Using Database Specifications to Automate the Diagnosis of Factory Automation Systems

This document summarizes results of implementing a system for automatically generating diagnostic rules from specifications of high-level process descriptions, work-cells and tools. This approach has been successfully used to model and diagnose real-world automobile assembly systems, which have feedback and control structures typical for the factory automation domain. This approach demonstrates how to both automate generation of diagnostic Relay Ladder Logic (RLL), and to integrate the process of specifying the workcell tools and process with designing the control and diagnostic RLL. Given that these two phases of building running workcells are currently disjoint, this integration process should both speed up the process of workcell commissioning and improve the quality of the resulting diagnostics.