Sponsor: Orange County Section Jt. Chapter, PE31/IA34
Speaker: Pratul Kumar Singh

Date: 25 Sep 2025
Time: 05:00 PM PDT to 06:15 PM PDT
Cost:
Location:
Reservations: IEEE
Summary:
This presentation outlines the design of a Reconfigurable Manufacturing System, addressing the limitations of traditional PLC-based systems when devices, especially controllers, change positions on a network due to reconfiguration. The key goal was to design an adaptable manufacturing solution that reduced changeover time when switching between part numbers on the same manufacturing line. Additional requirements/benefits expected out of this solution were floor space reduction, scalability & modularity in mechanical, electrical and software design and readiness for a digital factory. Each process station had its own PLC, but the challenge was enabling communication when these stations were rearranged within the manufacturing line. The solution was to use a SCADA software as a “central nervous system”, dynamically managing IP addresses, handshaking signals, recipes, and HMI configurations. The solution leveraged effective controls architecture that combined off-the-shelf hardware along with scripting capabilities and database connectivity to configure the system, manage recipes, regulate communication, and automatically adapt UI screens. This approach created scalable, adaptable, and intelligent controls architecture capable of handling dynamic manufacturing needs.

Bio: Pratul Kumar Singh is an engineering leader with over 15 years of experience in Robotics, Automation & Controls. Currently he is a Manager – PLC Systems at TAE Technologies, Foothill Ranch, CA. Prior to this, he was a Senior Manager – Robotics, Controls & Automation at Masimo Corporation in Irvine, CA. He has an M.S. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering specializing in Controls & Robotics from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey and B.S. degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from VNIT, Nagpur, India. His expertise lies in Robotics, Controls & Automation design for automated assembly, automated testing and vision inspection for both high-volume & high-mix manufacturing applications.