APPLICATION OF AN OBJECT-ORIENTED FRAMEWORK METHODOLOGY TO THE CONTROL OF MANUFACTURING CELLS

This paper describes the application of an object-orientated framework for the control of manufacturing cells, The general principles of aut omated cell and robot control at the function and task levels are deve loped, and the appropriate modelling and programming concepts introduc ed, A multitasking control system for a specific automated cell for mu ltilayer carbon fibre component manufacturing has been designed and de veloped using these principles, One feature of the work is the re-engi neering of existing code so as to accommodate object-oriented principl es, The resulting system is able to execute the manufacturing process safely and simultaneously on several parts of the same component, thus ensuring a high operating device utilization, The cell comprises two robots with specialized end effecters, a laser cutting table, a lay-up table and various inspection devices.