University of Windsor401 Sunset AvenueWindsor, Ontario, Canada, N9B 3P4Phone: (519) 253-3000 Ext. 3439Fax: (519) 973-7053

www.ims.uwindsor.ca

FLEXIBLE AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS (FAR) LAB

• Automated Bosch conveyor system and flexible assembly work cell

• Adept-One and Puma-560 Robot Systems• Vision, force, acceleration, torque, and tactile-array sensors• Experimental flexible joints and links robots and controls• Allen-Bradley PLC and vision system• Applications software

INTEGRATED DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING (IDM) LAB

• Sunfire 280R server networked with 3 labs• Sunblade 2000 workstations• Simulation: SIMAN, CINEMA, WITNESS• Geometric Modeling: I-DEAS, AutoCAD, CATIA• Analysis: MatrixX, XMath, Macsyma, MAPLE, MatLab• Robocell, RPE, RobCIM, Sysbond, etc.

ADVANCED MANUFACTURING RESEARCH (AMR) LAB

• Industrial robots: COMAU S2, COMAU 6.60R• Coordinate measuring machine (DEA)• Rapid prototyping machine: Stratasys - Prodigy FDM• Vision system and application software • Laser scanner (Metris/3D)• PCs and workstations (SUN, SGI).• Reverse engineering software• Workcell simulation software, off-line robots

programming: TELEGRIP, WORKSPACE

The Intelligent ManufacturingSystems (IMS) CentreIMS Centre Facilities

Dr. Hoda ElMaraghy became a Canada Research Chair in2002. The research program emphasizes automotiveapplications and aims at investigating:Modern Manufacturing Systems design and operation,physical and logical re-configuration, integrated design ofproducts and systems, harmonized human-orientedmanufacturing systems, innovative design and rapidproduct development and manufacture.

Canada Research Chair in Manufacturing Systems Engineering

www.uwindsor.ca/imsc

Brilliant product designs are important in a Globalmanufacturing environment. The ability to bring asuperior product to market faster and at a lower costthan a competitor is a major advantage.

Integrated Design and Manufacture

This NSERC-funded strategic project aims at developing new configurable control process and tools to adapteasily to reconfigured products or manufacturing systems.This is important to cope with the manufacturingparadigm shift to mass customization, flexibility andchangeability and to maximize productivity. A unifiedReconfigurable Open Control Architecture, UROCA, isbeing developed for application to products, machinesand manufacturing systems.

Research Topics

• Modular reconfiguration of products and systems.• Unified reconfigurable open architecture control.• Concurrent bi-directional, hierarchical and intelligent

supervisory control.• Reactive, deliberative and hybrid control.• Real-time control of products and systems with

Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation and verification.• Applications: industrial robots, CNC machine tools,

manufacturing systems and automobile modules as wellas their control test benches.

Reconfigurable Control Process for ManufactureManufacturing Systems Engineering

The effective design and operation of manufacturing systems,in particular Flexible (FMS) & Reconfigurable ManufacturingSystems (RMS), are important for competitiveness andproductivity. They present many challenges.

Research Topics

• Modern, Flexible and Re-configurable ManufacturingSystems design and operation.

• Complexity, changeability and reconfigurability.• Capacity and functional scalability.• Assembly, dis-assembly & DFA.• Flexible Automation and Robotics.• Economic life cycle analysis and justification.• Dynamic process planning.• Production planning and scheduling.• Optimal systems configuration and performance.• Quality issues in the design and implementation of RMS.

• Participatory manufacturingsystems including humans

and machines.• Intelligent Manufacturing

Systems.

Research Topics

• Design innovation.• Design theories and methodologies.• Collaborative design.• Design for Rapid Manufacture and Inspection.• Adaptive and integrated machining and inspection.• Physical and virtual prototyping for Auto-applications.• Assemblability evaluation and validation of the designer’s intent.• Design tolerance analysis and synthesis – Virtual tolerance

selection and assessment models.• Design of sculptured surfaces.• CMM and laser inspection and planning, digitization and

reverse engineering.• Design for assembly, dis-assembly and life-cycle.• Design of rapid tooling for both prototyping and production.• Vehicle design, dynamic analysis and control.