The modelling of multi-cell flexible machining facilities

Describes research undertaken to assist in the design and analysis of multi-cell flexible machining facilities. At present the detailed assessment and analysis of such facilities requires a large amount of effort with the employment of general purpose simulation systems. Current trends in flexible machining now see facilities which are distributed in control and often multi-cell in design and a requirement to model such systems has been identified. The vehicle for this research is the Loughborough University of Technology Emulator (LUTE), which is a modular simulation tool designed specially to model flexible machining facilities