A semi-formal approach to build the functional graph of an automated production system for supervision purposes

This paper presents a functional analysis approach, called an analytical approach, used to model automated production systems ( APSs). In addition, Unified Modelling Language models taking into account the various business concepts ( i.e. the concepts used in our interest field) involved in this approach are proposed. The final goal of this study is the automation of an analytical approach to enable an expert to obtain the functional graph of an existing APS. This graph has proved useful in developing fault detection and isolation, and fault-tolerant control techniques for flexible manufacturing systems ( FMSs) and complex plants such as nuclear power plants or chemical plants. However, industrial applications have revealed difficulties in manually constructing functional graphs for complex systems, thus justifying automation for this modelling process. The originality of our approach lies in the fact that it is generic, i.e. it is not specific to a particular set of APSs. This property results both from the use of generic concepts such as the notion of function that is independent of the application context and from the adoption of an object-oriented approach for our analysis process. This study allows us to develop an efficient software tool. It also allows enrichment of an existing reference frame which regroups different models of an FMS from various points of view.