Computer Aided Reconfigurable Manufacturing System Design

A Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RCMS) is one which was designed at the outset for rapid and cost-effective reconfiguration, being system-level oriented and production resource-level oriented, in order to provide rapid and exact production capacity needed in response to new market demands and functionality needed to produce a new part of the same part family. In this paper, the design methods and key characteristics of reconfigurable manufacturing system are analyzed, and a research area as referred to computer aided reconfigurable manufacturing system design (CARCMSD) is presented. The flow diagram of CARCMSD which consists of such modules as dynamic adaptive learning and recognition mechanism, system model analysis and performance optimism, integrated design and expert system is illustrated. As a result, integrated design of RCMS is preliminarily realized.