MachineLogic aims at making it easy enough to automate a broad variety of processes. The initial focus with new industrial processes tends to be on feasibility. At first, a lot of attention must be given to the machine itself. Being able to automate new processes, relatively quickly, is exciting!
But as some processes become more often requested and realised on the Vention platform, it’s natural to start investing on a user experience and implementation that enables more efficiency and volume, and more autonomy for the operator. That’s the aim of MachineApps.
We expect to see more MachineApps being developed in the future, both by Vention and by partners.
One may already observe a common structure (that should be further formalized on the platform, in due time). It starts with a configuration phase, where one interacts with the process and the products in the virtual world. This phase tends to be UI-rich, and culminates with a representation of the mission that will be given to the machine. Then there is a calibration phase, where positions and alignments specific to the physical twin are captured. Third, there’s a planning phase, taking into consideration the mission and the calibration. Finally, there’s the operation itself, which executes the plan, and reacts to non-deterministic events. This whole pattern is sometimes realised by a single agent, and sometimes by multiple agents.
While all of this can already be realised in MachineLogic and MachineCode, with the help of Vention’s UI builder (to an extent), we can expect to see the boundaries being pushed further in the future.