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Intelligent Systems Division
Mission
To
develop the measurements and standards infrastructure needed for the
application of intelligent systems.
Overview
The
Intelligent Systems Division supports a future in which U. S. manufacturing
grows more accurate, agile, intelligent, interoperable, and reconfigurable
through constant innovation. Our work promotes the development of measurement
science and interoperability standards that will enhance manufacturing
robotics and automation equipment and the underlying industrial control
systems.
Federal
and industry groups have specifically stressed the importance of innovation
in robotics, manufacturing automation, and control systems for maintaining
U. S. primacy in innovation and high-value-added manufacturing. The
American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) lists advancements in manufacturing
as a key priority. The President's Council of Advisors for Science and
Technology (PCAST) has said that "the big winners ... will be those
who develop talent, techniques, and tools so advanced that there is
no competition" and warns that "where product cycles mature
and the costs of labor come to dominate … the United States loses
its competitive advantages." The National Academy of Engineering
report on the Transformation of Manufacturing in the 21st Century articulates
a vision in which "… parts can be produced, without tooling
or programming, in a single, highly flexible production cell, thus eliminating
the need for, or even the advantage of, scale, including volume scale."
Smart systems, reconfigurable tools and systems, and sensors are among
the eight "Categories of Innovative and Potentially Disruptive
Advanced Manufacturing Technologies" documented by a National Council
for Advance Manufacturing (NACFAM) Report. In particular, robotics holds
tremendous untapped potential in manufacturing. A Robotics in Manufacturing
Roadmap sponsored by Department of Energy (DOE) estimated that 90% of
potential users have not yet adopted robotics. The same study found
that manufacturers need robots that can be more "aware" of
their environments and their workpieces so that they no longer require
tremendous investments in highly controlled infrastructure, including
safety zones for pedestal robots and guided pathways with no obstacles
for mobile robots. A lack of adequate sensing of surroundings limits
robots' ability to respond to any changes.
Target
user communities lack any means whatsoever of specifying quantitatively
what performance they need from a robot. Nor are there any means of
objectively and reproducibly measuring how well robots or their components
meet a given set of requirements. As robots and other manufacturing
equipment become more flexible and adaptable, and work in closer unison
with humans, safe operations become a paramount issue. As factory equipment
becomes more tightly networked within the work cells1 as well as with
external systems, security issues grow in importance. Our division seeks
to address several key drivers and needs for U. S. manufacturing innovation
and competitiveness. These include the increasing pace of technological
change, which encompasses product and process innovation, as well as
reduction in time to market, higher quality and better performance of
customized products, increased productivity and reduced costs, and new
safety and security challenges.
The
Intelligent Systems Division tackles the challenges posed in attaining
this vision of the future by partnering with industry and academia to
ensure that innovation in manufacturing systems is well-characterized
and quantifiable (through development of a measurement science), open,
extensible, and reconfigurable (through development of interoperability
standards), as well as safe and secure (through industrial control network
security standards). To target these challenges, our Division's work
is organized into three programs:
 The
Measurement Science
for Manufacturing Robotics and Automation Program provides means
of characterizing, measuring, and assuring the performance of advances
in technologies that make possible manufacture of higher quality and
more complex parts and assemblies through predictable, well-characterized
manufacturing equipment.
Flexible,
reconfigurable manufacturing systems and model-based manufacturing require
well-defined and rich information transfer, which is addressed by the
Robotics and Automation Interoperability Standards Program.
The
Intelligent
Manufacturing Industrial Control Systems and Network Standards Program
responds to the need for safe, secure, and reliable manufacturing systems.
The
Intelligent Systems Division is world-renowned for its accomplishments
in development of measurement science, tools, and interoperability solutions
for leading-edge mobile robots and other complex automation that has
been applied to defense, transportation, and security. We bring this
core competence to bear in our work within the manufacturing domain.
Contact
Ms.
Elena Messina,
Acting Division Chief
NIST
Intelligent Systems Division
100 Bureau Drive Stop 8230
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8230
Phone: 301-975-3418
Fax: 301-990-9688
E-mail: elena.messina@nist.gov
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