NETWORKING FOR REAL-TIME CONTROL OF INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING PROCESSES.

Results of experimentation at the network testbed which emulates the heterogeneous traffic in an integrated manufacturing system are reported. As the network traffic increases, the dynamic performance of the delayed control system which regulates the servomotor in the experimental facility degrades. The experimental device is representative of the drive mechanisms of machine tools which are affected by network-induced delays in a real-time manufacturing environment. The characteristics of the experimental results are similar to those of the simulation results reported earlier. The concept of transmitting real-time unacknowledged data and delayable acknowledged data packets is applicable to both manufacturing systems and to integrated voice and data communication networks.