Dynamics and design of a class of parameterized manufacturing flow controllers

The optimal production control of failure prone flexible manufacturing systems has received considerable attention. Analytically intractable optimality conditions render near optimal controller design the only available option for realistic size systems. This paper deals with a class of suboptimal feedback control policies that are parameterized over a finite set. In-depth analysis of the dynamics of the controlled system is undertaken and important properties of these dynamics are proven for the first time for multiple part-type systems. These properties provide the theoretical justification of an infinitesimal perturbation analysis-based controller parameter optimization technique whose validity has been previously supported by empirical evidence.< >