Project Overview

An automated manufacturing system generally consists of processing equipment, material handling devices, and material transfer equipment. The processing equipment can be a computer numerical control (CNC) milling, lathe, turning machine or any other type of equipment that changes or alters the property of the work piece. Material handling devices include industrial robots, actuators, and others devices that handle the work-in-process work-piece at the workstations. Material transfer equipment, such as conveyors, are often used to move raw materials from their respective bins to a destination where they can be picked up by material handling devices. A system controller works behind the scenes to orchestrate and synchronize the operations performed by the equipment.

Most modern automated manufacturing systems use a programmable logic controller (PLC) as the system controller. A PLC is a solid-state control system with a user-programmable memory, used to read input conditions and set output conditions to control a machine or process. It has been said that the programmable logic controller is among the most ingenious devices ever invented to advance the field of manufacturing automation5. Thousands of PLCs are used in manufacturing plants for such applications as monitoring security, managing energy consumption, and controlling machines and automated production lines.

System integration involves knowledge of the characteristics of the various mechanical and electrical devices available to make up the system, including their functions, power requirements, and specific characteristics, and the ability to write PLC programs to orchestrate and synchronize the process being automated. It is a complex cognitive skill, and often one of the last subjects students are taught in school. New automation and control engineers are often not fully prepared to perform system integration tasks. In addition, some engineers never fully master system integration skills. However, there has been little research in the area of understanding how engineers develop expertise in the area of system integration, and in how to help students develop system integration skills reliably and efficiently.