Problems of Control of Workpiece Flow in a Flexible Manufacturing System

The paper presents problems arising during developing algorithms controlling workpiece flow subsystems in a flexible manufacturing system. The necessary signals as well as the general algorithm responsible for worpiece flow in a flexible manufacturing system were defined. On the basis of a structure of a flexible manufacturing system developed at the Institute of Manufacturing Engineering of Szczecin University of Technology the problems of selecting an appropriate pallet from a rack stacker and choosing the right transport operation of a horizontal transport carrier were defined. In order to choose an appropriate pallet to carry out a task a method based on fuzzy sets was proposed and applied. The linguistic variables used in the reasoning process and the structure of the process were also described. The operation of Fuzzy Logic module was depicted on the basis of simulation studies. The investigations confirmed the possibility of applying Fuzzy Logic reasoning in developing complex algorithms controlling automated manufacturing systems.