Structured adaptive supervisory control model and software development fora flexible manufacturing system

A three-step approach is proposed to substantially reduce the high cost of development of control software for an FMS on the shop floor. First, by int roducing the concept of multiple computing processes into Automata Theory, a finite capacity machine (FCM) is presented as an extended finite machine. An FCM is used to model the control of a flexible manufacturing system, wh ich avoids the state explosion problem. Secondly, a structured adaptive sup ervisory control (SASC) model meeting the desired control objectives for an FMS is derived from a composed FCM. The SASC model can be constructed syst ematically. Finally, generic software components for an SASC model are desc ribed, which allow the SASC model to be cost-effectively transferred into s hop-floor applicable control software.