Multi-scale Configuration Design Method of Reconfigurable Manufacturing System Based on Living System Theory

For the problem that how to design the configuration of Reconfigurable Manufacturing System(RMS) with high efficiency during the RMS reconfiguration period, a configuration design method based on Living System Theory (LST) is proposed. Firstly, a multi-scale configuration design model of RMS is constructed, which analyzes the RMS configuration design process from the scale of manufacturing system, manufacturing cell and machine tool deeply. Secondly, the LST is used to decompose and represent the RMS multi-scale configuration design model, and a universal RMS multi-scale configuration design model is built based on the 20-critical subsystem of LST. During RMS configuration design process, the universal design model is reused, through the operations of adding, deleting or replacing, to deal with the order fluctuation and improve RMS reconfigure efficiency. Finally, a case is studied to elaborate the implementation of the presented method and validate the effectiveness and practicability.