Holonic control approach for the “green”-tyre manufacturing system using IEC 61499 standard

•The distributed control structure based on the holonic control and IEC 61499 standard is developed.•Application-specific ontology within the control architecture is developed.•Adaptive-decision making mechanism and rule-based behaviour of holons are designed.•The framework for implementation of the holonic control using the hardware abstraction is presented.•Evaluation of the distributed holonic control approach within a virtual manufacturing environment is performed.

Traditional tyre-manufacturing systems are characterised by a slow response during optimisation of the manufacturing process and insufficient adaptability to system disturbances. The objective of our research is to develop a distributed and adaptive control approach based on the concept of holonic control and IEC 61499 function blocks. A brief description of the manufacturing modules within the “green”-tyre manufacturing system is given. The architecture of distributed holonic control and implementation environment using IEC 61499 function blocks are then proposed and elaborated. Comprehensive discussion is given thereafter, including an evaluation of the distributed holonic control approach within the virtual manufacturing environment based on simulation tests for various scenarios, whereby system operation in unstable conditions is taken into account. The real-life implementation of this technology in the future is expected to increase productivity, resource utilisation and robustness in a tyre-manufacturing environment.