DESIGN OF COORDINATION CONTROLLERS FOR A CLASS OF DISCRETE-EVENT MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

Abstract A design strategy is proposed for a two-layer modular discrete-event coordination controller applied to a class of automated manufacturing systems (AMS). Controllers in each layer are synthesized as discrete-event supervisors dealing only with operational and safety issues of equipment groupings. Manufacturing procedures, modeled by languages constructed with a class of control commands named imperative , drive the execution of the upper layer. The control of equipment modules is carried out at the lower layer following the imperative control commands. Conditions are established to guarantee that the manufacturing sequence of a given product can be achieved using the synthesized supervisors in a particular AMS. The development of a coordination controller for an experimental AMS is employed to illustrate the proposed strategy.