Abstract
In light of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the concepts of flexibility and re-configurability of manufacturing systems and the evolution of their control architectures are becoming increasingly important. The development of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) and their flexibility and integrated capabilities have paved the way to the transition from centralized control to heterarchical (decentralized) control architectures. In this paper, a comparison between centralized and heterarchical control architectures in a virtual learning environment is presented. The control architectures of the assembly station and the materials handling system of modern manufacturing systems have been conceptualized and tested under different working conditions. The results show that centralized control is the best solution only for deterministic and predictable scenarios, which are very far from reality, whereas, in case of failures, a more flexible control is preferable.
Highlights
The demand for more personalized, smart, and sustainable products has led to the rapid growth of the industrial Internet and cyber-physical technologies completely revolutionizing the manufacturing systems [1] The industrial world has switched from classical manufacturing systems to smart manufacturing systems based on self-contained, automated, and smart modules, exploiting flexibility and re-configurability capabilities.The Fourth Industrial Revolution and related technologies have led to a significant evolution and transformation of the manufacturing systems.The key principles behind I4.0 are interconnection, information transparency, decentralized decisions, and real time technical assistance for human operators [2]
In the first scenario, centralized and heterarchical control were applied to assembly stations, while in the second scenario the control architectures were tested for materials handling systems
The results of the first experimental case show that the best result was obtained by applying centralized control, where the mean throughput time with centralized control was lower than the mean throughput time with heterarchical control
Summary
The demand for more personalized, smart, and sustainable products has led to the rapid growth of the industrial Internet and cyber-physical technologies completely revolutionizing the manufacturing systems [1] The industrial world has switched from classical manufacturing systems to smart manufacturing systems based on self-contained, automated, and smart modules, exploiting flexibility and re-configurability capabilities.The Fourth Industrial Revolution ( known as Industry 4.0, Industrie 4.0, or I4.0) and related technologies have led to a significant evolution and transformation of the manufacturing systems.The key principles behind I4.0 are interconnection, information transparency, decentralized decisions, and real time technical assistance for human operators [2]. The demand for more personalized, smart, and sustainable products has led to the rapid growth of the industrial Internet and cyber-physical technologies completely revolutionizing the manufacturing systems [1] The industrial world has switched from classical manufacturing systems to smart manufacturing systems based on self-contained, automated, and smart modules, exploiting flexibility and re-configurability capabilities. The Fourth Industrial Revolution ( known as Industry 4.0, Industrie 4.0, or I4.0) and related technologies have led to a significant evolution and transformation of the manufacturing systems. The key principles behind I4.0 are interconnection, information transparency, decentralized decisions, and real time technical assistance for human operators [2]. Manufacturing processes are required to be significantly digitalized and simulation techniques are paving the way to the ‘digital factory’ concept, a mix of virtual and real factory environments.
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