A calculation amount and calculation time for a substrate conveyance schedule are reduced. A scheduler is provided which is incorporated in a control section of a substrate processing apparatus including a plurality of substrate processing sections that process a substrate, a conveyance section that conveys the substrate, and the control section that controls the conveyance section and the substrate processing sections, and calculates a substrate conveyance schedule. The scheduler includes: a modeling section that models processing conditions, processing time and constraints of the substrate processing apparatus into nodes and edges using a graph network theory, prepares a graph network, and calculates a longest route length to each node; and a calculation section that calculates the substrate conveyance schedule based on the longest route length.

A wire electrical discharge machine includes: a determination unit that determines whether or not a first route and a second route, each including an approach path, a machining path and an escape path in this order, are set in this order as a movement route of a wire electrode; and a wire movement control unit that, when the first route and the second route are determined to be set in a machining program in this order as the movement route of the wire electrode, causes the wire electrode to transition from the machining path of the first route to the machining path of the second route without moving the wire electrode along the escape path of the first route and the approach path of the second route.

A program generating apparatus for generating an NC program for controlling a wire electrical discharge machine includes a machining order acquisition unit configured to acquire order in which a plurality of machining paths should be machined, the order being determined based on a predetermined rule, and a program generating unit configured to automatically change the order acquired by the machining order acquisition unit, so as to perform fixing process for fixing a core, which is produced during machining of a workpiece, to the workpiece by depositing a component of a wire electrode, prior to performing uncut process for leaving part of the core uncut, and generate an NC program for machining the machining paths in the changed order.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining causal models for controlling environments. One of the methods includes identifying a procedural instance; determining a temporal extent for the procedural instance based on temporal extent parameters for the one or more entities in the procedural instance; selecting control settings for the procedural instance; monitoring environment responses to the control settings that are received for the one or more entities; determining which of the environment responses to attribute to the procedural instance in a causal model; and adjusting, based at least in part on the environment responses that are attributed to the procedural instance, the temporal extent parameters for the one or more entities.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining causal models for controlling environments. One of the methods includes repeatedly selecting control settings for the environment based on (i) a causal model that identifies causal relationships between possible settings for controllable elements in the environment and environment responses that reflect a performance of the control system in controlling the environment and (ii) current values of a set of internal parameters; and during the repeatedly selecting: monitoring environment responses to the selected control settings; determining, based on the environment responses, an indication that one or more properties of the environment have changed; and in response, modifying the current values of one or more of the internal parameters.

A manufacturing process for physical components can be optimized using some techniques described herein. For example, a system can access a group of models, where each model corresponds to a respective type of production location. The system can select a model, from the group of models, that corresponds to a particular type of production location selected by a user. The system can select a particular type of production equipment based on the selected model. The system can then execute one or more computing operations to facilitate deployment of the particular type of production equipment at the particular type of production location. This can help ensure that appropriately sized production equipment is installed at the production location.

The invention relates to a system for generating sets of control data for networked robots, comprising a plurality of robots (R.sub.i), wherein i=1, 2, 3, . . . , n, and n2, an optimizer (OE) and a database (DB), which are networked via a data network, wherein each robot (R.sub.i) includes at least: a control unit (SE.sub.i) for controlling and/or regulating the robot (R.sub.i); a storage unit (SPE.sub.i) for controlling sets of control data SD.sub.i(A.sub.k), which in each case enable the control of the robot (R.sub.i) in accordance with a predetermined task (A.sub.k), wherein k=1, 2, 3, . . . , m; a unit (EE.sub.i) for specifying a new task A.sub.m+1 for the robot (R.sub.i), wherein A.sub.m+1A.sub.k; a unit (EH.sub.i) for determining a set of control data SD.sub.i(A.sub.m+1) for execution of the task (A.sub.m+1) by the robot (R.sub.i), an evaluation unit (BE.sub.i), which evaluates the set of control data SD.sub.i(A.sub.m+1) determined by the unit (EH.sub.i), with regard to at least one parameter (P1) with the characteristic number K.sub.P1(SD.sub.i(A.sub.m+1)), and a communication unit (KE.sub.i) for communication with the optimizer (OE) and/or the database (DB) and/or other robots (R.sub.ji), the optimizer (OE), which is designed and configured in order to determine, upon request by a robot (R.sub.i), at least one optimized set of control data SD.sub.i,P2(A.sub.m+1) with regard to at least one predetermined parameter (P2), wherein the request by the robot (R.sub.i) occurs when the characteristic number K.sub.P1(SD.sub.i(A.sub.m+1)) does not meet a predetermined condition, and the data base (DB) stores the set of control data SD.sub.i,P2(A.sub.m+1) optimized by the optimizer (OE) and provides it to the robot (R.sub.i) for execution of the task (A.sub.m+1).

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining causal models for controlling environments. One of the methods includes repeatedly selecting, by a control system for the environment, control settings for the environment based on internal parameters of the control system, wherein: at least some of the control settings for the environment are selected based on a causal model, and the internal parameters include a first set of internal parameters that define a number of previously received performance metric values that are used to generate the causal model for a particular controllable element; obtaining, for each selected control setting, a performance metric value; determining that generating the causal model for the particular controllable element would result in higher system performance; and adjusting, based on the determining, the first set of internal parameters.

A method for optimizing a machining time of a laser machining process includes: specifying a machining path of the laser machining process on the workpiece, said machining path having a plurality of machining path sections, specifying at least one boundary condition for at least one of the machining path sections; and determining control data for the laser machining process of the machining path taking into account the at least one boundary condition such that a machining time of the laser machining process is minimal. Furthermore, a method for performing a laser machining process on a workpiece includes such a method and a laser machining system is configured to perform the methods.

A calculation amount and calculation time for a substrate conveyance schedule are reduced. A scheduler is provided which is incorporated in a control section of a substrate processing apparatus including a plurality of substrate processing sections that process a substrate, a conveyance section that conveys the substrate, and the control section that controls the conveyance section and the substrate processing sections, and calculates a substrate conveyance schedule. The scheduler includes: a modeling section that models processing conditions, processing time and constraints of the substrate processing apparatus into nodes and edges using a graph network theory, prepares a graph network, and calculates a longest route length to each node; and a calculation section that calculates the substrate conveyance schedule based on the longest route length.