Jeffrey S. Smith
Texas A&M University
ABSTRACT: This paper describes a methodology for the
design and implementation of fully functional control software
for flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). In a typical FMS
implementation, the control software determines the ultimate
flexibility of the system. Traditionally, control software has
been custom-written for each FMS implementation and, hence, has
been extremely costly. More significantly, the software often
requires significant modifications in order to respond to
changing production requirements for the FMS. In response to
these problems, this paper describes a methodology and the
associated software tools for the development of fully
functional, distributed FMS control software. The objective of
the methodology is to simplify and shorten the development cycle
for control software. The methodology described in this paper
partitions the control problem into a decision making component
and an execution component. A well-defined interface between the
two components allows the independent development of each
component. In addition, the decision making module can be
modified whenever necessary as dictated by the production
requirements. An existing resource description model is adapted
for use in the target environment and existing execution software
generation techniques are used to automatically generate a
significant portion of the execution software. Specific
laboratory experience is described. In the example
implementation, the decision making functions are performed by a
discrete event simulation that communicates directly with a shop
floor execution system.
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