This Americas Program award will support Prof. John Yen and Prof. Reza Langari of Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station in collaboration with Prof. Rogelio Soto and Prof. Jose M. Sanchez, both of the Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey (ITESM). The proposed research focuses on the development of fuzzy logic based intelligent control strategies for applications in manufacturing automation and specifically in the development of control strategies for autonomous operation of unit manufacturing processes. The emphasis will be on application areas where the complexity of the unit manufacturing process, and the amount of interaction among the subsystems involved, preclude the application of conventional control engineering methods. Integration of the activities of human operators in relation to the operation of unit manufacturing processes requires the ability to control rather complex large scale systems These systems are generally nonlinear, from a dynamical subsystems standpoint, and are made up of multiple interacting subsystems. Current techniques in control theory, primarily focused on linear systems, are not optimally designed for this category of problems. The researchers aim to show that fuzzy logic, an alternative to classical logic, provides a viable means for dealing with the reality of manufacturing process control in that it enables one to deal more effectively with the issue of complexity that inevitably arises in this context. This collaboration should bring together well- established research teams in both countries to solve management and control problems of complex manufacturing systems.
