Intelligent Devices in a Decentralized Production System Concept

Current manufacturing research topics, like Cyber Physical Production Systems, Industry 4.0 and machine learning, deal with the enhancement of machine control systems to create self-controlling production systems. This paper shows an approach to add supplementary information acquisition and processing tools to former executive units in order to enable decentralized decision-making. Therefore computers with additional sensors and communication devices were added to each component of a production system in a production laboratory. This change from a production machine to a self-controlling cyber-physical device is illustrated through the implementation in a milling station consisting of an industrial robot, a milling machine and a logistic station. The paper deals with the distribution of tasks to different component types and also with the connection to employees by such a decentralized system.