Modelling and control of manufacturing systems subject to context recognition and switching

Abstract

Finite-State Automata (FSA) are foundations for modelling, synthesis, verification, and implementation of controllers for manufacturing systems. However, FSA are limited to represent emerging features in manufacturing, such as the ability to recognise and switch contexts. One option is to enrich FSA with parameters that carry details about the manufacturing, which may favour design and control. A parameter can be embedded either on transitions or states of an FSA, and each approach defines its own modelling framework, so that their comparison and integration are not straightforward, and they may lead to different control solutions, modelled, processed and implemented distinctly. In this paper, we show how to combine advantages from parameters in manufacturing the modelling and control. We initially present a background that allows to understand each parameterisation strategy. Then, we introduce a conversion method that translates a design-friendly model into a synthesis-efficient structure. Finally, we use the converted models is synthesis, highlighting their advantages. Examples are used throughout the paper to illustrate and compare our results and tooling support is also provided.