Modeling Energy States in Machine Tools: An Automata Based Approach

The growing amount of knowledge on machine energy consumption underlines the increasing interest in the sustainable aspect of manufacturing. The heterogeneity of production equipment and processes makes the machine hard to modeling. A method able to build an energy state-based model of a complex machine is presented. First the machine is divided into functional modules, afterword each module is modeled in terms of states and events with automata theory. A specific logic automaton represents the relationships existing among modules. Then, the machine state model is automatically obtained using a synchronization algorithm. The method has been validated on real machining centers.