CORBA-based integration framework for distributed shop floor control

Distributed shop floor control is likely to become a key component of 21st century manufacturing technology. The interest in distributed control arises from the promise of increased flexibility, reliability, and tolerance to the uncertainty that exists in the shop floor environment. However, the communicational complexities involved in the integration of distributed equipment controllers have long hindered the development of distributed systems. The present paper proposes a COBRA-based integration framework for the efficient and effective development of distributed shop floor control systems (SFCS). The framework integrates the data and methods common to the distributed controllers into services and provides the mechanism for each controller to access the services via CORBA. The use of CORBA as a middleware provides the basis for simple and well-defined interfaces between service servers and distributed equipment controllers located on heterogeneous platforms. A systematic implementation procedure is also included in the framework to allow easy implementation of the defined services and each controller. A prototype system is presented to validate the proposed integration framework. The proposed framework will enable system developers to efficiently and effectively implement distributed SFCSs.