On Developing a Collaborative and Interoperable Mobile Production Platform for an Agile Factory: A Case Study

This paper reports on the development of a "mobile production platform" (MPP), which comprises a mobile robot with lifting capability and an ABB IRB14000 YuMI precision robot mounted on top of it. The MPP is capable of moving to different locations in the production space to perform production. Different programming languages and specification standards are used such as the graphical IEC 61499 language, Robot Operating System (ROS), and ABB's Rapid language. To allow easy communication with other actors programmed in different languages on the factory floor, the MPP utilizes the well-known OPC UA, the communication standard defined by the Reference Architectural Model Industrie 4.0 (RAMI 4.0).