Remote Monitoring and Controlling of Additive Manufacturing Machines Using Industry 4.0 Principles

Abstract

Manufacturing has seen many changes over the years; some of these changes correspond to new paradigms and are usually associated with industrial revolutions. Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution, is continuing the improvements that the past industrial revolutions have done to manufacturing. It aims to impact the physical world by utilizing digital technologies. This research reviewed the concept of Industry 4.0 and key associated techniques such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Computing. The ability to integrate different technologies in an Industry 4.0 environment to improve manufacturing is also discussed. Significant details are provided to additive manufacturing, a key element of Industry 4.0. However, as observed few attempts were made to integrate Additive Manufacturing with other technologies in an Industry 4.0 environment. This research addresses these limitations through the development of a computational application to remotely control and monitor any additive manufacturing machine, using cyber physical systems, cloud computing, and IoT. The research also applied the developed system on an additive manufacturing machine at The University of Manchester as a case study. The system opens up new dimensions for additive manufacturing by allowing the access of any machine from any place at any time. This improves the utilization of machines. Moreover, the system opens new opportunities for mass personalization.