Restarting Flexible Manufacturing Systems; Synthesis of Restart States

A method for restart of flexible manufacturing systems is presented. Based on the execution restrictions on the operations in the control function, a number of restart states are synthesized off-line. We show that a restart from the closest preceding restart state never violates the execution restrictions. The presented method usually produces fewer restart states than an intuitive approach, and the number of paths used solely in the restart is considerably reduced, so less paths have to be updated and maintained. Instead, normal production paths are used in the restart when possible. The on-line part of the restart method can be executed by any PLC, and does not require the use of more powerful computers. The method is able to handle situations in which an error or manual intervention has lead to a machine configuration that is not consistent with any of the states in the control function