Project Details

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Open Source Automation for Manufacturing, Logistics, and Supply Services - Transportation Vehicle

Company: PSU Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (IME) 2

Major(s):
Primary: EE
Secondary: CMPSC
Optional: IE, ME

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Modern supply chains are becoming increasingly reliant on automation to meet challenges such as staffing shortages, increased customer demand, reduced lead times, and high network complexity. ?Long term, this project aims to create a fully automated, end-to-end supply chain and manufacturing system on a small, table-top scale. ?The scale is small to make the system low cost and safe for education and research, while still representing a complete end-to-end supply chain. ?The final system will consist of multiple robotic manufacturing facilities, autonomous transportation vehicles, automated distribution centers, and overarching cloud-based software. Multiple student project teams will each design, build, and integrate *one* link of this chain through the course of a semester. In this project, the team will produce a transportation vehicle. ?It should transport various cargo (unassembled Lego bricks, completed subassemblies, and a final assembly of multiple letters) via a simple road network; automatically receive cargo from a distribution center or manufacturing facility; use cloud software to receive a delivery destination, plan a route, and autonomously navigate while transmitting real time location, cargo manifest, and energy usage data; avoid obstacles and blockages while re-routing if necessary; automatically unload cargo to a manufacturing facility or end customer; include control and monitoring software written in Python to be run on a Raspberry Pi; and be setup in the FAME Lab in the Leonhard Building.