Authors:
J. Padayachee
and
G. Bright
Affiliation:
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Keyword(s):
Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems, Discrete System Simulation, Genetic Algorithms, Manufacturing System Design.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Artificial Intelligence
;
Computational Intelligence
;
Decision Support Systems
;
Evolutionary Computing
;
Facilities Design and Work Space Design
;
Genetic Algorithms
;
Industrial Engineering
;
Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics
;
Intelligent Control Systems and Optimization
;
Manufacturing Systems Engineering
;
Performance Evaluation and Optimization
;
Soft Computing
;
Systems Modeling and Simulation
Abstract:
The concept of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMSs) was formulated due to the global necessity for production systems that are able to economically evolve according to changes in markets and products. Technologies and design methods are under development to enable RMSs to exhibit transformable system layouts, reconfigurable processes, cells and machines. Existing manufacturing design systems do not encapsulate concepts of reconfigurability in design mechanisms to obtain optimal RMS configurations. This paper presents a framework for a resource allocation and shop floor design system within the context of RMSs. The framework focuses on the automated generation of shop floor configurations for systems with high product variety and shared resources. The DEVS, (Discrete Event System Specification), formalism is used to model reconfigurable equipment and simulate manufacturing processes. The “design engine” in the proposed framework, implements a genetic algorithm for the assembly,
evaluation and optimisation of candidate shop floor configurations and their corresponding DEVS models.
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