HSCS-the design of a holonic shopfloor control system

Abstract

This paper presents the holonic shopfloor control system (HSCS), a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) control software designed and prototyped based on the holonic philosophy. Holonic manufacturing system (HMS) advocates a dynamic control structure composed of standardized, autonomous and cooperative agents called holons. These holons group themselves into dynamic hierarchical structure called holarchies so that manufacturing activities carried out on the shopfloor such as operation scheduling and execution can be integrated in a highly decentralized and cooperative manner. HSCS consists of several modules supporting modeling, product and resource specifications, simulation and control activities within the holonic framework. Object-oriented programming provides a suitable environment to implement the distributed control software. The underlying architecture of HSCS also suggests directions for the design and implementation of future FMS control system.