Presents the findings of experts and practitioners from the major soft-computing themes Provides an overview of the theory and applications of IMS systems The Area of Intelligence in manufacturing has generated a considerable amount of interest occasionally verging on controversy, both in the research community and in the industrial sector. This proceedings looks at the broad manufacturing domain dealing with both technical and organizational issues, intelligent control is only part, albeit important, of optimal integration and control of intelligent techniques. The importance of creating a synergy of efforts aiming at efficient employment of intelligence in global technological development for manufacturing was recognized by the international IMS (intelligent manufacturing Systems) Initiative and is discussed in this proceedings volume.

This volume contains the papers presented at the 6th IFAC Workshop on Intelligent Manufacturing Systems, held in Poznan, Poland in April 2001. The workshop followed the well-established tradition of such meetings organised under the sponsorship of the IFAC Technical Committee on the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (TC MIT), addressing key areas of scientific research and industrial applications in intelligent manufacturing systems. manufacturing processes; rapid prototyping; new concepts for the technical support of intelligent manufacturing and methodological aspects of distributed and discrete-event systems. A number of contributions reflect the truly international character of the research in this area. in the IMS community: multi-agents systems, which originate with the distributed artificial intelligence community as a software technology and holonic manufacturing systems, which have emerged directly from the IMS community as a manufacturing technology. This volume shoudl be indispensable for anyone with an interest in the latest developments in intelligent manufacturing systems.

Contains 69 papers from the October 1995 workshop, highlighting research in robotics, computer-integrated manufacturing, and artificial intelligence and applications in manufacturing systems operations, manufacturing processes, concurrent engineering, object- oriented design, simulation, and fault detection. Specific topics include trajectory simulation and optimization for a fuzzy-controlled mobile robot, integrated CAD and CAPP, and a multi-agent model for job-shop scheduling. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book demonstrates how to apply modern approaches to complex system control in practical applications involving knowledge-based systems. The dimensions of knowledge-based systems are extended by incorporating new perspectives from control theory, multimodal systems and simulation methods. The book is divided into three parts: theory, production system and information system applications. One of its main focuses is on an agent-based approach to complex system analysis. Moreover, specialised forms of knowledge-based systems (like e-learning, social network, and production systems) are introduced with a new formal approach to knowledge system modelling. The book, which offers a valuable resource for researchers engaged in complex system analysis, is the result of a unique cooperation between scientists from applied computer science (mainly from Poland) and leading system control theory researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Trapeznikov Institute of Control Sciences.

The most up-to-date view of manufacturing technologies. Written by leading experts from the USA, Europe, and Asia, both handbook and CD-ROM cover a wide range of topics ranging from industrial management and organization to automation and control, from mechanical to electronical technology, and from machine tools to the consumer goods industry. It gives a unique interdisciplinary and global presentation of material and combines, for the first time, theoretical and significant practical results from the last decades of the most important branches of machine building. Its broad coverage appeals to the highly skilled scientific expert as well as the experienced design engineer, and to undergraduate and advanced students.

The fast progress in computer networks and their wide availability complemented with on one hand the "explosion" of the mobile computing and on the other hand the trends in the direction of ubiquitous computing, act as powerful enablers for new forms of highly dynamic collaborative organizations and emergence of new business practices. The first efforts in virtual enterprises (VE) were strongly constrained by the need to design and develop horizontal infrastructures aimed at supporting the basic collaboration needs of consortia of enterprises. Even pilot projects that were focused on specific business domains were forced to first develop some basic infrastructures before being able to develop their specific business models. Nowadays, although there is still a need to consolidate and standardize the horizontal infrastructures, the focus is more and more directed to the development of new vertical business models and the corresponding support tools. At the same time, in the earlier R&D projects, the attention was almost exclusively devoted to the operation phase of the VE life cycle, while now there are more activities addressing the creation phase, developing mechanisms to support the rapid formation of new virtual organizations for new business opportunities. In order to complete the life cycle, there is a need to also invest on support for VE dissolution.

This book relates research being implemented in three main research areas: secure connectivity and intelligent systems, real-time analytics and manufacturing knowledge and virtual manufacturing. Manufacturing SMEs and MNCs want to see how Industry 4.0 is implemented. On the other hand, groundbreaking research on this topic is constantly growing. For the aforesaid reason, the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), has created the model factory initiative. In the model factory, manufacturers, technology providers and the broader industry can (i) learn how I4.0 technologies are implemented on real-world manufacturing use-cases, (ii) test process improvements enabled by such technologies at the model factory facility, without disrupting their own operations, (iii) co-develop technology solutions and (iv) support the adoption of solutions at their everyday industrial operation. The book constitutes a clear base ground not only for inspiration of researchers, but also for companies who will want to adopt smart manufacturing approaches coming from Industry 4.0 in their pathway to digitization.