Simulation, animation, and shop-floor control

ABSTRACT

It is often desirable to link shop-floor hardware directly to a discrete-event simulation model or graphical animation. Four situations in which this type of arrangement may be beneficial are identified here, and several mechanisms for implementation are discussed. A primary application involves testing the planned control logic for a specific manufacturing system. In this case, a simulation model, linked directly to one or more programmable controllers, provides the controller(s) with system scenarios under which they are expected to perform and produce a response. A second application is system emulation, where real-time data is used to drive an animation. In this way, a visual representation of system status is provided to monitor shop-floor activity. This may be especially useful in situations where the system is monitored from a remote or central control area. The ability to simulate ahead from current shop-floor status is the foundation for the final two applications that are considered here. Used for contingency control, the effects of alternate control strategies which may be imposed when some critical event occurs, e.g. machine breakdown or expedited orders, may be studied and evaluated. Finally, alternate production schedules may be simulated and compared when the initial schedule is prepared, or updated and resimulated as the shop-floor situation changes.

REFERENCES

• 1: Baker, Kelmeth R. (1974). Introduction to Sequencing and Scheduling. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
• 2: Trevor Miles , Cynthia Erickson , Amar Batra, Scheduling of a manufacturing cell with simulation, Proceedings of the 18th conference on Winter simulation, p.668-676, December 08-10, 1986, Washington, D.C., United States [doi>10.1145/318242.318508]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.1 ADMINISTRATIVE DATA PROCESSING
      Subjects: Manufacturing

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.8 Problem Solving, Control Methods, and Search
          Subjects: Scheduling
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING

  J. Computer Applications

General Terms:
Design, Management, Performance, Theory