Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs), which possess the advantages of both dedicated serial lines and flexible manufacturing systems, were introduced in the mid-1990s to address the challenges initiated by globalization. The principal goal of an RMS is to enhance the responsiveness of manufacturing systems to unforeseen changes in product demand. RMSs are costeffective because they boost productivity, and increase the lifetime of the manufacturing system. Because of the many streams in which a product may be produced on an RMS, maintaining product precision in an RMS is a challenge. But the experience with RMS in the last 20 years indicates that product quality can be definitely maintained by inserting in-line inspection stations. In this paper, we formulate the design and operational principles for RMSs, and provide a state-of-the-art review of the design and operations methodologies of RMSs according to these principles. Finally, we propose future research directions, and deliberate on how recent intelligent manufacturing technologies may advance the design and operations of RMSs.

Unmanned surface vehicle (USV) has witnessed a rapid growth in the recent decade and has been applied in various practical applications in both military and civilian domains. USVs can either be deployed as a single unit or multiple vehicles in a fleet to conduct ocean missions. Central to the control of USV and USV formations, path planning is the key technology that ensures the navigation safety by generating collision free trajectories. Compared with conventional path planning algorithms, the deep reinforcement learning (RL) based planning algorithms provides a new resolution by integrating a high-level artificial intelligence. This work investigates the application of deep reinforcement learning algorithms for USV and USV formation path planning with specific focus on a reliable obstacle avoidance in constrained maritime environments. For single USV planning, with the primary aim being to calculate a shortest collision avoiding path, the designed RL path planning algorithm is able to solve other complex issues such as the compliance with vehicle motion constraints. The USV formation maintenance algorithm is capable of calculating suitable paths for the formation and retain the formation shape robustly or vary shapes where necessary, which is promising to assist with the navigation in environments with cluttered obstacles. The developed three sets of algorithms are validated and tested in computer-based simulations and practical maritime environments extracted from real harbour areas in the UK.

Laser-based additive manufacturing (LBAM) provides unrivalled design freedom with the ability to manufacture complicated parts for a wide range of engineering applications. Melt pool is one of the most important signatures in LBAM and is indicative of process anomalies and part defects. High-speed thermal images of the melt pool captured during LBAM make it possible for in situ melt pool monitoring and porosity prediction. This paper aims to broaden current knowledge of the underlying relationship between process and porosity in LBAM and provide new possibilities for efficient and accurate porosity prediction. We present a deep learning-based data fusion method to predict porosity in LBAM parts by leveraging the measured melt pool thermal history and two newly created deep learning neural networks. A PyroNet, based on Convolutional Neural Networks, is developed to correlate in-process pyrometry images with layer-wise porosity; an IRNet, based on Long-term Recurrent Convolutional Networks, is developed to correlate sequential thermal images from an infrared camera with layer-wise porosity. Predictions from PyroNet and IRNet are fused at the decision-level to obtain a more accurate prediction of layer-wise porosity. The model fidelity is validated with LBAM Ti–6Al–4V thin-wall structure. This is the first work that manages to fuse pyrometer data and infrared camera data for metal additive manufacturing (AM). The case study results based on benchmark datasets show that our method can achieve high accuracy with relatively high efficiency, demonstrating the applicability of the method for in situ porosity detection in LBAM.

Catastrophic failure in brittle materials is often due to the rapid growth and coalescence of cracks aided by high internal stresses. Hence, accurate prediction of maximum internal stress is critical to predicting time to failure and improving the fracture resistance and reliability of materials. Existing high-fidelity methods, such as the Finite-Discrete Element Model (FDEM), are limited by their high computational cost. Therefore, to reduce computational cost while preserving accuracy, a deep learning model, StressNet, is proposed to predict the entire sequence of maximum internal stress based on fracture propagation and the initial stress data. More specifically, the Temporal Independent Convolutional Neural Network (TI-CNN) is designed to capture the spatial features of fractures like fracture path and spall regions, and the Bidirectional Long Short-term Memory (Bi-LSTM) Network is adapted to capture the temporal features. By fusing these features, the evolution in time of the maximum internal stress can be accurately predicted. Moreover, an adaptive loss function is designed by dynamically integrating the Mean Squared Error (MSE) and the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), to reflect the fluctuations in maximum internal stress. After training, the proposed model is able to compute accurate multi-step predictions of maximum internal stress in approximately 20 seconds, as compared to the FDEM run time of 4 h, with an average MAPE of 2% relative to test data.

The “factory-in-a-box” concept involves assembling production modules (i.e., factories) in containers and transporting the containers to different customer locations. Such a concept could be highly effective during emergencies, when there is an urgent demand for products (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). The “factory-in-a-box” planning problem can be divided into two sub-problems. The first sub-problem deals with the assignment of raw materials to suppliers, sub-assembly decomposition, assignment of sub-assembly modules to manufacturers, and assignment of tasks to manufacturers. The second sub-problem focuses on the transport of sub-assembly modules between suppliers and manufacturers by assigning vehicles to locations, deciding the order of visits for suppliers, manufacturers, and customers, and selecting the appropriate routes within the transportation network. This study addresses the second sub-problem, which resembles the vehicle routing problem, by developing an optimization model and solution algorithms in order to optimize the “factory-in-a-box” supply chain. A mixed-integer linear programming model, which aims to minimize the total cost of the “factory-in-a-box” supply chain, is presented in this study. CPLEX is used to solve the model to the global optimality, while four metaheuristic algorithms, including the Evolutionary Algorithm, Variable Neighborhood Search, Tabu Search, and Simulated Annealing, are employed to solve the model for large-scale problem instances. A set of numerical experiments, conducted for a case study of “factory-in-a-box”, demonstrate that the Evolutionary Algorithm outperforms the other metaheuristic algorithms developed for the model. Some managerial insights are outlined in the numerical experiments as well.