Comparison of hierarchical and holonic shop floor control using a virtual manufacturing environment

Shop floor control is typically implemented with a centralized supervisory control system. Holonic control, a form of distributed control, provides a more robust control environment and improves production performance. The authors create a 3D virtual manufacturing environment to compare hierarchical control with holonic control. We use this virtual environment to analyze alternative approaches and quantify their effects on the system behavior in a controlled environment. Finally, we present a measure of robustness derived from reliability theory and utilize it for comparisons.