STC A - 2017 Annual Report

The Scientific Technical Committee: Life Cycle Engineering and Assembly had two meetings in 2017: in Paris on February 16 and in Lugano on August 25.

The February STC LCE/A meeting in Paris was attended by 111 people, and the Lugano meeting had 72 attendees.

Conferences and sponsored seminars under STC LCE/A are:

Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) conferences

• 24th LCE Conference 2017 Kamakura, Japan (Prof. Umeda and Prof. Takata)
• 25th LCE Conference 2018 Copenhagen, Denmark (Prof. Hauschild)
• 26th LCE Conference 2019 Purdue and U. Michigan, USA (Prof. Sutherland, Prof. Zhao, and Prof. Skerlos)
• 27th LCE Conference 2020 Grenoble, France (Prof. Brissaud)
• 28th LCE Conference 2021 Jaipur, India (Prof. Sangwan and Prof. Herrmann)
• 29th LCE Conference 2022 Leuven, Belgium (Prof. Dewulf and Prof. Duflou)

Assembly (CATS) conferences:

• 7th Conference on Assembly Technology and Systems, Intelligent Assembly Systems, 2018, Tianjin, China (Prof. Wang and Prof. Hu)
• 8th Conference on Assembly Technology and Systems, Digitalizing smart factories, 2020, Athens, Greece (Dr. Makris, Prof. Mourtzis and Prof. Chryssolouris)

STC A Keynote Papers

Future keynote papers will be:
• 2018 – Hermann et al.: Life Cycle Engineering of Light Weight Structures
• 2019 – Wang et al.: Symbiotic Human-Robot Collaborative Assembly
• 2020 – Hauschild et al.: Absolute Sustainability – challenges to life cycle engineering
• 2021 – proposals have been solicited

Technical Presentations

Paris meeting (2017):
• Bernd Kuhlenkoetter: Realistic simulation of industrial bin-picking systems.
• Rainer Mueller: Skill based dynamic task allocation in human-robot-cooperation with the example of a welding application.
• Franz Dietrich: A novel method for assembly planning of modular battery systems based upon product packaging.
• Loris Roveda: Empowering human operators’ capabilities in industrial context using robotics (both industrial robots and exoskeletons)
• Sotiris Makris: Autonomous and reconfigurable robotic assembly system.
• Carol Handwerker: Value Recovery from Used Hard Disk Drives: A Case Study for the Circular Economy.
• John Ahmet Erkoyuncu: Digital service engineering.
• Joerg Franke: Flexible, automated assembly of automotive cable harness.
• Sebastian Reitelshoefer: New concepts for soft grippers on a phase transition of granular materials.
• Adelaide Marzano: Tackling energy and emissions over the aerospace composite components’ supply chain.
• Moneer Helu: Development of a standards-based communications’ interface for production systems.

GA Meeting – Lugano (2017):
• Sami Kara: Product Functionality and Dynamic Unit in LCA
• Sebastian Thiede: Shop Floor LCA - concept and technical framework for the case of battery manufacturing
• Stefan Seifermann: Energy flexibility in manufacturing –“The SynErgie Project”
• Chris Yuan: Considering battery degradation in life cycle assessment of electric vehicles
• Yazdani Nezhad: Automated, rapid and reliable aerospace composite repair and assembly
• George Michalos: Human robot collaborative assembly design and operation framework
• Rainer Mueller: Consistent provision of information through cyber-physical systems at an assembly machine manufacturer
• Franz Dietrich: Towards self-assessment of human-robot collaboration safety in an assembly environment: a digital twin approach
• Sotiris Makris: Assembly paradigm using mobile and reconfigurable robot systems

Other business

• At the Lugano meeting, the results of the member survey taken in Aug. 2016 were reviewed (e.g., ideas for presentations and keynotes). This set the stage for a discussion on future STC LCE/A strategic directions. Participant comments were solicited – these were recorded in the meeting minutes.

Officers

The officers of STC LCE/A in 2017 were:
Chair: Prof. John W. Sutherland
Vice-chair: Prof. Jörg Krüger
Secretary: Prof. Yasushi Umeda
For further details on the activities of STC LCE/A please consult the minutes from the meetings in Paris and Lugano.

Submitted by
John W. Sutherland

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