Scheduling of discrete event systems using mixed integer linear programming

To remain competitive, the modern industry strive for flexibility. Recently, a method for automatic generation of control code from a 3D simulation model of a flexible manufacturing system was developed. Finite automata and supervisory control theory (SCT) were used to guarantee the required behaviour of the system. This paper moves one step further. A method for automatic conversion between deterministic finite automata and mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation is presented. This allows to efficiently combine SCT and MILP to automatically generate time-optimal, collision-free and non-blocking working schedules