Towards a flexible production system Environment Server implementation

Abstract

Flexible production systems represents the future of manufacturing processes in Europe. Small batches of products and adaptation of the line to variants or new products is in the European view of the 2020 manufacturing. This new paradigm requires a novel approach where many advances in the theory have been made and laboratory prototype implementations have shown the potential of this approach. However, industrial implementations have not been yet achieved. More pragmatic approaches suitable for system integrators are still needed. This paper introduces a proposal of such as approach with a mobile robot using the information contained in an Environment Server.