Dynamics of autonomously acting products and work systems in production and assembly

Autonomous production is characterized by local and autonomous decision making of intelligent logistic objects such as work systems that adjust production rates and parts that decide which products they “want” to become and which orders they will fill. It is important to understand and have confidence in dynamic interactions of these objects and their resulting performance. In this paper the dynamic interaction of autonomous products and work systems is investigated using a hybrid simulation model and a control-theoretic model. Results obtained using both models show that these dynamic interactions can be well behaved and predictable. Through linearized models of continuous input flows at nominal rates, tools of control theory are shown to build confidence in complex system dynamic behavior of interacting autonomous logistics objects when decision-making logic is modeled in a way that makes control-theoretic analyses tractable.