A multi-criteria economic evaluation framework for control system configuration-framework and case study

The underlying methodology includes three main components: A digital factory/simulation model, a knowledge base/expert system and a multi-criteria evaluation model to compute the scores of different control designs and configurations on economic terms. For the economic evaluation, an existing methodology, Non-Traditional Capital Investment Criteria (NCIC) is used which allows us to incorporate into the analysis both traditional criteria, readily measurable in financial benefits, and non-traditional criteria that are not easily measurable based on their financial benefits. These non-financial benefits could be quantitative (measurable, but not necessarily in dollars) or qualitative (not measurable at all). An example is used to demonstrate this method by comparing the economic value of two control design alternatives for a singulator- a centralized control where one motion controller controls all the axes, and a distributed configuration where the control of the axes are taken by two controllers, working autonomously, and interacting whenever necessary.