Virtual real-time simulation of a complex production line :  Optimization of Complex Automated Production Lines Applied On a Sheet-Metal Press Line 

This paper describes my work done at University West, Trollhättan, Sweden as the part of Summer Internship during the period May – July 2007. The prospective work is to optimize the Production Lines for Sheet Metal Forming. The optimization part is then implemented in the Off-line Control Software, PRESSOPT. In this project an optimization method for highly automated industrial production lines for the Manufacturing Unit of Volvo, Gothenburg, Sweden is investigated. The main aspect of the work is to optimize the complex control system applications where it is not possible to create a useful simplified model representation of the control system or for performing the complete state space search. The aim of this work is to achieve a higher production rate without any collisions of the moving part. The value of the parameters on which the function depends on is evaluated in the feasible region using Nelder Mead Method. Nelder Mead, first published in 1965, is a very popular Direct Search method for multidimensional unconstrained minimization problems without using derivatives; and no theoretical proofs are present till date. For this Nelder Mead process of optimization needs to be implemented and tested on the off-line control software, PressOpt. This project helps in implementing Nelder Mead in PressOpt.