The purpose of this research is to determine the effects of systematic approach to computer integration on implementation cost, implementation time, user satisfaction, and level of integration in small business environments. It is believed that decreased costs and implementation time result from the use of systematic approaches to computer integration. Systematic approaches may also result in higher user satisfaction and a higher level of system integration.

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Published Article / Mechatronic practitioners are engaged in the assembly and maintenance of complex machines, plants and systems in the engineering sector or in organisations which purchase and operate such mechatronic systems. Mechatronics, often described as the synergy of mechanical and computer systems together with electronic technologies, is increasingly being singled out as a core focus by both the education and business sectors. This international trend is also evident in South Africa and Engineering Faculties now have to provide students with the opportunity not only to acquire theoretical knowledge in Mechatronics but also to develop skills in implementing and designing mechatronics systems.

ITC/USA 2008 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fourth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 27-30, 2008 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / As cost and power consumption of wireless devices decreases, it becomes increasingly practical to use wireless communications and control in residential settings. These networks share some of the same challenges and constraints as conventional telemetry networks. This particular project focused on using a commercial, off-the-shelf router to implement a residential automation system using Z-Wave wireless devices. The router can communicate status, and accept commands over a conventional 802.11 network, but does not require a remote host to operate the network. The router was reprogrammed using open source software, so it could issue commands, collect data, and monitor the Z-Wave network.

The background of the concept, ABB Production Cell, meets the increasing demands from manufacturing industries throughout the world to simplify through standardization and by that reduce investment cost and operating cost throughout the entire lifecycle of the production cell. ABB is delivering the production cell as one easy to order, use, and maintain. The production cell is developed for virtual versions and full scale production cells. The different modules shall be utilized and presented in RobotStudio and configured in Automation Builder. With generic templates and hardware it provides e.g. early visualization, standardized systems, shortened design/development phase, and enable virtual FAT(Factory Acceptance Test). There is multiple ways of doing a virtual commissioning and it’s a known approach for testing software and hardware together. The method used in this project is known as SIL (Software-In-The-Loop).  This means that the hardware runs as software- e.g. PLC, Drives and HMI- with same properties and behavior as the real hardware. This thesis focus on describing phases of an automation system and see how different phases are affected by a virtual commissioning. Benefits will be described and the existing software will be evaluated. Furthermore, an attempt of virtual commissioning has been done with focus on connecting the software for stable communication with the virtual PLC and make a PLC-task with a handshake to the robot controller and the virtual environment. The system is tested in a virtual environment with vFAT and then on the workshop (FAT). This was done to see if the softwares replicated the same behavior as the hardwares.  The result for the virtual commissioning is that it is possible to run the virtual PLC (VAC500) with the same time interface, behavior, and signals as the real PLC (AC500). / Bakgrunden till konceptet ABB Produktions Cell är ökad efterfrågan av ett enkelt sätt, genom standardisering, att reducera kostnaderna för hela livscykeln för en produktions cell. ABB Produktions cell ska vara enkel att köpa, använda och upprätthålla. Konceptet är utvecklat för att kunna skapa fullskaliga modeller av produktionsceller. Utrustningen och den virtuella miljön finns i RobotStudio och konfigurationen av HMI,Drives och PLC i AutomationBuilder.  Generiska mallar, mjukvaror, hårdvaror ger möjlighet för t.ex. tidig visualisering, förkortad design och utvecklingsfas, standardiserade system samt tidig verifiering och test genom virtuell FAT(Factory Acceptance Test)   Idrifttagning av ett automationssystem kan tillämpas både virtuellt och traditionellt. Det finns flera olika metoder för virtuell idrifttagning och metoden för detta projekt är SIL(Software-In-the-Loop). Detta går ut på att hårdvaror såsom HMI, PLC och Drives körs som mjukvaror, med samma beteende och egenskaper(tidsgränssnitt) som de riktiga hårdvarorna. Den här uppsatsen fokuserar på att beskriva de olika delarna av ett automationsprojekt och hur de påverkas av virtuell idrifttagning. Fördelar med metoden tas fram och den befintliga utrustningen utvärderas. Ett försök till virtuell idrifttagning har genomförts där fokus varit att skapa en sekvenskod för logiken till en befintlig produktionscell samt skapa kopplingar mellan mjukvarorna. Detta testas och verifieras först i virtuell miljö med virtuell FAT(Factory Acceptance Test) och därefter har den verkliga produktionscellen verifierats i verkstaden(FAT). Utvärdering om beteende och cykeltider har också gjorts för att dra slutsatsen om vFAT kan jämföras med FAT under utvecklingsstadiet. Resultatet för den virtuella idrifttagningen är att det är möjligt att köra virtuell PLC(VAC500) med samma tidsinterface, beteende och signaler som den riktiga PLC(AC500).

published_or_final_version / abstract / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

This report includes a thesis carried out by Fredrik Almers and Manne Hellsing, students at Mälardalen University in the engineering program, Innovation and product design. The assignment has been carried out in behalf of Robotdalen (Västerås, Sweden) in the period 2015-01-20 – 2015-06-11. The assignment was to explore possibilities of manufacturing prefabricated wall elements using industrial robots. The task also included to determine which robot tools that was needed and also designing one of them. The purpose of the assignment was to develop the first robot tool required for the manufacturing and to investigate whether the production time can be reduced by 70 percent compared to manual work. To be able to address the problem in a scientific way, the project was split into three phases. The first concerning information gathering, the second concept development and the third the design of the tool. The data collection included analyzing literature, previous work that had been done in the project and conducting study visits. At this stage it was also revealed which tools were necessary and which one of these that would be designed. It takes six different tools to manufacture a wall element and the one that were designed was a multifunctional beam assembly tool. A function analysis and a requirements specification were also established in this phase. They were used as a basis for further work. The goal of the concept generation phase was to develop a final concept where the basic features of the tool was presented. The problem was divided into two parts and each part solution was developed and evaluated individually. Through discussions and the use of appropriate product development tools a final concept could be established. The functions of the final concept was to grab hold of the wooden beam, compress it with another beam and then nail them together. To solve this, existing components as grippers, pneumatic cylinders and linear units were used. The goal of the design phase was to go from a fundamental principle concept to a fully finished and fully specified design. To achieve this CAD were used to calculate the components strength and how they would work together. Trough contact and advice collected from the suppliers the various components were selected. The designing of the tool has been based on the requirement specifications and the function analysis. The result of this project is a robotic tool that manages to nail together two wooden beams with two nails in under five seconds. It does not require any help to accomplish this task and can handle several different beam dimensions. The tool is designed with a frame of aluminum profiles, whereupon the necessary components for the task are installed. Thus it is easy to maintain and change the design of the tool if needed. With the help of this tool, the production time for a wall element is reduced up to 90 percent, according to simulations in the CAD environment compared to manual work.

This report is the proof of concept that shows how Coded UI can be used for the automation of GUI tests. For this thesis-work, an industrial case study is done on 26 different test cases provided at the company Basalt AB. The problem they had was that testing was very time consuming and was therefore not done as often as needed to keep the level of quality required for the system developed. The method that has been used are called the validation method and the work was according to that divided into five steps: choosing test cases, a learning process, implementation, compare the results and then draw conclusions. Test automation has benefits of time savings and the fact that tests will be reused. Testing will take minutes instead of hours and the tests can be executed over and over again as many times as needed. So by changing from manual testing to automated testing, tests can be run faster and therefore more often. The investment of automated testing will be repaid before the end of the fourth test round. So conclusions can be drawn from the results of this thesis and it shows that it absolutely is worth the investment of automating the testing process.

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