Title: Development of a decentralised control for flexible manufacturing facilities

Authors: G.M. Acaccia, R.C. Michelini, R.M. Molfino, F. Stolfo, A. Tacchella

Addresses: Istituto di Meccanica Applicata alle Macchine, University of Genoa, Italy. ' Istituto di Meccanica Applicata alle Macchine, University of Genoa, Italy. ' Istituto di Meccanica Applicata alle Macchine, University of Genoa, Italy. ' Istituto di Meccanica Applicata alle Macchine, University of Genoa, Italy. ' Istituto di Meccanica Applicata alle Macchine, University of Genoa, Italy

Abstract: Flexibility in manufacturing requires new governing concepts and new forms of implementation to increase plant efficiency. This paper presents the results of a prototypical development, which guarantees factory automation using the high performance capabilities of parallel operations (activated by decentralised control), together with the high flexibility of |expert| governors (with rule-based decision-making architecture). The resulting expert interconnected decentralised control is validated within the SIFIP-simulational environment, realised by the Industrial Robot Design Research Group of the University of Genoa.

Keywords: decentralised control; factory automation; flexible manufacturing systems; FMS; generating layer; industrial software; integrated management; relational layer; restitution layer; manufacturing flexibility.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.1989.062653

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 1989 Vol.2 No.2, pp.89 - 100

Published online: 11 Jun 2014 *

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