International FAIM Conference 24th : 2014 : San Antonio, TexasUniversity of Texas at San Antonio. Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Lean SystemsOliva, EnricoBerselli, GiovanniPellicciari, Marcello2022-07-112022-07-112014http://dx.doi.org/10.14809/faim.2014.0259https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12588/965Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Flexible Automation & Intelligent Manufacturing, held May 20-23, 2014 in San Antonio, Texas, and organized by the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Lean Systems, University of Texas at San AntonioIncludes bibliographical referencesMultipurpose and programmable servo-actuated mechanisms may be envisaged as the key technology for increasing flexibility and re-configurability of modern automated machinery. Unfortunately, based on the current state-of-the-art, these mechatronic devices are extremely flexible but generally energy intensive, thus compromising the overall system sustainability. Nonetheless, the system power consumption can be partially reduced if energy optimality is introduced as a design goal along with the global productivity. Naturally, as a first step towards the practical implementation of any energy-optimality criterion, the end user should be capable of predicting the system power flow.en-USComputer integrated manufacturing systems--Energy consumptionRobots, Industrial--Energy consumptionFlexible manufacturing systemsMechatronicsArticle