Unified architecture of execution level hardware and software for discrete machinery manufacturing control systems

The paper describes an original architecture of a control system for the execution level of discrete machinery manufacturing. The architecture combines traditional approach that uses a SCADA system to monitor the condition of the production equipment and a system for production tasks execution based on Forth virtual machines for every automated work station. The proposed architecture will make it possible to successfully combine operations with different degrees of automation into a single manufacturing process, and also to substitute manual operations with automated ones without changing the technical documentation. Conducted experiments prove the applicability of this approach and the potential for further researches in this field.

I. Introduction

The main trends in the development of modern industrial manufacturing are increasing its flexibility and efficiency through introduction of information technologies [1]. The emergence of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) was an important step in this direction. These systems execute operative planning and document management on all stages of manufacturing, from receiving basic materials from the warehouse to shipping of final products. [2]. In the hierarchy of manufacturing automation technologies MES holds the position between Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) and execution-level systems, such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems (SCADA) and Distributed Numerical Control systems (DNC) (Fig. 1) [3].