The Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), in conjunction with the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, is a cooperative research center for the National Science Foundation. The center's mission, to achieve near-zero breakdowns of equipment using the Internet and proactive monitoring, is materializing in the form of an intelligent chip and watchdog agent application. But IMS could never deliver ultramodern technology into the commercial world without testing it first.
And it doesn't have to. Supported by 40 companies, a mix of vendors and manufacturers, IMS gets additional funding for research as well as pilot factories in which to prove a technology. For a fee (large companies pay $35,000 per year; small companies pay $10,000 per year) each company gains access to IMS' pioneering efforts. To an automation vendor such as Rockwell, the partnership strengthens its own R & D To a manufacturer, it provides access to technologies that may help solve automation problems.
Members such as Ford Motor Company (Detroit, MI), General Motors Corp. (Detroit, MI), and Johnson Controls Inc. (Milwaukee, WI) benefit by voicing specific needs that IMS can use when building features into the technology. Meanwhile, other manufacturers help in perfecting the final product. For instance, both motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson Inc. (Milwaukee, WI) and machining company Citation Custom Products Corp. (Menomonee Falls, WI) offer up their production facilities for IMS to use as a testbed for the technology. Not only do they serve to validate the technology, but they also act as mentors to IMS researchers guiding them in the integration.
Currently, IMS has nine different projects generated from the intelligent agent and chip technology that all of the members have access to. More projects will be added as new members sign on, says IMS director Dr. Jay Lee.