Factory communication systems to meet multi-media requirements

Communication systems on the factory environment are evolving just as rapidly as in other application areas. There is a clear trend in computer communications to apply fast and high bandwidth networking methods and elements. Their spread in the office environment is very promising and straightforward, but their direct application in the manufacturing environment needs some prior investigation. How will it affect the management and control tasks in manufacturing systems? Besides other effects, it will enable the widespread use of multimedia features, and the authors focus on that issue. After giving a bunch of application oriented discussion topics, an experimental pilot system is detailed which could be oriented in the future to investigate manufacturing system trials.