Developing a new concept of self reconfigurable intelligent swarm fixtures

As manufacture trends move towards life-cycle design, sustainable production, geometrical complexity, short time-to-market, small and variable batch production and mass customization; manufacture equipment struggles to keep pace and provide the required flexibility, adaptability and automation. This paper describes the new concept of self-reconfigurable intelligent swarm fixtures. Following the conception of this new fixturing system, it arises under European commission 7th framework programme the SwarmItFIX project that gives an application and an insight towards the new fixture technology. The paper gives a description of the solution developed in SwarmItFIX focusing on the physical prototype demonstrator constructed to validate the concept as an intended new fixture benchmark for manufacturing sheet metal panels.