摘要:

Churchill College, Cambridge, last summer played host to the second IEE international conference on ‘Factory 2001 — integrating information and material’. The conference was addressed on the subject of education by the then Master of Churchill College, Professor Sir Hermann Bondi. This article is an expanded version of that address.

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910002

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910004

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

摘要:

Even before the Education Reform Act of 1988, the impetus towards a new era of better and more accountable management in the higher education sector had already begun. The National Advisory Body for local authority higher education had launched its study of ‘good management practice’ the University Grants Committee had made its first move towards selectivity in research funding; and the committee chaired by Sir Alex Jarrett had reported on efficiency and good management in the university sector.

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910005

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

摘要:

‘The robot story’ is a personal documentary statement of the evolution of the industrial robot and the enabling technologies which dominate the subject of robotics. In the early 1960s the available supporting technology in electronics and computing was not sufficiently well developed to expect a successful industrial robot to take its place in the manufacturing scene. It was not until the mid 1970s that the robot started to make an important contribution to quality and productivity, but in a relatively limited range of product manufacture.The domestic developments in microelectronics and computing played their part in strengthening the subject of robotics, particularly in the implementation of sensor-guided applications. In the late 1970s and early 1980s there was a surge of interest in robotics, both from industry and from research laboratories. Funding initiatives saturated the available effort, and the promise of the new technology started to fall short of expectations. The consequence was the inevitable retreat of those who invested and the decline of applications resulting in a substantial shakeout in the marketplace.We are now recovering from this position, with the major research laboratories producing good results but manufacturing industry being ultra cautious in investing heavily again. The suppliers of the technology have to earn the confidence of the users for a renewal of interest in manufacturing industry and for advanced applications; the return must justify the cost which it might well do in such hostile environments as underwater and space.

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910006

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

摘要:

Close your eyes. Think of a computer. What do you see…? For many industrial and academic professionals today the image of a PC is conjured in their minds. Perhaps it will be the one sitting on their desk at work or on a colleague's. Perhaps it is the one in the glossy brochure which arrived in their mail promising all sorts of bells and whistles. But what really is a PC, and what can it do?

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910007

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

摘要:

The military customer of today is faced with escalating costs and inadequate reliability and availability of avionic systems. The evolution of increasingly sophisticated electronics has offered the military unimaginable increases in processing power and functional capability. Consequently, avionics is now a major driver in air vehicle design, accounting for around 40% of the acquisition cost of a modern combat aircraft. However, in addition to higher acquisition costs the life-cycle costs and logistics support problems of avionic systems have also increased. Reductions in technology cost, weight and volume have been far outweighed by the hunger of the military customer for increased numbers of complex operational functions.

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910008

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET

摘要:

This article is concerned with shared-medium communication systems, primarily private systems for process-control plant and/or discrete parts manufacture. The particular systems in question are those two layers at the bottom of the CIM hierarchy, namely the ‘field level’ and ‘station level’. These systems are often dubbed ‘real time’, or ‘time critical’ systems. The distinguishing features between the constraints of physically dynamic systems and the OSI solutions being extensively promoted in office automation are discussed. The primary difference is that, in control systems, considerations for timeliness are crucial while other considerations such as efficiency and throughput are secondary. This ‘temporal factor’ is probably generic across many fields of engineering, from aircraft flight systems to more prosaic matters such as processing urban effluent. The article draws on the contribution being made in two standardisation efforts, namely ‘time critical communication architecture’ (TCCA) in ISO and ‘Field Bus’ in IEC.

ISSN:0956-3385    

DOI:10.1049/cce:19910009

出版商:IEE    

年代:1991

数据来源: IET