Communication Software Development for a Workstation Controller in a CIM System

자동화 공정내의 워크스테이션 제어기 통신 소프트웨어 개발

Computer Intergrated Manufacturing (CIM) is an emerging technology which aims at the total automation of a manufacturing system. Despite the extensive research on CIM in this decade, total automation seems to be far from reality for many reasons. In this study, the problems of implementing a CIM system are analyzed and a solution method is suggested. A set of software has been developed and tested for a workstation cotroller which controls closely integrated equipment in the low level of a flexible manufacturing system. The functions of the programs are communications between machines and computers and control of workstation scheduling. The software group is developed on IBM OS/2 operating system with 'c' language to enhance the portability. The usage of the software is presented to users through the Presentation Manager which is menu handler of OS/2 system. Although the software is developed for limited machine equipment, the scheme can be adopted to various machines due to the generality.