A decision-making perspective on hybrid manufacturing system control

This paper presents a novel scheme for hybrid control of a manufacturing system where jobs visit workstations following a bidding process. An automated guided vehicle system is selected for handling material between workstations. The proposed hybrid architecture is appropriate particularly for circumstance in which vehicles deliver materials across the factory, the local control authority is emphasized, or when a simple, straightforward, quick response control at the lower level is desired. Because control activities are inherent in making decisions, three types of decisions (i.e. induction, dispatching, and routing) are used to present the manufacturing system controls. Unambiguously to represent the controls and capture the system behaviour, a mathematical formalism is applied. The discussed context includes the mathematical formalism of those control decisions, the system behaviour in terms of its component interactions, and a controller's internal passing messages. An illustrative example demonstrates the system control's effectiveness.