THE USE OF STATE-TRANSITION METHODOLOGY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF FACTORY AUTOMATION

摘要

A laboratory program is described that was developed in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Michigan Technological University. The program introduces undergraduate students to concepts of discrete-event control and the application to factory automation. The primary emphasis is placed on various programming concepts using state-transition techniques, and the utilization of this methodology is shown to produce a very understandable and systematic description of sequential control functions (that may include concurrent or hierarchical control). The students use computers and controllers to implement small versions of realistic manufacturing tasks.