EMERGING METHODS FOR THE INTELLIGENT PROCESSING OF MATERIALS

Emerging methods, procedures, and performance measures are presented f or the design of intelligent materials processing systems that combine both comprehensive new process representations and correspondingly ad vanced process control systems. The description of these developments is presented in rive parts. The first provides the partitioning of glo bal processes into decoupled finite subprocesses for improved accommod ation of process nonlinearities with accompanying simplification of co ntrol system complexity. The second is sensor/controller/actuator acco untability to establish an on-line process variability baseline whose greatest sensitivity is attributable to process measurement limitation s. Development three combines multiloop control with decoupled subproc esses for enhanced process disorder reduction and improved likelihood of achieving material parameters of interest. The fourth, closely asso ciated with development three, provides accurate multiloop control com pensation by identification of decoupled trapezoidal subprocess models . The fifth presents a process description language of qualitative sub process influences for augmenting incompletely modeled processes and u nmeasurable control elements by supervising the control space to minim ize control conflicts and process variability.