In order to enhance production in today’s uncertain manufacturing environments, real-time monitoring and dynamic control capabilities that are responsive and adaptive to rapid changes of production capability and functionality are vital. Targeting the dynamic issue, this paper presents a virtual production aid, a Wise-ShopFloor(Web-based integrated sensor-driven e-ShopFloor) prototype that can integrate Web-based sensor-driven virtual models with a real shop floor.
The Wise-ShopFloor utilizes Java technologies (e.g., Java 3D and Java Servlet) for system implementation which allows the users to monitor and control distant shop floor operations based on runtime information from the shop floor. Particularly, remote monitoring and control of an industrial robot is chosen as a case study to demonstrate the approach towards web-based adaptive manufacturing. It is envisioned that this approach not only can bridge the gap between virtual and real manufacturing but also can largely enhance manufacturing performance and profitability via remote instant assistance