Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

We are at the stage of the fourth industrial revolution when by connecting machines, workpieces, and systems, smart manufacturing networks are created to control themselves intelligently. The core requirement in this network is a digital manufacturing platform with full data integration. A valuable source of high quality data in the digital manufacturing systems is the inspection process. Inspection of the product at various production stages not only investigate the product's quality, but also provides knowledge regarding the production health. The new generation of inspection systems is urgently needed to support various levels of digital manufacturing systems in which the cyber and the physical components are tightly integrated at various scales and levels as a Cyber-Physical System (CPS). The foundation of Integrated Inspection System (IIS) has been developed during a productive NSERC Discovery research program to provide an architecture for coordinate metrology's CPS. The sequential performance of three cyber tasks of Point Measurement Planning (PMP), Substitute Geometry Estimation (SGE), and Deviation Zone Evaluation (DZE) in traditional coordinate metrology was successfully revised to closed-loops of tasks in IIS. The developed novel methodologies in IIS are highly efficient solutions to improve reliability, and to combat the inherent uncertainties in coordinate metrology. In a typical IIS, an estimation of geometric deviations by DZE is dynamically utilized by PMP to revise the set of data-points captured from the measuring surfaces. As the set of the discrete measured points change, estimation of the optimum fitting geometry by SGE will be revised accordingly. Moreover, the only output of DZE is not the part acceptance or rejection based on its conformance to tolerances. Instead, the DZE produces a detailed deviation zone of the manufactured surface by constructing a skin model from the discrete data points. The core concept in this program is "to eliminate the waste of reach Inspection Data" in digital manufacturing systems with the ultimate objective of "Zero Defect Production". Having the above mentioned characteristics, IIS is a perfect candidate to be the legitimate inspection system in a digital manufacturing environment, and an ideal choice for Industry 4.0 implementation. The integrated inspection system as described above is an urgent need for any digital manufacturing system. This will have a significant impact on the economic outcome of the manufacturing industry in Canada and fosters Industry 4.0 concepts. Therefore, investments in new manufacturing technologies and related jobs are expected. This research program develops highly beneficial knowledge and skills for Canada's future Manufacturing, it has a direct impact on training of Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) to be the leaders in Canada's future digital manufacturing, inspection, and digital metrology industries, and results in welfare of the Canadian Society.