Synthesis and implementation of distributed control for a flexible manufacturing system

We are interested in the synthesis and implementation of distributed control for manufacturing discrete event systems (DES). To avoid combinatorial explosion related to this class of systems, the distributed control is based on the modularity of the system and the specification of the constraints as logical equations in Boolean algebra. In order to ensure the flexibility required in manufacturing systems, two modes of operation (local and global) are guaranteed by the distributed control. An interpretation method of the distributed controllers into programmable logic controller (PLC) language is given. An application on a real manufacturing system used to distribute, test and sort three types of parts illustrates the paper.