In flexible manufacturing systems a deadlock arises when jobs in a set are indefinitely prevented from accessing resources because these are taken by other jobs in the same set. This condition is highly unfavourable because it stops the normal flow of parts and can propagate to the entire system. To face this problem, recent literature proposes prevention, avoidance and detection/recovery techniques. This paper introduces a detection/recovery approach based on a simple digraph that characterizes deadlock by describing the current interactions between pieces and resources. The method requires a low computation burden in the detection phase and makes use of a dedicated buffer to activate the recovery phase. Finally, a case study shows the simplicity and effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Deadlock, Manufacturing Automation, Flexible Manufacturing Systems
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