Development of error-compensating UI for autonomous production cells

This contribution deals with the impact of human error on the overall system reliability in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). Autonomous production cells are used to illustrate an error-compensating system design on the basis of Sheridan's (1997) paradigm of supervisory control. In order to specify human errors and their effects in terms of system disturbances, a taxonomy of system disturbances is recommended. This taxonomic approach was derived by a value benefit analysis and is based on HEDOMS (Human Error and Disturbance Occurrence in Manufacturing Systems) with slight modifications and Reason's GEMS (Generic Error Modelling System). The taxonomy is used for data acquisition. Next, a risk priority equivalent to FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) is introduced to structure the data according to their relevance. Then, Vicente's and Rasmussen's guidelines (1987) for an ecological interface design are related to the paradigm of supervisory control. On the basis of these guidelines four case studies are presented to show their successful applicability for interface design in FMS.     

Establishing information requirements for supervisory controllers in a flexible manufacturing system using GTA

In this article we consider the technological change that has occurred in complex manufacturing systems within the past two decades and the implications it has had on the role of human operators in manufacturing systems control. Our examination ranges from the traditional production line manned by skilled machinists to flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) under supervisory control. On the basis of this study, we raise the question as to whether new advanced manufacturing technology interfaces are supportive of human operators in their responsibilities to manufacturing systems. We address this problem by analyzing supervisory controller information requirements for intervening in complex process control tasks as part of FMS operation. This analysis was conducted using a cognitive engineering research methodology, which has not previously been applied, in the domain of manufacturing. The method of GTA was applied to supervisory control of an FMS and produced detailed information requirements, which facilitated the formulation of general design guidelines for FMS interface design. The guidelines are aimed at supporting human operator process strategy development and decision making. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Fault-tolerant and maximally-permissive FMS controllers right out of the box—an automatic design approach

This paper presents a comprehensive, all-in-one approach to automatic generation of high-level coordination controllers for flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The approach comprises an intuitive graphical world wide web (WWW) user interface to specify the FMS layout and the desired production sequences. It also includes algorithms (a) to generate a proper Petri Net model for the specified plant, (b) to set up optimal (i.e. minimally restrictive) collision and deadlock avoidance policies together with a proper supervisory controller to enforce these policies, and (c) to react to disturbances such as machine breakdowns. These algorithms run in the design (offline) phase without user interaction. During online operation the operator only needs to indicate the arrival of new raw materials and the removal of finished products using the same user interface as mentioned before. An example implementation demonstrates the applicability and efficiency of the proposed approach.     

Intelligent support for activity management (ISAM): an architectureto support distributed supervisory control

Distributed supervisory control is the monitoring and control of complex, dynamic, highly automated systems by a team of human operators. As such, it is an example of a cooperative work environment. The goal of this paper is to analyze the nature of cooperative work in distributed supervisory control environments and describe implications for computer support. In particular, we argue that flexible support for activity management is a key requirement for computer support for distributed supervisory control, and we propose the intelligent support for activity management (ISAM) architecture as one infrastructure for doing so. The design and implementation of ISAM draws from previous work on intelligent operator's associate systems and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) systems. A graphical user interface to ISAM and an evaluation study of this system in the context of team supervisory control are also described     

A message-array-based mechanism for tracking control effects in supervisory control software

Supervisory control is a very popular paradigm for computer-controlled systems. Knowledge and tracking the control effect of every control operation is crucial to the control tasks. In the paper, we present a message-array-based mechanism to track control effects in supervisory control software. A novel data type, message array, is designed to efficiently support this tracking mechanism. The operation algorithms, adding algorithm (AA), removing algorithm (RA), and scheduler algorithm (SA) are proposed to operate the tracking messages in message array, which forms the special first input X output (FIXO) strategy of message array. Automatically tracking, recording, and rolling back are the characteristics of our tracking mechanism. We implement this messagearray-based mechanism on the famous human machine interface (HMI) software platform-proficy iFix, and construct experiments to evaluate the performance of the mechanism in various cases. The results show our mechanism can be well satisfied with supervisory control software.     

柔性制造系统中的信息采集系统研究

为了有效地控制和管理柔性制造系统（ＦＭＳ）,制造过程信息采集对系统来说显得至关重要。本文从信息采集的角度,讨论了ＦＭＳ底层设备运行的功能模型,提出了以工业控制实时局域网为基础的ＦＭＳ信息采集系统的结构。并对工业控制实时局域网的硬件和软件构成进行了详细的描述。最后以西门子３Ｍ数控系统为实例,介绍了底层设备ＦＭＳ网络通信接口的设计与开发。该数据采集系统在一个实际的ＦＭＳ中使用取得了令人满意的效果。     

基于WINCE的数据采集与监控系统设计与实现

为了更有效地对电力系统进行监控,提出了一种适合于电力系统的嵌入式WINCE的数据采集与监控系统的设计和实现方案;它是对现场数据进行采集,分析并存储,并将监测到的数据返回给监控界面,实现对远程设备的监控;分析了系统的内部体系结构,介绍了各个模块的功能,并完成了数据采集与监控系统的各个部分的软件设计与实现,并通过了各项性能测试;系统的人性化的监控界面和双机热备的加入,提高了系统的实用性、稳定性和安全性,有很好的应用前景。     

A CONWIP model for FMS control

Production inventory control is one of the most important aspects of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) design. CONstant Work In Process (CONWIP), which is a hybrid of push-and-pull type systems, offers an alternative to effective utilization of the expensive FMS equipment while still meeting customer requirements. In the selection of an FMS control method, material handling often becomes one of the capacity constraints which forms the basis of various research interests. In this paper, a structure-based model for a CONWIP-controlled FMS is proposed, and within it, the node type characteristics concept is used to describe the constraints in FMS. Furthermore, simulation is used to determine the card number based on the structure-based model. The simulation results demonstrate that the model is suitable for the design and operation of FMS. The model can be used as a manufacturing execution system of enterprise resources planning. An architecture for this integrated design based on Internet/Intranet systems is also proposed.     

Supervised Autonomy: A Framework for Human-Robot Systems Development

In this paper we present a paradigm for robot control, Supervised Autonomy. Supervised Autonomy is a framework, which facilitates the development of human robot systems. The components which this framework embraces has been devised in a human-oriented manner, to augment users in accomplishing their task. The general concept of our paradigm is to incorporate supervisory control with a qualitative approach for the control of robots. Supervisory control does not rely on human users to perform all the basic functions of perception and action in a system. The approach we have taken shifts all basic autonomous functions to the physical robot agent, integrated with a set of qualitative instructions, in combination with a simple graphical user interface, and together with suitable feedback form the complete framework. Experimental results of applying this framework to the use of a mobile robot teleoperation system are presented. The system we have developed make extensive use of behavior-based control technology, embracing a number of real-time visual behaviours, together with a set of intuitive instructions designed for the navigation of a mobile robot.     

Object-oriented software modeling of a Flexible Manufacturing System

Flexible Manufacturing Systems play an important role in improving our manufacturing productivity. Simulation is emerging as a popular tool in modeling FMS for analyzing its performance in the area of production planning/scheduling. In this paper, we illustrate how to model a Flexible Manufacturing System in the object-oriented paradigm using an example. We present a systemtic approach to the design of object-oriented programming systems based on a combination of data modeling and event analysis techniques.An entity relationship approach is used as the basis for an initial decomposition of the system into objects. The design is refined by an analysis of the events the objects participate in. The design is implemented in Objective-C. Finally, we describe ways in which this model of an FMS can be extended to explore popular research questions in production planning and scheduling.     

城市排水泵站远程监控系统设计

结合城市排水泵站地域分散的特点及时远程监控的需求，设计了基于GPRS的排水泵站远程监控系统，分析了系统设计与实现中的关键技术。系统采用宏电的GPRS 7118 DTU来搭建GPRS通信平台，设计并实现了GPRS接口程序和数据中心。该远程监控系统已经成功投运，并将监控系统画面在Internet上进行了发布。     

Agent-based FMS control

Future manufacturing systems will be integrated into the networks of distributed resources, and at the same time, such systems will be capable of processing both knowledge and material. It will probably be required that manufacturing systems be agile, flexible, and fault-tolerant. Petri nets (PN) and object-oriented design (OOD) are used together in order to develop the integrated agent-based FMS control system. The flexible manufacturing system (FMS) consists of machines, workstations, and automated material handling system, distributed buffer storage sites and computer-based supervisory control, all which can be modeled as an agent in OOD with PN. This paper introduces the design of an agent-based FMS control system through PNs and evaluates the performance using timed placed Petri nets (TPPN). In order to do so, the agent control design, FMS structure has been evaluated in detail and the agent definitions have been submitted. The system includes the sharing and distribution of tasks among agents and the mentioned structure has been simulated by TPPN. The simulation procedure has been realized through Petri Net 2.0—MATLAB Demo Program [Mahulea CF, Motcovschi MH, Pastravanu O. Department of Automatic Control Industrial Informatics, Technical University “Gh. Asachi” of Iasi, Blvd., Mangeron 53A, 6600 Iasi, Romania, 〈http://www.ac.tuiasi.ro/pntool,pntool@ac.tuiasi.ro〉, 2004.]. Each case is modeled, and then the agent's machine processing time is considered in this program. As for the evaluation of the study, the system performance is assessed through the waiting time of the parts in queue and the task distributions.     

多无人机监督控制的人机动态功能分配研究

针对监督控制系统静态功能分配的不足,提出了一种基于操作员工作量的动态功能分配触发方法,实现了多无人机监督控制的人机动态功能分配。以单操作员控制四架无人机执行对敌防空压制任务为背景,设计开发了多无人机监督控制仿真平台,并进行模拟实验。实验中引入等待时间作为衡量系统性能的指标,结果表明动态功能分配降低了系统等待时间,提高了系统的整体性能。     

基于现场总线的起重机监控系统

设计了一套基于CAN总线的履带式起重机的在线监控系统,系统包括数据采集模块和监控主机两大部分。整个系统采用中文显示,操作方便,实现了诸多工作参数的数字化集中显示与控制,提高了起重机的自动化程度和安全操作性。文中给出系统各部分的软、硬件设计。     

iCoSim-FMS: An intelligent co-simulator for the adaptive control of complex flexible manufacturing systems

We describe an intelligent co-simulator for real time production control of a complex flexible manufacturing system (CFMS) having machine and tool flexibility. The manufacturing processes associated with the CFMS are complicated with each operation being possibly done by several machining centers. The co-simulator design approach is built upon the theory of dynamic meta-model based supervisory control with the cooperation of its own embedded intelligent blocks. The system is implemented by coupling of the centralized simulation controller (CSC) and real-time simulator for enforcing dynamic strategies of shop floor control. The posteriori adaptive co-simulator is equipped with a concurrent bilateral mechanism for simulation optimization based on appropriate control rules enhancing performance criteria simulation efficiency. A working intelligent adaptive controller prototype (iCoSim-FMS) has been developed to validate the proposed approach and compare its performance with well known FMS heuristic methods.     

基于DSP的视频采集系统设计

为了解决基于DSP视频监控系统的数据采集问题,本系统采用了视频专用解码A/D芯片和复杂可编程逻辑器件CPLD进行控制和接口设计,有效地实现视频信号的采集与读取的高速并行性,提高了电路的可靠性高,简化了电路设计过程,使整个系统的设计增加柔韧性。     

Discrete event and hybrid systems in robotics and automation: anoverview

Discrete event and hybrid systems modeling has been used extensively in automation, robotics, and manufacturing applications. Different frameworks for dynamic supervisory controllers are used in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) and automated processes. This article presents an overview of some existing strategies that are used to control systems in real-time based on sensory data     

基于GPSS／H和GKS的FMS物流系统的动画仿真

本文介绍了在ｓｕｎ－３工作站上实现的ＦＭＳ动画仿真系统。该系统在开发Ｓｕｎ－３的ＧＰＳＳ／Ｈ及Ｓｕｎ ＧＫＳ软件的基础上，用Ｃ语言编制全部软件，具有良好的人机接口。利用该系统实现ＦＭＳ的动画仿真，具有易于建模和调试，开发周期短，符合标准化，易于验证正确性和可靠性等特点，为开发研制ＦＭＳ提供了有效的手段。这里着重介绍ＦＭＳ物流系统仿真的建模方法，软件设计以及仿真程序与动画程序的软件接口等。