U.S. patent application number 15/933379 was filed with the patent office on 2018-09-27 for system and method for machine tool maintenance and repair.
The applicant listed for this patent is NATIONAL CHENG KUNG UNIVERSITY. Invention is credited to Fan-Tien CHENG, Yung-Chou KAO, Haw-Ching YANG.
Application Number | 20180275630 15/933379 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 63581509 |
Filed Date | 2018-09-27 |
United States Patent
Application |
20180275630 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
KAO; Yung-Chou ; et
al. |
September 27, 2018 |
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MACHINE TOOL MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR
Abstract
A system and a method for machine tool maintenance and repair is
provided for allowing an expert at a remote site to collaborate
with an on-site personnel to maintain or repair a physical machine
in a manner of combining the physical machine with a virtual
reality (VR) model or an augmented reality (AR) model. Two
maintenance modes are provided, which are an augmented virtual
reality model guided by a standard operation procedure (referred as
a SOP-AVR mode), and an augmented virtual reality model guided by
an expert operation procedure (referred as an EG-AVR mode). A cyber
physical agent (CPA) is adopted for simultaneously monitoring and
repairing plural machines of the same machine type.
Inventors: |
KAO; Yung-Chou; (Chiayi
County, TW) ; YANG; Haw-Ching; (Tainan City, TW)
; CHENG; Fan-Tien; (Tainan City, TW) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
NATIONAL CHENG KUNG UNIVERSITY |
TAINAN CITY |
|
TW |
|
|
Family ID: |
63581509 |
Appl. No.: |
15/933379 |
Filed: |
March 23, 2018 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
62475889 |
Mar 24, 2017 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 41/5041 20130101;
H04L 61/2007 20130101; H04L 69/325 20130101; G05B 2219/37252
20130101; H04L 67/02 20130101; H04L 67/10 20130101; G05B 19/4065
20130101; B23Q 17/0995 20130101; G06T 19/006 20130101; G01N 3/58
20130101; B23Q 17/0971 20130101; G05B 2219/32214 20130101; B23Q
17/2457 20130101; G05B 13/048 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G05B 19/4065 20060101
G05B019/4065 |
Claims
1. A system for machine tool maintenance and repair, the system
comprising: at least one machine tool, wherein a plurality of
sensors are installed on each of the at least one machine tool for
collecting a plurality of sets of state data of the machine tool
that is in operation, and the at least one machine tool has the
same tool type; a human cyber physical system having a visual
initial-state model and a standard maintenance procedure, wherein a
plurality of component models of respective parts of the machine
tool are built in accordance with measured dimension data of the
parts of the machine tool, and the component models are assembled
to form the visual initial-state model in accordance with exploded
view data of the machine tool; and the human cyber physical system
analyzes periodical maintenance conditions and abnormal states
encountered by the machine tool that is in operation, thereby
building the standard maintenance procedure; a cyber-physical agent
(CPA) communicatively connected to the at least one machine tool
and the human cyber physical system for receiving the standard
maintenance procedure and the sets of state data, wherein the CPA
or the human cyber physical system updates the visual initial-state
model as a visual operating-state model in accordance with the sets
of state data, and the CPA obtains an event standard maintenance
procedure from the standard maintenance procedure in accordance
with the sets of state data; and an on-site device communicatively
connected to the CPA for enabling an on-site personnel to access
the visual operating-state model and the event standard maintenance
procedure.
2. The system of claim 1, further comprising: an expert device
communicatively connected to the human cyber physical system for
enabling an expert to access the visual operating-state model,
wherein the expert device provides an expert maintenance procedure
to the on-site personnel.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the visual initial-state model
and the visual operating-state model are virtual reality (VR)
models or augmented reality (AR) models, and the on-site device and
the expert device are VR devices or AR devices.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one machine tool is
a rotary machine, and the sensors comprises a dynamometer, an
energy consumption sensor and a temperature sensor.
5. The system of claim 1, further comprising: a cloud layer
comprising the human cyber physical system; a factory layer
comprising the at least one machine tool and the CPA; and a
networking layer communicatively connecting the factory layer to
the cloud layer.
6. A method for machine tool maintenance and repair, the method
comprising: installing a plurality of sensors on each of at least
one machine tool for collecting a plurality of sets of state data
of the machine tool that is in operation; building a plurality of
component models of respective parts of the machine tool in
accordance with measured dimension data of the parts of the machine
tool, and assembling the component models are assembled to form a
visual initial-state model in accordance with exploded view data of
the machine tool; analyzing periodical maintenance conditions and
abnormal states encountered by the machine tool that is in
operation, thereby building a standard maintenance procedure;
storing the visual initial-state model and the standard maintenance
procedure in a human cyber physical system; communicatively
connecting a cyber-physical agent (CPA) to the at least one machine
tool and the human cyber physical system for receiving the standard
maintenance procedure and the sets of state data; updating the
visual initial-state model as a visual operating-state model in
accordance with the sets of state data, and obtaining an event
standard maintenance procedure from the standard maintenance
procedure in accordance with the sets of state data; and
communicatively connecting an on-site device to the CPA for
enabling an on-site personnel to access the visual operating-state
model and the event standard maintenance procedure.
7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: communicatively
connecting an expert device to the human cyber physical system for
enabling an expert to access the visual operating-state model;
entering, by the expert, an expert maintenance procedure into the
expert device; and uploading, by the expert device, the expert
maintenance procedure to the human cyber physical system, thereby
enabling the on-site personnel to access the expert maintenance
procedure through the on-site device.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the visual initial-state model
and the visual operating-state model are VR models or AR models,
and the on-site device and the expert device are VR devices or AR
devices.
9. The method of claim 6, further comprising: disposing the human
cyber physical system in a cloud layer; disposing the at least one
machine tool and the CPA in a factory layer; and communicatively
connecting the factory layer to the cloud layer via a networking
layer.
10. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one machine tool is
a rotary machine, and the sensors comprises a dynamometer, an
energy consumption sensor and a temperature sensor.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of the Provisional
Application Ser. No. 62/475,889, filed on Mar. 24, 2017. The entire
disclosures of all the above applications are hereby incorporated
by reference herein.
BACKGROUND
Field of Invention
[0002] The disclosure relates to a system and a method for machine
tool maintenance and repair, and more particularly, to a system and
a method for machine tool maintenance and repair by using a virtual
reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) technology.
Description of Related Art
[0003] In an after-sale service, maintenance and repair is an
important task provided to a client after a machine tool is
delivered, and machine malfunctions often interrupt the production
at the client side, thus resulting in cost loss.
[0004] In general, a conventional tool maintenance method still
relies on an electronic or paper manual for inspecting a machine
tool, and sometimes a maintenance instruction film may be recorded
and provided for teaching and enabling a maintenance personnel to
perform tool maintenance and repair by using audio-video
instructions besides literal instructions. For example, when a
spindle of a machine tool is out of order, maintenance personnel
may first look for the maintenance data of the spindle for
inspecting the spindle, and thus the maintenance personnel has to
look up in the manuals to find out the solutions according to the
actual failure causes of the spindle. However, this convention tool
maintenance and repair method merely has literal descriptions with
few corresponding photos, and thus it takes a lot of time for a
maintenance notice to recover the spindle. When being shown in a
video mode (maintenance film), the maintenance data may be shown by
using images, sound and words. However, the maintenance film shows
all the problems linking to the solutions, such that the
maintenance personnel will have difficulty in finding main points
for processing, thus prolonging the maintenance time.
[0005] On the other hand, a processing plant generally has several
machine tools using the same cutting tool product (type). It takes
a lot of time to judge the abnormal statuses of the machine tools
one by one, and it is quite likely to make wrong judgements. Hence,
there is need to develop and provide a method for simultaneously
monitoring and maintaining several machine tools.
SUMMARY
[0006] An object of the disclosure is to provide a system and a
method for machine tool maintenance and repair, thereby shortening
the maintenance time by using a virtual reality (VR) manner or an
augmented reality (AR) manner.
[0007] Another object of the disclosure is to provide a system and
a method for machine tool maintenance and repair, thereby using a
cyber physical agent (CPA) to simultaneously monitor and repair
plural machines of the same machine type.
[0008] According to the aforementioned objects, an aspect of the
disclosure is to provide a system for machine tool maintenance and
repair, the system includes at least one machine tool, a human
cyber physical system, a cyber-physical agent (CPA) and an on-site
device. Plural sensors are installed on each of the at least one
machine tool for collecting plural sets of state data of the
machine tool that is in operation, and the at least one machine
tool has the same tool type. The human cyber physical system has a
visual initial-state model and a standard maintenance procedure, in
which plural component models of respective parts of the machine
tool are built in accordance with measured dimension data of the
parts of the machine tool, and the component models are assembled
to form the visual initial-state model in accordance with exploded
view data of the machine tool. The human cyber physical system
analyzes periodical maintenance conditions and abnormal states
encountered by the machine tool that is in operation, thereby
building the standard maintenance procedure. The CPA is
communicatively connected to the at least one machine tool and the
human cyber physical system for receiving the standard maintenance
procedure and the sets of state data, in which the CPA or the human
cyber physical system updates the visual initial-state model as a
visual operating-state model in accordance with the sets of state
data, and the CPA obtains an event standard maintenance procedure
from the standard maintenance procedure in accordance with the sets
of state data. The on-site device is communicatively connected to
the CPA for enabling an on-site personnel to access the visual
operating-state model and the event standard maintenance
procedure.
[0009] In some embodiments, the aforementioned system further
includes an expert device communicatively connected to the human
cyber physical system for enabling an expert to access the visual
operating-state model, in which the expert device provides an
expert maintenance procedure to the on-site personnel.
[0010] In some embodiments, the visual initial-state model and the
visual operating-state model are VR models or AR models, and the
on-site device and the expert device are VR devices or AR
devices.
[0011] In some embodiments, the at least one machine tool is a
rotary machine, and the sensors includes a dynamometer, an energy
consumption sensor and a temperature sensor.
[0012] In some embodiments, the aforementioned system further
includes a cloud layer, a networking layer and a factory layer. The
cloud layer includes the human cyber physical system, the factory
layer includes the at least one machine tool and the CPA, and the
networking layer communicatively connects the factory layer to the
cloud layer.
[0013] According to the aforementioned objects, another aspect of
the disclosure is to provide a method for machine tool maintenance
and repair. the method includes installing plural sensors on each
of at least one machine tool for collecting a plurality of sets of
state data of the machine tool that is in operation; building
plural component models of respective parts of the machine tool in
accordance with measured dimension data of the parts of the machine
tool, and assembling the component models are assembled to form a
visual initial-state model in accordance with exploded view data of
the machine tool; analyzing periodical maintenance conditions and
abnormal states encountered by the machine tool that is in
operation, thereby building a standard maintenance procedure;
storing the visual initial-state model and the standard maintenance
procedure in a human cyber physical system; communicatively
connecting a cyber-physical agent (CPA) to the at least one machine
tool and the human cyber physical system for receiving the standard
maintenance procedure and the sets of state data; updating the
visual initial-state model as a visual operating-state model in
accordance with the sets of state data, and obtaining an event
standard maintenance procedure from the standard maintenance
procedure in accordance with the sets of state data; and
communicatively connecting an on-site device to the CPA for
enabling an on-site personnel to access the visual operating-state
model and the event standard maintenance procedure.
[0014] In some embodiments, in the aforementioned method, an expert
device is communicatively connected to the human cyber physical
system for enabling an expert to access the visual operating-state
model, and the expert enters an expert maintenance procedure into
the expert device, and the expert device uploads the expert
maintenance procedure to the human cyber physical system, thereby
enabling the on-site personnel to access the expert maintenance
procedure through the on-site device.
[0015] In some embodiments, the aforementioned method further
includes disposing the human cyber physical system in a cloud
layer; disposing the at least one machine tool and the CPA in a
factory layer; and communicatively connecting the factory layer to
the cloud layer via a networking layer.
[0016] Thus, with the applications of the embodiments of the
disclosure, the maintenance time can be shortened by using a VR
manner or an AR manner, and a cyber physical agent (CPA) can be
used to simultaneously monitor and repair plural machines of the
same machine type.
[0017] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general
description and the following detailed description are by examples,
and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as
claimed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] The invention can be more fully understood by reading the
following detailed description of the embodiment, with reference
made to the accompanying drawings as follows:
[0019] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a system for machine
tool maintenance and repair in accordance with some embodiments of
the disclosure;
[0020] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram explaining a SOP-AVR mode and
an EG-AVR mode for machine tool maintenance and repair in
accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0021] FIG. 3A illustrates a schematic flow chart showing a method
for machine tool maintenance and repair in a modeling stage
according to some embodiments of the disclosure;
[0022] FIG. 3B illustrates a schematic flow chart showing a method
for machine tool maintenance and repair in an operating stage
according to some embodiments of the disclosure; and
[0023] FIG. 3C illustrates a schematic flow chart showing a method
for machine tool maintenance and repair in an updating stage
according to some embodiments of the disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0024] Reference will now be made in detail to the present
embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in
the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference
numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to
the same or like parts.
[0025] Embodiments of the disclosure provide a system and a method
for machine tool maintenance and repair, thereby enabling an expert
at a remote site to collaborate with an on-site personnel located
beside a machine tool to maintain or repair the machine tool by
integrating a VR or AR model with the physical machine tool.
Embodiments of the disclosure provide two maintenance modes which
are an augmented virtual reality model guided by a standard
operation procedure (referred as a SOP-AVR mode), and an augmented
virtual reality model guided by an expert operation procedure
(referred as an EG-AVR mode). In the SOP-AVR mode, if the
maintenance causes and items belong to known standard operation
procedures, the on-site personnel enters a maintenance instruction
mode to perform maintenance or repair, and during the maintenance
or repair, the system will instruct the on-site personnel step by
step in accordance with a state of the tool machine maintained or
repaired by the on-site personnel. If the maintenance causes are
beyond the expected or predetermined states of the machine tool,
the system will contact the expert (such as a vendor) and send
operation states of the machine tool before malfunction to the
expert, thereby enabling the expert to well know the operating
information for effectively resolving the failure causes, i.e. the
EG-AVR mode. After the EG-AVR mode begins, in addition to resolving
the failure causes, the new contents of resolving the failure
causes will be added to the standard operating procedure via the
cloud layer, so as to provide a robust maintenance procedure.
[0026] AVR is a collective term of AR and VR. Both of the AR and VR
are used for displaying a virtual world, but there are differences
between them, in which the AR enables a virtual world and a
physical world to be integrated and interactive by calculating the
position and angle of an image captured by a camera in addition to
an image analysis technology; and the VR generates a virtual world
by computer simulation, thereby allowing a user to sense the
environment with hearing and vision, such that the user may
experience the environment personally and be free to observe the
objects in the environment in time. Meanwhile, in the VR, when the
user moves to a new position, the virtual scene is changed at the
same time, thus providing the user with actual liveness.
[0027] Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a
system for machine tool maintenance and repair in accordance with
some embodiments of the disclosure. As shown in FIG. 1, the system
includes a cloud layer, a networking layer and a factory layer. A
human cyber physical system 100 is a cloud server disposed on the
cloud layer. The networking layer includes a gateway 110 and
firewalls 112 and 114 for data transmission between the cloud layer
and the factory layer. A plant (on-site) and a remote-site are
located on the factory layer. An expert device 140 is located at
the remote site for allowing an expert 142 to access data. At least
one cyber-physical agents (CPA) 120a, 120b and/or 120c are disposed
at the plant, in which each of the CPAs is in charge of one or more
machine tools. For example, the CPA 120a is in charge of the
machine tools 122a-122c; the CPA 120b is in charge of the machine
tools 124a and 124b; and the CPA 120c is in charge of the machine
tool 126, in which the machine tools 122a-122c have the same
machine type, and the machine tools 124a and 124b have the same
machine type. An on-site device 130 is disposed at the plant for
allowing an on-site personal 132 to access data.
[0028] Plural sensors are installed on each of the machine tools
122a/122b/122c, 124a/124b, and 126 for collecting plural sets of
state data of the machine tool that is in operation. In one
embodiment, the machine tools 122a/122b/122c are rotary machines,
and the sensors includes a dynamometer, an energy consumption
sensor and a temperature sensor for detecting abnormalities and
preventive maintenance of the machine tools. The dynamometer is
used to capture vibration signals of the rotary machine
(mechanism), thereby detecting vibration frequencies of the rotary
machine that is in operation, and determining the operation state
of the rotary machine in accordance with magnitudes and wave forms
of the vibration frequencies. The energy consumption sensor is used
to collect signals of voltage, current, power consumption, etc. of
the machine tool that is in operation, and to diagnose the
operating state of the machine tool. The temperature sensor is used
to determine the operating state of the machine tool when the
rotary mechanism is in operation by detecting a temperature cure
change of the machine tool. The CPA 120a integrates and weighted
all the sensing information to evaluate the current states of the
machine tool 122a, 122b or 122c.
[0029] The human cyber physical system 100 includes a processor and
a database. The human cyber physical system has a visual
initial-state model 102a and a standard maintenance procedure 104a,
in which the processor builds plural component models of respective
parts of the machine tool is built in accordance with measured
dimension data of the parts of the machine tool 122a/122b/122c,
124a/124b, or 126, and assembles the component models to form the
visual initial-state model in accordance with exploded view data of
the machine tool. The processor analyzes periodical maintenance
conditions and abnormal states encountered by the machine tool that
is in operation, thereby building the standard maintenance
procedure. Because the machine tools 122a, 122b and 122c have the
same machine type, only one visual initial-state model 102a and
only one standard maintenance procedure 104a are needed. Because
the machine tools 124a and 124b have the same machine type, only
one visual initial-state model 102a and only one standard
maintenance procedure 104a are needed. The visual initial-state
model 102a and the standard maintenance procedure 104a are stored
into the database of the human cyber physical system 100.
[0030] The CPAs 120a, 120b and 120c are software or firmware
circuits, and includes memories. The CPAs 120a, 120b and 120c are
communicatively connected to the human cyber physical system 100
for receiving the standard maintenance procedure 104a. The CPA 120a
is communicatively connected to the machine tools 122a, 122b and
122c for receiving the sets of state data collected by the
corresponding sensors. The CPA 120b is communicatively connected to
the machine tools 124a and 124b for receiving the sets of state
data collected by the corresponding sensors. The CPA 120c is
communicatively connected to the machine tool 126 for receiving the
sets of state data collected by the corresponding sensors. The CPA
120a, 120b or 120c or the human cyber physical system 100 updates
the visual initial-state model 102a as a visual operating-state
model 102b in accordance with the sets of state data, and the CPA
120a, 120b or 120c obtains an event standard maintenance procedure
104b from the standard maintenance procedure 104a in accordance
with the sets of state data. In one embodiment, the visual
initial-state model 102a is first downloaded to the CPA 120a, 120b
or 120c, and then is updated as the visual operating-state model
102b in the CPA 120a, 120b or 120c, and thereafter the visual
operating-state model 102b is sent back to the human cyber physical
system 100. In the other embodiment, the visual initial-state model
102a is directly updated as the visual operating-state model 102b
in the human cyber physical system 100, and then the visual
operating-state model 102b is downloaded to the CPA 120a, 120b or
120c.
[0031] The on-site device 130 is communicatively connected to the
CPA 120a, 120b or 120c for enabling the on-site personnel 132 to
access the visual operating-state model 102b and the event standard
maintenance procedure 104b. The expert device 140 is
communicatively connected to the human cyber physical system 100
for enabling the expert 142 to access the visual operating-state
model 102b, in which the expert 142 enters an expert maintenance
procedure 144 into the expert device 140, and then the expert
device 140 provides the expert maintenance procedure 144 to the
on-site personnel 132 through the human cyber physical system 100.
The on-site device 130 and the expert device 140 are VR devices or
AR devices.
[0032] In one embodiment, the processor of the human cyber physical
system 100 can be realized by, for example, one or more processors,
such as central processors and/or microprocessors, but are not
limited in this regard. In one embodiment, the memory of the human
cyber physical system 100 includes one or more memory devices, each
of which comprises, or a plurality of which collectively comprise a
computer readable storage medium. The memory may include a
read-only memory (ROM), a flash memory, a floppy disk, a hard disk,
an optical disc, a flash disk, a flash drive, a tape, a database
accessible from a network, or any storage medium with the same
functionality that can be contemplated by persons of ordinary skill
in the art to which this invention pertains. Each of the on-site
device 130 and the expert device 140 includes a display device and
a controller. The display device can be realized by, for example, a
display, such as a liquid crystal display, or an active matrix
organic light emitting display (AMOLED), but is not limited in this
regard. The controller can be realized by, for example, a handheld
controller, such as a controller for Vive or a controller for Gear,
but is not limited in this regard.
[0033] Hereinafter, the CPA 120a is used for explaining the SOP-AVR
mode and the EG-AVR mode of the disclosure. At first, a 3-D model
of the machine tool 126 is built. Before building the 3D model,
dimensions of respective parts of the machine tool 126 are
measured. Then, component models of the parts of the machine tool
126 are built. Thereafter, the component models are assembled under
an AVR software environment in accordance with exploded view data
of the machine tool, so as to form the visual initial-state model
102a. Then, an operation is performed to set up motion states of
the components, in which periodical maintenance conditions and
abnormal states encountered by the machine tool that is in
operation (i.e. when the machine tool is being operated) are
analyzed. After the periodical maintenance conditions and abnormal
states listed, the standard maintenance procedure 104a is built in
accordance with the strategic analysis and discussion of the
expected issues.
[0034] When the following items occur during the operation of the
machine tool 126, the CPA 120c will automatically trigger an
abnormal event and record the state history (state data) of the
machine tool 126. The items include changes of application or
operation states (such as various states of "Auto", "Jog" or "MDI"
(Manual Data Input)), user-defined triggers (such as M code),
override changes, axial over-travel warnings and controller
warnings. The abnormal event includes an over-travel event, an
over-heat event or an over-load event. The CPA 120c or the human
cyber physical system 100 updates the visual initial-state model
102a as the visual operating-state model 102b in accordance with
the sets of state data, and the CPA 120c obtains the event standard
maintenance procedure 104b from the standard maintenance procedure
104a in accordance with the sets of state data, in which the event
standard maintenance procedure 104b displays the trigger conditions
and the problem solutions that are listed by features under the AVR
environment, in which the display is designed to classify the
malfunction categories by subjects, thereby allowing the on-site
personnel 132 to conveniently inspect and resolve the malfunctions
of the machine tool 126 under the AVR environment, After the
malfunctions of the machine tool 126 are resolved, the sensors of
the machine tool 126 will collected the update state data of the
machine tool 126 and the visual operating-state model 102b will be
updated accordingly. The aforementioned description is the
explanation of the SOP-AVR mode.
[0035] Hereinafter, the EG-AVR mode is explained. The EG-AVR mode
is activated by a trigger instruction under the SOP-AVR mode. When
the malfunction of the machine tool 126 is beyond that listed or
expected in the SOP-AVR mode, the on-site personnel 132 may select
to activate the EG-AVR mode. The EG-AVR mode brings two or more
expert 142 and the on-site personnel 132 at different sites (the
on-site and the remote-site) to one identical virtual display,
thereby allowing them to discuss with respect to the same machine
tool in the same display, in which sound and captions may added to
the display, such as shown in FIG. 2. For example, the expert 142
may speak through a microphone of the expert device 140 to say
"Hello, this is a development engineer of this machine tool.", and
meanwhile, the on-site personnel 132 in the same VR environment may
hear the voice of the expert 142 through a speaker of the on-site
device 130, and a dialog window may appear besides a virtual
character representing the expert 142, thereby displaying the
captions. After the expert device 140 provides the expert
maintenance procedure 144 to the on-site personnel 132 to resolve
the malfunctions or emergencies that are not expected by the
SOP-AVR mod, the expert maintenance procedure 144 is used to update
synchronously the standard maintenance procedure 104a corresponding
to the machine tools having the same machine type with the machine
tool 126.
[0036] A method for machine tool maintenance and repair according
to embodiments of the disclosure is explained hereinafter, in which
the method is divided into a modeling stage, an operating stage and
an updating stage.
[0037] Referring to FIG. 3A, FIG. 3A illustrates a schematic flow
chart showing a method for machine tool maintenance and repair in
the modeling stage according to some embodiments of the disclosure.
In the modeling stage, operation 310 is performed to install plural
sensors on each of at least one machine tool for collecting plural
sets of state data of the machine tool that is in operation.
Operation 312 is performed to build a visual initial-state model
(state model) in accordance with a physical machine tool structure
(measured dimension data of parts of the machine tool), assembling
procedures (exploded view data of the machine tool), positions of
the sensors and operating states. Operation 314 is performed to
analyze possible events of periodical maintenance conditions and
abnormal states encountered by the machine tool that is in
operation, so as to build SOP-VAR maintenance procedures for the
respective events and then build a standard maintenance procedure,
in which the SOP-VAR maintenance procedures includes sub-procedures
of checking, disassembling and inspecting. Operation 316 is
performed to store the visual initial-state model and the standard
maintenance procedure in a human cyber physical system.
[0038] Referring to FIG. 3B, FIG. 3B illustrates a schematic flow
chart showing a method for machine tool maintenance and repair in
the operating stage according to some embodiments of the
disclosure. In the operating stage, operation 320 is performed to
communicatively connect a CPA to the at least one machine tool and
the human cyber physical system for receiving the standard
maintenance procedure and the sets of state data collected by the
sensors of the machine tool that is in operation. Through the
sensors of the machine tool, the CPA may automatically record the
operating history of the machine tool and synchronously updates the
visual initial-state model as a visual operating-state model. When
the machine tool is abnormal, operation 322 is performed to
communicatively connect an on-site device to the CPA for enabling
an on-site personnel to access the visual operating-state model and
to obtain an event standard maintenance procedure from the standard
maintenance procedure. Meanwhile, the on-site personnel first
handles the abnormal machine tool in accordance with a SOP-AVR
maintenance procedure (the standard maintenance procedure)
suggested by the CPA. If the SOP-AVR maintenance procedure fails to
resolve the problems of the machine tool, operation 324 is
performed to communicatively connect an expert device to the human
cyber physical system for enabling an expert to access the visual
operating-state model. After the communication between the CPA and
the human cyber physical system is built, the on-site personnel and
the expert at the remote-site may be collaborated together to
perform maintenance and repair on the machine tool. Thereafter,
operation 326 is performed, in which the expert enters an expert
maintenance procedure into the expert device, and then the expert
device uploads the expert maintenance procedure to the human cyber
physical system, thereby enabling the on-site personnel to access
the expert maintenance procedure through the on-site device. In
operation 326, the expert may simulate the maintenance procedures
under various conditions by using the visual operating-state model,
for example, changing the order of different axial motors, so as to
inspect the causes of abnormality of the machine tool. Then, the
human cyber physical system will instruct the on-site personnel
with the simulated maintenance steps of the machine tool (the
expert maintenance procedure) step by step.
[0039] If the result of maintenance and repair does not meet the
expectation of the expert maintenance procedure, then the expert is
asked to provide another suggestion. If the result of maintenance
and repair meets the expectation of the expert maintenance
procedure, the method enters the updating stage to update the
standard maintenance procedure synchronously by using the expert
maintenance procedure, such as shown in operation 330 of FIG.
3C.
[0040] It can be known from the aforementioned embodiments that,
the maintenance time is shortened by using a VR manner or an AR
manner, and a cyber physical agent (CPA) is used to simultaneously
monitor and repair plural machines of the same machine type.
[0041] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various
modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the
disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the
invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the
disclosure cover modifications and variations of this invention
provided they fall within the scope of the following claims.
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