JAPANESE PC-BASED OPEN CONTROL-SYSTEMS FOR MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT

This review paper reports on the present status of PC-based control sy stems in the Japanese manufacturing equipment industry. Machine tools are among the key items of equipment in factory systems, and require l eading-edge technology in their controllers, which are called numerica l controllers (NCs). The ''Open System Environment for Controllers'' ( OSEC) project team is attempting to define an open NC architecture and to prototype open-architecture controllers for machine tools. The pra ctical implications of the open NC architecture in OSEC are introduced . The architecture's technical solutions to the requirement of ''openn ess'' consist of an object-oriented approach and a real-time interpret ation of machining data described at the task level. Finally, the para digm shift in the manufacturing equipment industry brought about by co mponent software is briefly discussed.