Intelligent Material Handling Systems: Intelligent Distributed Control of Material Handling

这是在智能物料处理系统的联合ENG/CISE研究中为期两年的持续奖励的第一年。本研究工作包括模拟、控制和实验综合物料处理系统的实施。研究了智能物料搬运系统成功的关键研究问题：采用各种专家软件包的分布式软件架构，具有健壮的通信协议；面向对象的软件，用于模拟不同抽象层次的物料搬运系统；利用多种传感方法进行安全运动规划和零件采集；智能控制操作的实时传感器处理算法；处理各种来源的不确定度的方法；在两个“微型工厂”中测试和验证概念；以及处理特定部件的定制末端执行器和固定装置的快速原型。这项研究涉及到许多专业程序的集成，在各种处理器上运行，使用通用接口协议。该专家包括一个处理程序建模和运动仿真与控制包，两个用于控制和传感器处理的实时多处理器，一个视觉包，一个机械设计包和一个NC机器码生成器。这些系统将通过CPU进程间通信协议进行通信，该协议已成功地在许多系统中进行了演示。此外，在伯克利开发的BLOCS面向对象仿真包将用于在几个层次上对实际系统进行建模，并在信息流、物料流和容错性方面验证和改进设计。最终，BLOCS将对实际的材料处理系统进行一些高级监测和控制。

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.