An Object-Oriented Approach for Flexible Manufacturing Control Systems Analysis and Design Using the Unified Modeling Language

In reacting to global competition and rapidly changing customer demands, industrial business organizations have developed a strong interest in flexible automation. The aim of flexible automation focuses on achieving agility in handling uncertainties from internal or external environments. Modeling complex structures, promoting reuse, and shortening the development time cycle are particularly significant aspects in the analysis and design of CIM systems, where heterogeneous elements have to be integrated in a complex control architecture. The design methodology for FMS control software involves the abstraction of an FMS and the estimation of the system performances. The aim of this activity is to suggest the optimal configuration of an FMS for given specifications, through simulation tools. In the software engineering field, object-oriented (OO) approaches have proven to be a powerful technique with respect to such aspects. The unified modeling language (UML), by using OO design methodologies, can offer reusability, extendibility, and modifiability in software design. Also, it bridges the gap that exists between the OO analysis and design area and the area of OO programming by creating an integrative metamodel of OO concepts. The specific goal of this paper is to formulate a new methodology for developing reusable, extendible, and modifiable control software for an FMS in an object-oriented environment. It is demonstrated that, with few diagrams, UML can be used to model such systems without being associated with other modeling tools.