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Shimon Y. Nof (born 1946) is a professor of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He has held visiting positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at universities in Chile, the European Union, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Taiwan, and UK. He is the Director of the Production, Robotics and Integration Software for the Manufacturing & Management (PRISM) Center at Purdue. [1]
Nof received his B.Sc. in 1969 and M.Sc. in 1972 in Industrial Engineering & Management (Human-machine systems) from the Technion in Haifa, Israel, and his Ph.D. in Industrial & Operations Engineering (Production Analytics) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1976.
Nof has conducted research on collaborative e-Work and e-Service in multi-enterprise networks, integrated production and service systems, and decision support — as well as design of cyber-physical systems for managing distributed activities by collaborative multi-agent teams. His research pioneered the development of knowledge-based, computer-integrated facility design and robotics control models. His current research focus is on computer-supported integration and collaboration of distributed e-work, robotics, and cyber-physical work. Nof has developed and teaches the courses "Industrial Robotics and Flexible Assembly", "Cyber Methods in Production Control", "Integrated Production Systems I and II", "I.E. Computing", and "Design of E-work, E-service, and CPS".
In 1999, Nof was listed in the inaugural group of Purdue's Book of Great Teachers. In 2002, he was awarded the Engelberger Medal for Robotics Education. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), the former Chair of IFAC CC-Manufacturing and Logistics Systems; Fellow, former Secretary General and President of the IFPR (International Foundation of Production Research).
Nof has published over 550 articles on production engineering, information and cyber technology, co-inventor of five patents, and is the co-author/editor of fourteen books, including the Handbook of Industrial Robotics (Wiley, 1985) and the International Encyclopedia of Robotics (Wiley, 1988), both winners of the "Most Outstanding Book in Science and Engineering" awards by the Association of American Publishers; Industrial Assembly (Chapman & Hall, 1997, the Handbook of Industrial Robotics (2nd edition), (Wiley, 1999), Springer Handbook of Automation (2009), Revolutionizing Collaboration Through e-Work, e-Business, and e-Service (Springer ACES Series, 2015), Best Matching: Theory & Application (Springer ACES Series, 2017), Dynamic Lines of Collaboration: Disruption Handling & Control (Springer ACES Series, 2020).
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their life cycles. At its core, systems engineering utilizes systems thinking principles to organize this body of knowledge. The individual outcome of such efforts, an engineered system, can be defined as a combination of components that work in synergy to collectively perform a useful function.
Machine vision (MV) is the technology and methods used to provide imaging-based automatic inspection and analysis for such applications as automatic inspection, process control, and robot guidance, usually in industry. Machine vision refers to many technologies, software and hardware products, integrated systems, actions, methods and expertise. Machine vision as a systems engineering discipline can be considered distinct from computer vision, a form of computer science. It attempts to integrate existing technologies in new ways and apply them to solve real world problems. The term is the prevalent one for these functions in industrial automation environments but is also used for these functions in other environment vehicle guidance.
Mechatronics, also called mechatronics engineering, is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on the integration of mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering systems, and also includes a combination of robotics, electronics, computer science, telecommunications, systems, control, and product engineering.
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Robot calibration is a process used to improve the accuracy of robots, particularly industrial robots which are highly repeatable but not accurate. Robot calibration is the process of identifying certain parameters in the kinematic structure of an industrial robot, such as the relative position of robot links. Depending on the type of errors modeled, the calibration can be classified in three different ways. Level-1 calibration only models differences between actual and reported joint displacement values,. Level-2 calibration, also known as kinematic calibration, concerns the entire geometric robot calibration which includes angle offsets and joint lengths. Level-3 calibration, also called a non-kinematic calibration, models errors other than geometric defaults such as stiffness, joint compliance, and friction. Often Level-1 and Level-2 calibration are sufficient for most practical needs.
Unimate was the first industrial robot, which worked on a General Motors assembly line at the Inland Fisher Guide Plant in Ewing Township, New Jersey, in 1961.
Manufacturing engineering or production engineering is a branch of professional engineering that shares many common concepts and ideas with other fields of engineering such as mechanical, chemical, electrical, and industrial engineering. Manufacturing engineering requires the ability to plan the practices of manufacturing; to research and to develop tools, processes, machines and equipment; and to integrate the facilities and systems for producing quality products with the optimum expenditure of capital.
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François B. Vernadat is a French and Canadian computer scientist, who has contributed to Enterprise Modelling, Integration and Networking over the last 25 years specialising in enterprise architectures, business process modelling, information systems design and analysis, systems integration and interoperability and systems analysis using Petri nets.
Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information and equipment. Industrial engineering is central to manufacturing operations.
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution, 4IR, or Industry 4.0, conceptualizes rapid change to technology, industries, and societal patterns and processes in the 21st century due to increasing interconnectivity and smart automation. The term has been used widely in scientific literature, and in 2015 was popularized by Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum Founder and Executive chairman. Schwab asserts that the changes seen are more than just improvements to efficiency, but express a significant shift in industrial capitalism.
Jean-Baptiste Waldner is a French engineer, management consultant and author, known for his contributions in the fields of computer-integrated manufacturing, enterprise architecture, nanoelectronics, nanocomputers and swarm intelligence.
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Industrial and production engineering (IPE) is an interdisciplinary engineering discipline that includes manufacturing technology, engineering sciences, management science, and optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations. It is concerned with the understanding and application of engineering procedures in manufacturing processes and production methods. Industrial engineering dates back all the way to the industrial revolution, initiated in 1700s by Sir Adam Smith, Henry Ford, Eli Whitney, Frank Gilbreth and Lilian Gilbreth, Henry Gantt, F.W. Taylor, etc. After the 1970s, industrial and production engineering developed worldwide and started to widely use automation and robotics. Industrial and production engineering includes three areas: Mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, and management science.
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Shraga Shoval is an Israeli professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering & Management and the Dean of the Engineering Faculty at Ariel University