To develop intelligent information and processing technologies to support complete product life cycle processes for next-generation manufacturing systems.

Twenty-first century global manufacturing enterprises will make use of a number of autonomous production units acting in cooperation, and will often operate in virtual mode to coordinate the wide variety of required activities - strategy making, financing, personnel management, information handling and marketing, as well as production.

Systems will have to integrate support for all product life cycle processes - planning, development, manufacturing, distribution, maintenance, and environmentally sound disposal. They must also support each production unit operating autonomously in a distributed mode, while at the same time supporting coordination of activities at the corporate, factory and shop levels.

Preliminary work as been done on two possible systems. Autonomous Distributed Manufacturing System (ADAMS) is conceived as a number of intelligent modules each able to operate autonomously in distributed mode, cooperating with each other and integrated into a whole through a virtual manufacturing system. Biological Manufacturing System (BMS), modeled on a living organism, is similar in composition and capabilities to ADAMS, but with the additional ability to organize, repair, grow and evolve by itself.

This project will develop information processing technologies for modelling, simulation, communication and control tasks in reference to ADAMS and BMS. Compatibility will be attempted where possible with the Agile Manufacturing system and the Fractal Production System being developed in the United States and the European Community, respectively.