Non-centralised control strategies for energy-efficient and flexible manufacturing systems

The manufacturing industry is transforming towards smart, energy-efficient, and flexible manufacturing systems. In this regard, this work deals with the design of non-centralised control architectures to improve the energy efficiency of such systems and to promote their flexibility. Based on both the configuration of manufacturing systems and their coupling dynamics, these systems are divided into sub-systems, from which smaller control problems can be stated. Thus, control/management strategies can also be modularised to confer more flexibility to manufacturing systems. Then, by using suitable distributed optimisation techniques, and properly defining the consensus stages among the local controllers, the outputs from such controllers are optimally coordinated to minimise the total energy consumption of the whole system. The proposed control strategies are tested in simulation for a typical process line of automotive parts manufacturing industry, in which the main processing units are machine tools. Based on the obtained results, manufacturing systems and their control strategies could be suitably modularised using non-centralised control schemes, from which a closed-loop performance similar to its centralised counterpart can be achieved.

Automated summary

This work focuses on designing non-centralised control architectures to enhance energy efficiency and flexibility in manufacturing systems. By dividing systems into sub-systems and using distributed optimization techniques, the proposed strategies aim to minimize total energy consumption and achieve closed-loop performance similar to centralized control.