Implications of emerging technologies on factory communication systems

The emerging technologies of intelligent systems ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), and multimedia hold great promises for factory communication systems (FCS). By an intelligent system, we mean one that can acquire information and adjust its behaviour accordingly in an autonomous fashion. An intelligent network can adapt its configuration and behaviour depending upon available resources and characteristics of the applications. In addition to using pre-wired or pre-programmed information for adapting its configuration and behaviour, an intelligent system uses techniques from neural networks, fuzzy systems, and soft computing to learn from its environment and in this way fine tune its configuration and behaviour. The paper discusses the potential of intelligent systems, ATM, and multimedia systems to meet current and future requirements of FCS.