Mechatronic sensory system for computer integrated manufacturing

Abstract

Changing manufacturing environment is characterised by aggressive competition on a global scale and rapid changes in process technology requires to create manufacturing systems that are be able to quickly adapt to new products, processes as well as new technologies. The manufacturing system used for this new approach must be rapidly designed, able to quickly integrate all the systems in order to produce a large variety of products in unpredictable quantities. Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) systems plays an important role towards integrating such flexible systems. The requirement of fast and cheap design and redesign of manufacturing systems therefore is gaining in importance, considering not only the products and the physical equipment, but also the integrating control system. This paper presents a methodology of increasing flexibility and reusability of a generic CIM cell-control system using simulation and modelling of mechatronic sensory system (MSS) concepts. Models and guidelines developed in the research are intended to support system developers when implementing generic control software for CIM cells.The utilisation of sensors within the CIM cell is high lighted specifically for data acquisition, analysis and multi-sensor data fusion. Thus, the designed reference architecture provides the comprehensive insight for the functions and methodologies of a generic Shop-floor Control System (SFCS), which consequently enables the rapid deployment of a flexible system