NSF/CONACyT: Bi-National Effort on Distributed Manufacturing Supervisory Control Systems

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This NSF/CONACyT grant provides funding for the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) to work with the Centro de Investigaciones y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN Unidad Guadalajara (CINVESTAV) and the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez (UACJ) to carry out collaborative research in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) control and implementation of novel Discrete Event (DE) Supervisory Controllers over the internet. By combining current results and developing new results by joint research, this research will develop an integrated approach to FMS design, decision-making, and on-line supervisory DE control.There are two goals in this NSF/CONACyT research: 1) Structure and performance of DE supervisory controllers for manufacturing systems using UTA's patented matrix-based discrete event controller as a tool to perform high-level design of supervisory controllers for manufacturing systems and improve dispatching, routing, and part release; study bottlenecks and optimal dynamic rebalancing of jobs to alleviate bottlenecks; design, and study the performance and complexity of, distributed decentralized supervisory controllers for multiple networked cellular manufacturing workcells; and 2) improve academic and broader impact goals by offering a summer course at UTA for formal training on the analysis and design of DE controllers for undergraduate and graduate students from USA and Mexico; involve local high school students in course projects on actual manufacturing and robotic systems; jointly co-advise Mexican Ph.D. students, including visits to UTA for research and development; design and develop an internet-based supervisory control system for manufacturing workcells; and set up a distance-learning program over the internet to train Mexican students to program workcells. Also, the research will work on industrial partner chemical flowline implementation by designing a chemical processing flowline for aircraft parts for an industrial partner, designing a DE supervisory controller for part routing and resource assignment, and simulate various strategies for part routing and resource assignment. The automated, dynamically controlled chemical flow line is a new concept in aircraft manufacturing that has the potential to gain significant market share in a new industry.