Overview

This research project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of reference architectures in supporting low-cost digital manufacturing system design, design extension and integration. In the literature, most designs of low-cost digital manufacturing systems are ad-hoc where the design is not driven by any specific approach. A reference architecture based approach to design gives the potential for being more repeatable and versatile, and is capable of yielding highly reusable digital manufacturing systems. However, thus far reference architectures have not been used to address the constraints imposed in design by a low-cost digital manufacturing system.

Methodology

In this project, three candidate reference architectures relevant to low-cost digital manufacturing are selected and used to create different case study designs. The effectiveness in each case is evaluated by applying a set of metrics to these designs.

PhD Student

Jan Kaiser

Supervisor

Prof Duncan McFarlane