Instantiation of the Open-Control concept in FMS based on potential fields

Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) must continually deal with the increasing complexity of product requirements as well as mounting pressure to decrease costs and increase control system adaptability to environmental changes. In this context, we have proposed the “Open-Control” concept. This generic concept includes both the traditional explicit control and an innovative type of control, called implicit control, which allows system entities to be controlled indirectly via an Optimization Mechanism (OM). An implementation was carried out on a real FMS using potential fields (PF). This implementation is presented, and our initial results are reported and discussed, pointing out the advantages of considering implicit control, in addition to traditional explicit control.