Development and design of intelligent product carriers for flexible networked control of distributed manufacturing processes

In the area of product-based control of manufacturing processes, the potential to integrate intelligent products in process control has been recognized several times. However, the requirements of greatly varying intelligent products on the networked control and hybrid system dynamics of the distributed individual (sub-) processes have not been investigated. This paper begins with definitions of product-intelligence and distributed data and interface model. Based on this, a networked decentralized control structure with different intelligent products as a function of varying product properties is presented. In addition, the requirements for the design of intelligent products are presented. Through the implementation, it has been shown that the intelligent workpiece carrier represents a further module in the realization of cyber-physical production systems (CPPS) through comprehensive analysis and synthesis of a highly flexible distributed control.