Development Of Teaching-based Flexible Manufacturing System

Flexible Manufacturing System(FMS),as a very typical product from integrated application of industrial automation technology,would significantly enhance the practical ability of Mechatronic Engineering major students if introduced to the practical teaching system of applied undergraduate talents training.Therefore,it is in an urgent need to properly simplify a manufacturing-oriented FMS into a set of more secure,light-weighted,and teaching-oriented FMS.This paper starts with an introduction of the industrial automation technology,then illustrates the requirements of various practical teaching projects which the teaching-oriented FMS could be applied to.Accordingly,an overall design scheme is proposed,followed by a specified development goal,an assembly line-chosen plan,establishment of a configure network of the system with PROFIBUS,and the master station design scheme is completed.On the basis of the overall design scheme and the premise of saving space and limiting the cost,a hardware outfit scheme for the constitutional units of a set of advanced teaching-oriented FMS is completed after the layout of equipment,the selection and modification of the mechanical device,and the matching of electrical equipment.Then,based on a predetermined master station control action sequence and scheduling scheme,a logic control scheme for each unit/station action and the inter-coordination action is designed with Axure RP8-a rapid prototyping design tool.Meanwhile,HMI system is used to develop the monitoring system to realize the online management of the system.This set of FMS has played a proper role in the actual teaching and achieved good teaching results.