Lyapunov stability analysis of distributed control in multiple machine heterarchical manufacturing cells

In this paper a control theoretic model is developed for analyzing the dynamics of distributed control systems for manufacturing cells with multiple machining stages and parallel dissimilar machines in which parts control their release times autonomously. Conditions for global stability of the resulting distributed control system are established using results from Lyapunov stability theory. Stability of the nonlinear control system is found to be robust to a variety of disturbances that may be encountered in a manufacturing environment as long they are bounded in the mean. Numerical simulation experiments are used to illustrate the global stability of such systems.