| NSF Org: |
EEC Division of Engineering Education and Centers |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | July 16, 2021 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 29, 2022 |
| Award Number: | 2113821 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Crystal Leach
EEC Division of Engineering Education and Centers ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2021 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $20,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $20,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
926 DALNEY ST NW ATLANTA GA US 30318-6395 (404)894-4819 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
225 North Avenue NW Atlanta GA US 30332-0420 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): | IUCRC-Indust-Univ Coop Res Ctr |
| Primary Program Source: |
|
| Program Reference Code(s): |
|
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
The objective of this planning grant is to organize and plan for the establishment of an IUCRC Center for Digital Factory Innovations (CDFI). Funding will support an industry-focused workshop to gather input regarding the critical role that sensors, connectivity, automation, and enterprise models, along with machine learning and big data technologies, can play in transforming advanced manufacturing in the US. The Internet of Things for Manufacturing (IoTfM) harvests capabilities to enable the digital factory and drives sustained performance improvements in manufacturing. Interconnected, self-aware factories and processes that manufacture products through automation and intelligent human-machine interactions are envisioned. Consistent with this vision, the proposed center?s long-term objective is to catalyze IoTfM advancement and adoption by providing pre-competitive, fundamental knowledge to industry for the purposes of improved product performance, enhanced productivity, work force development, and economic growth. Collaborators at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), North Carolina State University (NCSU), and Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) will join to create this new center.
The proposed planning meeting will focus on critical knowledge gaps in four thrust areas: 1) Self-aware processes that contribute integrated sensors and accompanying adaptive, cloud-based optimization and control systems for processes such as machining, forming and robotics; 2) Augmented artificial intelligence (AI) that promotes human-machine cooperation in a cyber-physical system environment for applications such as discrete processes and cobots; 3) Protocols and interoperability that assure seamless, wireless connectivity in communication platforms with time-sensitive networks and the secure transfer of data within the digital factory environment; and 4) Self-organizing systems that represent an alternative way of organizing factory operations for increased flexibility, reconfigurability and robustness in contrast to highly centralized approaches. CDFI envisions a forum for collaborations among academic, industrial, national laboratory, and international researchers and a vehicle for educating the next generation of scientists and engineers in this industrial focus area.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The domestic manufacturing enterprise can greatly benefit from collaborative work that creates new knowledge and methods to increase the speed of innovation, reduce waste, increase productivity, bring transparency to the value chain, and provide unique training opportunities for the critical, future workforce. Manufacturing represents a significant fraction of the domestic labor, exports, and gross domestic product. Although manufacturing represents such a large part of the economy, a significant fraction of manufacturing companies are small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 500 employees. Large corporations rely on these SMEs for their supply chain within an intertwined ecosystem. Thus, these manufacturers, from large corporations to SMEs, all require collaborative public-private consortia to remain competitive and train the future workforce. This funding supported the planning activities for a new center focused on digital factory innovations. The mission of the proposed Center for Digital Factory Innovations (CDFI) is to create pre-competitive, fundamental knowledge with respect to digital factory enabling technologies, also known as the “Industrial Internet of Things” (IIoT), “Industry 4.0”, or “smart manufacturing”. The CDFI envisioned interconnected, self-aware factories and processes that manufacture products through automation and the marriage of intelligent human-machine interactions. Consistent with this vision, the proposed center’s long-term objective is to catalyze Internet of Things for Manufacturing (IoTfM) advancement and adoption for the purposes of improved product performance, enhanced productivity, work force development, and economic growth. Foundational and collaborative research by CDFI would address knowledge gaps that frustrate achievement of this vision today and will harness IoTfM potential to drive sustained manufacturing performance improvements. The CDFI would be a robust and sustainable center of excellence that delivers economic, quality, and technical advantages to industry and a collaborative forum for academic and industrial researchers.
The CDFI planning meeting convened academic faculty, industry researchers, and national laboratories to discuss projects in four thrust areas: 1) Self-Aware Processes, which contribute integrated sensors and accompanying adaptive, cloud-based optimization and control systems for processes, such as machining, forming, and robotics. 2) Augmented AI, which assures human-machine cooperation in a cyber-physical system environment through artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and machine learning for applications such as discrete processes and cobots. 3) Protocols & Interoperability, which focuses on communication platforms from time sensitive networks to wireless connectivity to the secure transfer of data for a given manufacturing process or entire factory environment. 4) Self-Organizing Systems, which enable business and enterprise architectures that support digital factory innovations across the value and supply chain to assure transparency from design to manufacturing to delivery to usage to end of life.
In terms of broader impact, the CDFI would benefit society through contributions to: economic security (new job creation through spillover effects of innovation and digitalization, and the strengthening of SME capabilities); national security (enhanced reliability and security of time-sensitive networking and innovations in sensors, networking, and data communication protocols); workforce development (various new scalable and transferable initiatives such as course materials and active learning with the latest developments in digital manufacturing at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and for machine operator training); and increased diversity in education opportunities (inclusive programs to assure a diverse workforce in terms of ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status).
Last Modified: 07/16/2023
Modified by: Christopher Saldana
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
