Supervising manufacturing system operation by DEVS-based intelligent control

The purpose of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is to perform a series of well defined operations on a family of similar pads. The operations (e.g. milling or drilling) are realized by machines which are serviced by robots. A cell controller coordinates the flow of parts through the cell. Monitoring, i.e., to watch the system behavior during its operation and detect possible anomalies, is an important task of an intelligent manufacturing controller. This paper present an approach for manufacturing system monitoring which has its foundation in the DEVS-based intelligent control paradigm. The work is part of a bigger research project whose objective is to develop techniques for automatic synthesis of intelligent flexible manufacturing system controllers. Important additional parts of the intelligent control system will provide fault diagnosis and self repair capabilities. >