Advanced technology towards developing decentralized autonomous flexible manufacturing systems

Abstract

One of the advanced technology for controlling production systems is a decentralized autonomous Flexible Manufacturing System (DA-FMS). The autonomous decentralized FMS aims at high production efficiency by giving self-control or decentralizing the plan, design and operation of FMS. This paper discusses the intelligent real-time decision making necessary for realizing an autonomous decentralized FMS with Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Machining Centers (MCs). This research develops a real-time production control method called reasoning to anticipate the future (RAF) based on the predictions that forecast not only current production situations but also anticipate future ones. The paper also describes a method to rank competing hypotheses by oblivion and memory (ranking by oblivion and memory; ROM) for improving the reasoning efficiency of RAF. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.