Manufacturing Knowledge Base

Open control systems are the key enabler for the realization of modular and reconfigurable manufacturing systems. The large number of special purpose machines and the high level of automation have led to an increasing importance of open control systems based on vendor-neutral standards. This paper gives an overview on the past, present and future of open controller architecture. After reflecting on the different criteria, categories and characteristics of open controllers in general, the CNC products in the market are evaluated and an overview of worldwide research activities in Europe, North America and Japan is given. Subsequently the efforts to harmonize the different results are described to establish a common worldwide standard in the future. Due to the mix-and-match nature of open controllers, concentrated attention must be paid to testing mechanisms in the form of conformance and interoperability tests. Authors: Gunter Pritschow, Yusuf Altintas, Francesco Jovane, Yoram Koren, Mamoru Mitsuishi, Shozo Takata, Hendrik van Brussel, Manfred Weck, Kazuo Yamazaki. CIRP 2001 paper.