Governance mechanism in control architectures for flexible manufacturing systems

Abstract

Manufacturing systems, and specifically Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS), face the challenge of accomplish global optimal performance and reactiveness at dynamic manufacturing environments. For this reason, manufacturing control systems must incorporate mechanisms that support dynamic custom-build responses. This paper introduces a framework that includes a governance mechanism in control system architectures that dynamically steers the autonomy of decision-making between predictive and reactive approaches. Results from experiments led in simulation show that it is worth studying in depth a governance mechanism that tailors the structure and/or behaviour of a manufacturing control system and, at the same time, potentiate the reactivity required in manufacturing operations.

Pollux: a dynamic hybrid control architecture for flexible job shop systems

“…For this purpose, it might contain a technique that anticipates system behaviour or a performance evaluator that identifies forthcoming out-of-control situations. As an example of an evolvable approach, Jimenez et al (2015) examine the inclusion of a control performance indicator to evaluate system efficiency over time, and consequently have a criterion for featuring continuous evolvable switching.…”

“…The architecture of Pollux features different operating modes and includes a switching mechanism that efficiently manages the changing of operating modes according to manufacturing needs. This approach is an extension of the work proposed in Jimenez et al (2015Jimenez et al ( , 2016. Although this architecture is developed to be used in any control system (i.e.…”

“…For S-HCA, the control system architecture starts with an initial operating mode that maintains the same hierarchical/heterarchical coupling throughout production execution. An operating mode is a specific parameterisation (definitions of all parameters) that defines a specific setting of the control system architecture (Jimenez et al 2015). For D-HCA, the control system architecture also starts with an initial operating mode, but it contains a mechanism that switches from one operating mode to another (i.e.…”

A Nervousness Regulator Framework for Dynamic Hybrid Control Architectures

“…The D-HCA of this paper is based on the governance mechanism approach proposed in Jimenez et al [6]. This approach features an operating mode of a D-HCA as a specific parameterization that characterizes the control settings applied to the system.…”

Analysing the Impact of Rescheduling Time in Hybrid Manufacturing Control

“…However, if the rescheduling time is too long and perturbations are quite frequent, this configuration may have serious consequences on the overall performance. Two insights to reduce the risk of inefficient rescheduling are: (i) to avoid fully centralized scheduling as proposed in [8], meaning partial centralized scheduling, and (ii) to analyse the impact of the rescheduling time so that this time can become a kind of governance parameter [14] for the system and be adjusted depending on the system configuration and production status; thus it evolves and adapts to new conditions. This paper focuses on analysing the impact of the rescheduling time when rescheduling is managed jointly by global and local decisional entities.…”