IoT and Cloud Computing in Automation of Assembly Modeling Systems

TLDR

IoT, the newest information technology, is reshaping business paradigms, yet its impact on manufacturing remains underexplored while existing CAD tools struggle with complexity, dynamics, and uncertainty. The paper argues that integrating IoT and cloud computing into enterprise systems can overcome CAD bottlenecks and addresses challenges in generating assembly plans for complex products. An automated assembly modeling system is introduced, featuring a modular architecture, object‑oriented templates, and algorithms that automatically retrieve relational assembly matrices. The system’s effectiveness is demonstrated through aircraft engine assembly modeling examples.

Abstract

After the technologies of integrated circuits, personal computers, and the Internet, Internet of Things (IoT) is the latest information technology (IT) that is radically changing business paradigms. However, IoT's influence in the manufacturing sector has yet been fully explored. On the other hand, existing computer-aided software tools are experiencing a bottleneck in dealing with complexity, dynamics, and uncertainties in their applications of modern enterprises. It is argued that the adoption of IoT and cloud computing in enterprise systems (ESs) would overcome the bottleneck. In this paper, the challenges in generating assembly plans of complex products are discussed. IoT and cloud computing are proposed to help a conventional assembly modeling system evolve into an advanced system, which is capable to deal with complexity and changes automatically. To achieve this goal, an assembly modeling system is automated, and the proposed system includes the following innovations: 1) the modularized architecture to make the system robust, reliable, flexible, and expandable; 2) the integrated object-oriented templates to facilitate interfaces and reuses of system components; and 3) the automated algorithms to retrieve relational assembly matrices for assembly planning. Assembly modeling for aircraft engines is used as examples to illustrate the system effectiveness.