A Flexible Conveying System using Hybrid Control under Distributed Network

In this research, we propose a flexible conveying system (FCS) which consists of multiple arrays of cells. Each cell is a wheel driven by a two degree-of-freedom mechanism. The direction and velocity of cell are controlled based on the concept of hybrid control under a distributed network. Each cell has its own controller under a subsumption architecture for low-level control. A cell communicates with its four neighboring cells to manipulate n targeted object towards its desired position. The high-level control assigns a desired position and direction of the object to each cell. The path of each object is generated by many supporting cells. Moreover, the FCS can handle multiple objects simultaneously. To study the flexible conveying system, a GUI-based simulator of flexible conveying system is constructed. The simulated results show that the system can handle multiple objects independently and simultaneously under the proposed hybrid control architecture.