Home shop Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)

Hello,

I am in the process of developing requirements for a modular, home
shop based Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) system and I was
wondering if anyone on this list would would be interested in
providing some feedback on this idea? The whole system will be
integrated using a wired/wireless Ethernet network and I plan to make
all of the software open source so if this project eventually produces
deliverables then it can be downloaded from the internet for free and
used or modified as needed.

As much of the software as possible will be written in the Java
programming language (including the realtime embedded systems code) so
it will be able to run without modification on a very wide range of
computer platforms including Windows, Linux, Macintosh and Embedded
systems.

Here is a simple diagram that gives an idea of what the system's
topology will look like:

http://tkosan.javadevices.org/misc/embeddedjava/home_shop_cim.jpg


With this kind of system, parts can be designed in the house or the
shop and part files can be downloaded to the machines as needed
through the network. Beyond this, the network enables a
building-block manufacturing capability that allows work cells to be
easily put together which consist of a number of different machines.

For example, a cell can be put together which consists of a material's
handling robot and a CNC table and the network will allow these two to
work together.

Cameras can also be easily added to the network and the status of a
production run can be monitored from anywhere on a person's property
using a wireless PDA, a PC in the house or even from a person's TV in
the near future.

As another example, an audible alarm can also be attached to the
network in the house and the system could then notify the people in
the house when a machine needs reloading or when there is a problem.

Even though widespread CIM has been a dream of the manufacturing
industry for years, the commodity technologies needed to implement
this idea relatively inexpensively have just become available within
the past couple of years.

Anyway, if anyone has some ideas about what they would like to see in
a system like this I would very much like to hear them.


Thanks,

Ted Kosan