An Advanced Research Workshop funded by NATO emphasizes research and application of information technology for material flow control in manufacturing environments. The current world status of this topic will be reviewed and an agenda for needed research will be established. Major themes in this workshop include the following: 1) the nature of information within the material flow domain, 2) status of contemporary databases for engineering and material flow, 3) distributed databases and information integration, 4) artificial intelligence (AI) methodology and models in the material flow domain, 5) digital communications for material flow systems, 6) robotics and material flow control, 7) material handling and storage systems information and control, 8) implementation, organization, and economic research issues as related to the above. Approximately 30 international researchers from academia and industry will participate. This grant is to enable the participation of the U.S. researchers.
