Some communication problems of KB-controlled manufacturing systems

Knowledge-based or intelligent control of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) involves the continuous or frequent observation and evaluation of the status and condition of the system performance, decision-making based both on the evaluation results and on pre-defined knowledge, and then system operation according to these decisions. In the case of normal, scheduled operation, there is no need for either intelligence or interactions to modify the operation. The procedure given above may, however help if any kind of disturbance or irregularity happens, as is rather common in the case of highly sophisticated, complex systems. This paper deals with control and communication problems in flexible manufacturing systems using programs based on a real-time expert-system environment, taking into consideration the requirement for openness in up-to-date systems. Two robot applications will be discussed as demonstrations. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.