Omnifactory: a National Training and Research Testbed for Smart Manufacturing Systems

Sanderson, David; Wang, Zi; Bainbridge, David; Ratchev, Svetan

Abstract

Omnifactory is a national experimental testbed and technology demonstrator for digital-enabled manufacturing technologies launched in March 2023 that was funded by the UK Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. Omnifac-tory has its foundations in a sustained programme of fundamental and applied research at the University of Nottingham, UK, aimed at driving the state-of-the-art and developing technologies for open, adaptable, and cost-effective production systems. It primarily focusses on high-value, high-complexity, low/variable volume production, with a significant contribution to aerostructures assembly, although the technologies are applicable to a wide variety of other industries including automotive, nuclear, space, and defence. By moving away from fixed monolithic production lines and towards a more connected and agile production infrastructure, Omnifactory is enabling industry to leverage modern advanced manufacturing and digital technologies. These approaches can be demonstrated in both the physical world, with a variety of fixed and mobile automation, and in the digital world, with a fully connected digital engineering stack. This paper summarises the industrial and societal trends and drivers that Omnifactory aims to address, as well as its context in the research portfolio at the University; then describes the design, implementation, and use of the facility; outlines some early research, training, and engagement results enabled by it; presents some lessons learned; and finally suggests the outlook of the facility for the future.

Citation

Sanderson, D., Wang, Z., Bainbridge, D., & Ratchev, S. (2024, April). Omnifactory: a National Training and Research Testbed for Smart Manufacturing Systems. Presented at 14th Conference on Learning Factories (CLF), Twente, Netherlands

• Presentation Conference Type: Edited Proceedings
• Conference Name: 14th Conference on Learning Factories (CLF)
• Start Date: Apr 17, 2024
• End Date: Apr 19, 2024
• Acceptance Date: Mar 4, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jul 11, 2024
• Publication Date: Jul 11, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jul 16, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 12, 2025
• Publisher: Springer
• Series Title: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems
• Series Number: 1060
• Series ISSN: 2367-3389
• Book Title: Learning Factories of the Future Proceedings of the 14th Conference on Learning Factories 2024, Volume 2
• Chapter Number: 37
• ISBN: 978-3-031-65399-5
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65400-8_37
• Keywords: Industry 40; Digitalisation; Flexible Manufacturing Systems; Re- configurable Manufacturing Systems; Aerospace
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/37307262
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-65400-8_37
• Additional Information: Chapter in Learning Factories of the Future; Proceedings of the 14th Conference on Learning Factories 2024, Volume 2