An Internet-based remote assembling system

The paper proposes a concept for a next generation manufacturing system, which is globally distributed rather than geographically limited. This new manufacturing system is possible because of recent changes in manufacturing technology. To work as a global unit, companies need to work closely together to improve efficiency by sharing resources, experts, tools, and training. To support these collaborative works, an Internet-based remote assembling system (RAS) is proposed. This system is remotely controlled through the Internet to allow an operator at a remote location to operate resources at an assembling workcell. For example, a Web browser connects the operator to the Web server at the assembling workcell to download an Internet-based design application, allowing the operator to select the product that needs to be assembled. After the selection, a command to assemble the product is created and sent to the assembling workcell. Along with this concept, preliminary results based on simulation are shown