Information fusion in condition diagnosis and -prognosis and health management Research Topic 3.2

A Smart Factory Grid is a modern, service-based and dynamically distributed manufacturing system. It is characterized by high flexibility and networking and represents a central component of Industry 4.0. Within a smart factory grid, modular production units, so-called mobile manufacturing units, interact with the help of heterogeneous information sources. The aim is to optimize maintenance and production processes through intelligent diagnosis and prognosis of the status of mobile manufacturing units.

The focus of the “System Health” research unit at the Institute for Technical Reliability and Prognostics (IZP) is on the development of innovative methods for condition diagnosis and prognosis that enable a precise assessment of the current and future performance of mobile manufacturing units. A wide range of information sources from sensor technology, simulations and digital models are integrated for this purpose. A key aspect is information fusion: data of different formats, origins and quality is combined to generate a comprehensive model of the system status.

With the help of simulations, the smart factory grid can be represented and maintenance can be optimized using optimization algorithms in the context of costs, orders, sustainability, productivity and other metrics. This is an important interface to other research units.

Challenges

The development of a Smart Factory Grid results in specific challenges. In particular, the heterogeneity of information sources poses a central problem. The data is often high-dimensional, formatted differently and varies in terms of availability and quality. This makes it considerably more difficult to combine and use this data for status diagnosis and forecasting.

Another obstacle is the lack of a comprehensive methodology for information fusion. While initial solutions already exist for individual aspects, such as the processing of heterogeneous data formats or transfer learning, the systematic integration of these approaches remains an open research question. In addition, the limited amount of available data restricts the use of data-driven models.

In addition, the flexible adaptation of operating strategies requires the optimization of maintenance planning, which can no longer be carried out using conventional methods due to the complexity of production.

Research Approach

The research approach aims to develop a holistic methodology for condition diagnosis and prognosis in a Smart Factory Grid. A central step is the classification of the relevant information sources, such as sensor and operating data, simulation results or physical models. Based on this, problem-related methods for information fusion are developed. The aim is to consistently merge data from different formats and sources and to combine both physical and data-driven approaches.

The research approach aims to address health management in a Smart Factory Grid as a complex optimization problem. Here, the integration of a manufacturing simulation, which has been lacking in the literature to date, is being investigated. Predictive to prescriptive maintenance is intended to enable the automated generation of maintenance proposals in order to make precise and efficient maintenance decisions.

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