Control Architecture for Device Integration (CADI)

The focus of this paper is to present an architecture for the seamless integration of devices in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Our proposal intends to cover any device, regardless of manufacturer or technology level. In this scenario, small lot sizes and the fast adaptability of the production environment is more important than short cycle times. Moreover, the ability to incorporate new devices smoothly must be considered in order to reduce adaptation costs in an otherwise stablished production environment. This is the main difference of our approach when compared, for instance, to the European Union's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) called SMErobot1. Control Architecture for Device Integration (CADI), although a much modest project, proposes a more flexible approach for transitioning an stablished production environment from a current technology level into a more flexible and automated environment, without the need for an overall adaptation of the work cell and the acquisition of all new equipment. This paper presents CADI's architecture in the form of its subsystems: the tag subsystem, the device proxy and the work cell controller.