AN AI-BASED OBJECT-ORIENTED TOOL FOR DISCRETE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS SIMULATION

Automated control of discrete manufacturing processes and their simula tion must be based on a unified formalization, which makes it possible to describe a wide class of manufacturing systems, processes and cond itions. This paper discusses an approach to creating a formalization m ethod on the basis of artificial intelligence (AI) and the object-orie nted approach. Modified production rules were chosen as such a formali sm. The method of knowledge representation about manufacturing systems suggested by the authors makes it possible to create systems of contr ol and simulation of manufacturing systems without using rigid decisio n-making algorithms. The use of the object-oriented approach increases the clarity and ease of manufacturing systems description for simulat ion. A structure of a developed production-rules-based simulator is al so presented. A simple example gives an idea of the possibilities of t he simulator.