Institute for Systems Research Technical Reports

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/4376

This archive contains a collection of reports generated by the faculty and students of the Institute for Systems Research (ISR), a permanent, interdisciplinary research unit in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. ISR-based projects are conducted through partnerships with industry and government, bringing together faculty and students from multiple academic departments and colleges across the university.

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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Design, Verification and Implementation of Rule Based Information Systems for Integrated Manufacturing (INSIM)
    (1992) Lin, Chang-Pin; Harhalakis, G.; ISR
    Full control and management of information flow in an automated factory has not yet been achieved, mainly because of the data inconsistencies and lack of established functional relationships among different manufacturing application systems. Research toward CIM has concentrated on the computerization of individual functions of manufacturing, such as computer aided design and shop floor control, and the integration of data relations, such as global database frameworks and distributed database management systems. A much needed mechanism to manage and control the information flow among all of the manufacturing application systems based on company-specific and company-wide policies and procedures, is proposed here. The goal is to achieve a fully integrated manufacturing management system. The INformation system for Integrated Manufacturing (INSIM) reflects a design methodology to build a knowledge base to serve as the information control mechanism. The methodology includes the collection of rules (knowledge acquisition), their graphical modeling, systematic model validation and automated implementation to an operating production system. This design methodology features an enhanced graphic modeling tool - Updated Petri Nets (UPN) - which is capable of modeling database updates and retrievals, under specific constraints and conditions and uses a hierarchical modeling approach. Finally, a prototype knowledge based system written in Update Dependencies Language (UDL) - a special rule specification language - was implemented as a result of direct and automatic translation of UPN.
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    A Class of Conflict Free Petri Nets Used for Controlling Manufacturing Systems
    (1992) Harhalakis, George; Levantopoulos, Marios M.; Lin, Chang-Pin; Nagi, R.; Proth, J.M.; ISR
    This paper is devoted to the behavior, evaluation and management of non-cyclic discrete systems in general and manufacturing systems in particular. We introduce a special type of Petri nets called CFIOs (Conflict-Free nets with Input and Output transitions). It is shown that CFIOs are live, reversible if consistent, and can be kept bounded under certain conditions. We also develop reduction rules which facilitate the computation of the t-invariants of CFIOs. We then take advantage of the qualitative properties of CFIOs to perform planning in manufacturing systems. Numerical examples illustrate these approaches
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    UPN: A Petri Net Based Graphical Representation of Company Policy Specifications in CIM
    (1992) Harhalakis, George; Lin, Chang-Pin; ISR
    A graphical representation schema - Updated Petri Nets (UPN) - has been developed to model rule based company policy specifications, in the context of computer integrated manufacturing systems. UPN facilitates the modeling of relationships between operations of various related application systems and the database updates and retrievals among various CIM databases. Based on this representation, a hierarchical modeling technique which includes refining and aggregating rules has also been developed. Application of the UPN is demonstrated in designing rule based systems for controlling and integrating the information between manufacturing applications, including Computer Aided Design, Computer Aided Process Planning, Manufacturing Resources Planning, and Shop Floor Control.
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    INformation Systems for Integrated Manufacturing (INSIM)
    (1992) Harhalakis, George; Lin, Chang-Pin; Mark, Leo; ISR
    A mechanism with the potential to control the information flow among all of the manufacturing application systems, in order to streamline factory activities, based on company-specific and company-wide policies and procedures is proposed here. The goal is to achieve a fully integrated manufacturing management system. The INformation Systems for Integrated Manufacturing (INSIM) reflects a design methodology to build a knowledge base to serve as the control mechanism.
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    Implementation of Rule Based Information Systems for Integrated Manufacturing
    (1992) Harhalakis, George; Lin, Chang-Pin; Mark, Leo; Muro-Medrano, P.R.; ISR
    This paper focuses on the development of a methodology within a software environment for automating the rule based implementation of specifications of integrated manufacturing information systems. The specifications are initially formulated in a natural language and subsequently representted in terms of a graphical representation by the system designer. A new graphical representation tool is based on Updated Petri Nets (UPN) which we have developed as a specialized version of Colored Petri Nets (CPN). The rule based implementation approach utilize the similarity of features between UPN and the general rule specification language used in the implementation. The automation of the translation of UPN to the rule specification language reduces considerably the life cycle for design and implementation of the system. The application presented here deals with the control and management of information flow between Computer Aided Design, Process Planning, Manufacturing Resource Planning and Shop Floor Control databases. This provides an integrated information framework for Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) systems.

    Index Terms - Rule base, information system, computer integrated manufacturing, system modeling, knowledge verification, Petri nets, rule specification language, reasoning, language translation.

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    INformation Systems for Integrated Manufacturing (INSIM) - A Design Methodology
    (1991) Harhalakis, George; Lin, Chang-Pin; Mark, Leo; Muro, P.R.; ISR
    Full control and management of information flow in manufacturing has not yet been achieved, mainly because of the data inconsistencies and lack of established functional relationships among different manufacturing application systems. Research toward CIM has been concentrating on the computerization of individual functions, such as computer aided design and shop floor control, and the integration of data relations, such as global database frameworks and distributed database management systems. A mechanism to control the information flow among all of the manufacturing application systems, in order to streamline factory activities based on company-specific and company-wide policies and procedures is proposed here. The goal is to achieve a fully integrated manufacturing management system. The INformation Systems for Integrated Manufacturing (INSIM) reflects a design methodology to build a knowledge base to serve as the control mechanism. This design methodology features an enhanced graphic modeling tool - Updated Petri Nets (UPN) - which is capable of modeling database updates and retrievals, under specific constraints and conditions, and uses a hierarchical modeling approach. Finally, a prototype rule based system, using the INSIM methodology, is being implemented. It assimilates the functionality and assertains the control of information flow between Computer Aided Design, Process Planning, Manufacturing Resource Planning and Shop Floor Control.