Modular control system with expert scheduling for flexible manufacturing

A flexible manufacturing cell with vision has been provided with a modular control system based on microcomputers and local area network. The development tool, the shop floor control software, with its basic architecture is overviewed. The control system implementation is presented including the corresponding control modules. An expert routine and scheduling system using rule based simulation is presented. The pilot system described is used to demonstrate flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) technology. It can also be used as a test bed when developing different control methods and algorithms to reach an optimal behaviour of FMS. The current development efforts are concentrated on refining the knowledge based methods to increase the system flexibility and to respond better to various disturbances in the production