Intelligent Material Handling Systems: Intelligent Distributed Control of Material Handling

这是一个为期两年的连续奖的第一年， ENG/CISE联合推进智能物料搬运研究 系统. 这项研究工作涉及模拟，控制， 一个实验性的综合材料处理的实施 系统. 以下研究问题，被认为是至关重要的， 智能物料搬运系统的成功， 研究： 分布式软件体系结构使用各种专家 具有强大通信协议的软件包; 面向对象的物料搬运仿真软件 各种抽象层次的系统;安全规划 使用各种感测的运动和部分采集 实时传感器处理算法 操作的智能控制.处理方法 由于各种来源的不确定性;测试和 在两个“微型工厂”中验证概念; 定制末端执行器和夹具的原型设计 特殊部分。 这项研究涉及到一些专家的整合， 程序，在各种处理器上运行，使用通用的 接口协议。 专家们为搬运工准备了一个包裹 建模和运动仿真与控制，两个实时 用于控制和传感器处理的多处理器， 软件包、机械设计软件包和NC机床代码 生成器. 这些系统将通过CPU进行通信 进程间通信协议，该协议已成功地 用许多系统演示。 此外，BLOCS 面向对象的仿真软件包，它是在 Berkeley，将被用于在几个不同的位置对实际系统进行建模。 水平，并验证和改进设计方面， 信息流、物流和容错能力。 最终，BLOCS将执行一些高级监控， 实际材料处理系统的控制。

This is the first year of a two-year continuing award in the joint ENG/CISE research thrust in Intelligent Material Handling Systems. This research effort involves simulation, control, and implementation of an experimental integrated material handling systems. The following research issues, felt to be critical to the success of intelligent material handling systems, are studied: Distributed software architecture using a variety of expert software packages, with robust communication protocols; Object-oriented software for simulation of material handling systems at various levels of abstraction; Planning of safe motion and part acquisition using a variety of sensing methods; Real-time sensor processing algorithms for intelligent control of operations; Methods for dealing with uncertainty due to a variety of sources; Testing and validation of concepts in two "microfactories;" and Rapid prototyping of custom end-effectors and fixtures to handle particular parts. The research involves integration of a number of specialist programs, running on a variety of processors, using a versatile interface protocol. The specialist include a package for handler modeling and motion simulation and control, two real-time multiprocessors for control and sensor processing, a vision package, a mechanical design package, and an NC machine code generator. These systems will communicate via the CPU interprocess communication protocol, which has been successfully demonstrated with many of the systems. In addition, the BLOCS object-oriented simulation package, which was developed at Berkeley, will be used to model the actual system at several levels and to validate and improve the design in terms of information flow, material flow, and error tolerance. Eventually, BLOCS will perform some high-level monitoring and control of the actual material handling systems.