Holonic shop-floor application for handling, feeding and transportation of workpieces

Abstract

In pursuit of flexible and agile automation within the domain of discrete manufacturing, a paint-shop with its surrounding logistics and handling processes is under construction as a laboratory prototype application. Holonic manufacturing is argued to be a promising strategic paradigm and architecture to use for a system characterised by flexible production logistics and control. This article describes the physical devices to be used; the desired functionality; and the basic logic control design. Additionally, the ideas for holonification, based on the already designed logic control, are presented. This article also outlines a holonic automated guided vehicle (AGV) system developed for the automated paint-shop. The AGV system is composed of autonomous AGV holons that cooperate, individually or in groups, with other holons, such as robot holons and vision-system holons.