Intelligent Manufacturing is part of the Advanced Manufacturing Series edited by Professor D.T. Pham of the University of Wales, College of Cardiff. This publication exposes the major issues associated with programming environments for manufacturing and illustrates specific software systems developed for industrial application. Clear and concise statements are made on the state-of-the-art and recent trends in manufacturing languages and programming environments. The book discusses the diverse approaches that are currently under consideration in North America and Europe. It gives the reader an understanding of how manufacturing languages can be used to integrate computer controlled machines and intelligent sensors in automated manufacturing systems including machine tools, robots, inspection and material handling equipment.

Inhalt

Section A. Programming Environments and Architecture.- 1. Developing Control Software for Efficient and Dependable Manufacturing Systems.- 2. Concurrency, Device Abstraction and Real-Time Processing in AMPLE.- Section B. Object-Oriented Programming Environments.- 3. Fourth-Generation Distributed Programming Environments for Automated Manufacturing.- 4. G++: An Environment for Object-Oriented Design and Prototyping of Manufacturing Systems.- Section C. Iconic Programming Environments.- 5. GRAFCET and Petri Nets in Manufacturing.- 6. Requirements for a General-Purpose Visual Programming Language for Discrete-Part Industrial Automation.- 7. Model-Based Operational Specifications for Fault Monitoring in Manufacturing Systems.- Section D. Programming Language Implementation and Tools.- 8. Implementing Concurrent Engineering Using STEP, EXPRESS and Delta Files.- 9. Knowledge-Based Software for Diagnosis of Manufacturing Systems.- 10. Pictorial Information Management in Manufacturing Systems.- 11. EPAN: An Extensible Packet Analysis Utility for CIM Environments.