A hybrid specification method for the design of a workcell controller in manufacturing systems

This paper presents a hybrid specification method (HSM) for the description and design of a workcell controller in a manufacturing system. This hybrid method integrates the top-down IDEF0 and bottom-up statechart approaches. The high-level functional abstraction of a target system is first decompose d using IDEF0. Statecharts of the overall system are then combined using co mpositional constructs. programmable logic controller (PLCs) programs that represent the low-level abstraction are finally transformed from the statec harts. To demonstrate the viability of this method, an example of a workcel l controller is designed using this method. The proposed method provides an alternative to the traditional top-down decomposition technique with reusa ble and extendable properties.