Modular finite state machines: Development and application to reconfigurable manufacturing cell controller generation

This paper presents a new framework developed for logic control of manufacturing systems based on finite state machines (FSMs) and a method to automatically generate the control logic for manufacturing cell controllers using this framework. The framework is modular; FSMs are encapsulated into modules with well-defined communication between them. Events in the finite state machines are of two types, triggers and responses, allowing FSMs to react to events and to force events to occur. The automatic generation method is based on a library of predefined modules. Its application to and implementation on a manufacturing testbed is described.