Sensor Fusion Control System for Computer Integrated Manufacturing

A new competitive environment for industrial products and services is emerging and is forcing a change in the way in which manufacturing enterprises are designed and managed. Competitive advantages in the new global economy belongs to manufacturing enterprises that are capable of responding rapidly to the demand for customized, high-quality products.The manufacturing system used for this new approach must be rapidly designed, able to quickly integrate all the systems in order to produce a large variety of products in unpredictable quantities. Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) systems plays an important role towards integrating such flexible systems. This paper presents a methodology of increasing flexibility and reusability of a generic CIM cell-control system using simulation and modelling of mechatronic sensory system (MSS) concepts. Models and guidelines developed in the research are intended to support system developers when implementing generic control software for CIM cells. The utilisation of sensors within the CIM cell is high lighted specifically for data acquisition, analysis and multi-sensor data fusion. Thus, the designed reference control systems architecture provides the comprehensive insight for the functions and methodologies of a generic Shop-floor Control System (SFCS), which consequently enables the rapid deployment of a flexible system.