A CAD feature-based manufacturing approach with OPC UA skills

One of the biggest obstacles on the path to digitalization in an industrial environment is the lack of communication standards. This is particularly evident where several domains meet. In this case, conventional machine tools, robotics and computer vision have to interact over a common interface. We propose a structure based on OPC UA, which unifies the procedure of programming for the human operator, regardless of whether the task is performed by a robot or a machine tool in the end. The idea is to use OPC UA skills for the manufacturing of components, that consist of common standard geometric features such as holes or pockets. Our approach enables the translation of required manufacturing parameters directly from a CAD model to OPC UA skills instead of using CAM. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate suitable CAD interfaces as well as enabling an autonomous implementation of the process on a manufacturing system. From this approach, the definition of an OPC UA Companion Specification for manufacturing processes could be derived. The implementation of the concept is carried out on a flexible robot cell. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.