Application of software reuse and object-oriented methodologies for the modelling and control of manufacturing systems

In this paper object-oriented design and the application of software reuse of components of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) will be introduced. T he goal of this research is to provide methods and tools to build up FMS si mulation models and control strategies easily, fast and reliably. As a soft ware tool the SALMS reuse repository and its application will be demonstrat ed. The design methodology used for model development is based on the objec t-oriented Rational Rose CASE tool and on the use-case design of the OOSE m ethodology. A hybrid simulation and scheduling system (SSS) is used to vali date and evaluate all results. SSS has been implemented as a combination of a traditional simulation/animation system (SIMAN/Cinema) and an intelligen t expert environment (G2). The application of the real-time, intelligent G2 environment points to one of our R and D goals, to create intelligent, rea l-time control of FMS. Reuse in SIMAN/Cinema and in G2 will be analysed sep arately and together in general, and in the context of FMS. (C) 1999 Elsevi er Science B.V. All rights reserved.