Steps toward the design and control of a new generation of machines

In the face of rapid development in information technology coupled with a growing dynamism in global markets, new concepts of building computer controlled machines have proliferated. Such approaches promise to lead to a new generation of machines which typically share common design objectives. They seek to advance the underlying concepts of contemporary computer controlled machines (such as robots, CNC, etc.) in a way that resultant systems demonstrate attributes of flexibility, extendibility, configurability, openness, modularity and so on. [Continues.]