An IoT-Based Cyber-Physical Framework for Turbine Assembly Systems

Turbines are typical engineering-to-order products which can be highly customized. This paper considers the final assembly control under uncertainty in turbine assembly workstations. A cyber-physical framework based on Internet of Things (IoT) is proposed for the turbine assembly, which consists of physical components, cyber components and an IoT-based monitoring system. The IoT-based monitoring modules capture real-time data of the physical components, including the workers, tools, parts and the actual assembly process. These cyber modules can generate the original scheduling for the assembly tasks, re-sequence the assembly tasks, re-assign the workers and control the logistics when an unexpected event occurs. Physical activities are undertaken in a turbine assembly workstation based on assembly instructions and guidance from the cyber components. The proposed framework can be implemented in the large turbine assembly system, which can facilitate real-time information driven assembly process monitoring and collaborative control of the task sequence, the worker assignments and logistics in a closed-loop environment. The experimental results show that our method can significantly improve the quality and the efficiency of a turbine assembly system.