Hierarchical decomposition and simulation of manufacturing cells

A useful tool in the development of flexible automation is a system description language which can generate complete functional description of a manufacturing cell of arbitrary complexity. We propose a description system based on the concept of hierarchical decomposition utilizing the Ada1 programming language in conjunction with established diagrammatical decomposition methods. Simulation is often an indispensable tool in the development of manufacturing systems. We show how a simulation of the operation of the manufacturing cell can be embedded in its description. Finally, we apply the methodology to a specific instance of a manufacturing cell.