ABSTRACT
A historical review of manufacturing indicates that the need for the application of reflexive as well reflective intelligence is on the rise. Therefore, there is consider able scope for the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in manufacturing. The interest in AI is mainly utilitarian for manufacturing engineers. This chapter will introduce some Al-related issues at the shop floor level. Attention will be drawn to the concept of holonic manufacturing system and a case study on geometric fea ture recognition that utilizes a heuristic derived from a theory of human cognition of objects. At the work center level, the desirability of obtaining synergistic inter actions among process modeling, sensing, and learning will be highlighted. Fi nally, a case study on the development of intelligent production machines that are capable of learning to compensate for workpiece errors will be presented.
