Information structures for design of feedback resource distribution control systems for discrete part manufacture

Abstract

Increased pressure for efficiency improvement on discrete part manufacture justifies investment in design and implementation of control systems for distribution of resources in a manufacturing plant. Design of such systems is, however, to day based on intuition. In the paper a systematic method for design of such control systems is described.

The paper presents the generic structure of such control systems including definition of input, state and output vectors. Definition of the set of events, which cause choice of input and corresponding transition from one state into another one, is presented. Additionally the paper presents a method for identification and representation of the degrees of freedom, which are available for the choice of system input in reaction to valid classes of appearing production events. The paper finally presents the structure of the state space of the control system and the principle according to which it is expanded and searched for optimal control input.

Keywords:

• State space modelling
• Shop floor control
• Resource and task distribution control
• Hybrid systems
• And-or-constraints
• Optimal control