ERROR SPECIFICATION, MONITORING AND RECOVERY IN COMPUTER-INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING - AN ANALYTIC APPROACH

State transitions in computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems r esult either from the execution of the planned actions or from the occ urrence of unpredictable events. One key requirement for task planning designed for CIM systems is the ability to monitor events and respond to them appropriately. Related issues include the specification and c lassification of possible system faults, errors and failures. The pape r proposes an error-specification language, an error-monitoring mechan ism and an error-recovery mechanism. Founded on a mathematical framewo rk, the error-recovery mechanism uses the concept of severity to alter system characteristics. The paper presents some examples from an inte grated multirobot system.