"A METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING AND MANAGING MACHINES OF A PRODUCTION PLANT BY MEANS OF ON-BOARD CONTROL DEVICES"

There is described a method for controlling and/or managing, by means of on-board control electronic devices, the operation of machines a production plant. The above- mentioned machines M, M1, M2, Mn are provided with respective machine controllers PLC, PLC1, PLC2, PLCn and cooperate for the manufacturing of a product or object, according to a production process. The method comprises providing respective on-board control electronic devices ED, ED1, ED2, EDn to a plurality of the above-mentioned plant machines. Each of the on-board control electronic devices ED contains, stored, and is adapted to execute one or more software programs or modules, configured to carry out the following additional method steps: - communicating and interoperating with the machine controller PLC of the respective machine, based on a common general model of machine controller data structure, adapted to interoperate with different types of machine controllers, to provide machine operating instructions to the machine controller PLC and to receive machine operation monitoring information from the machine controller PLC; - communicating with an operator, through a computer interface, to provide machine monitoring information and receive, from the operator, operating instructions for the machine operation and/or machine configuration or re-configuration instructions; the computer interface schematically represents the production process, in which the machine cooperates; - processing the monitoring information received from the machine controller and/or the instructions received from the operator, based on a logical representation model of the aforesaid production process, said model being common to all said on-board control electronic devices ED, for determining real-time decisions concerning the machine operation; - controlling the machine operation in real-time, by providing instructions to the machine controller, based on said decisions determined in real-time, to dynamically and automatically manage the machine operation and evolution of the production process to which the machine contributes. An on-board control device ED and a control electronic system are further described, capable of performing the above-mentioned control method. L'invention concerne un procédé de commande et/ou de gestion, au moyen de dispositifs électroniques de commande embarqués, du fonctionnement de machines d'une installation de production. Les machines M, M1, M2, Mn susmentionnées sont pourvues de contrô