Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML
SWAP- Hierarchical swarms as utilization-optimised production architecture
The Fraunhofer lead project SWAP aims to identify new technological concepts for shaping the production of the future. Currently, the goods that need to be produced are manufactured and assembled classically in individual processing stations in a defined process sequence.
The lead project’s aim is to create the basis for manufacturing environments that include modular manufacturing units. These units collaborate in swarms of similar or different tools, machines or transport vehicles and (partially) work together autonomously and productively. The core is a hierarchical swarm in extension of the classical swarm principle already used in production.
For this purpose, the competencies of the Fraunhofer Associations for Production, Light & Surfaces and ICT Technology are combined. Therefore, nine Fraunhofer Institutes are working on four industry-relevant use cases under the project management of Prof. Dr. Welf-Guntram Drossel and Prof. Dr. Andreas Tünnermann.
Beneficial factors for use in industry include the shortening of manufacturing process chains by breaking up the previous rigid sequence of production steps with numerous influencing factors, for example through new additive manufacturing processes.