Special purpose simulators, including the appropriate Artificial Intelligence tools to acquire transparency and flexibility, are needed for the balanced development and the efficient use of the robotized manufacturing plants. The principal characteristics of the XS-SIFIP program are presented, which is specifically established for investigating the governing attributes of the transport systems in the flexible manufacturing shops. Its modular structure is particularly suitable for expanding the dimensionality of the giustification reference knowledge, embedding the critical developments of the robotized factories in the area of the dynamical scheduling.

The effectiveness of a simulation program, that combines the computational efficiency of algorithmic procedures employed to deal with tightly structured information, with the transparency and the flexibility of heuristic procedures employed to deal with loosely-structured knowledge, is investigated. Applications in manufacturing engineering are considered, since the "intelligent" direction, provided by the integration of robotic devices for factory automation, is suitably simulated by embedding the governing modules, built with AI tools, into special purpose programming facilities, developed as CAD and CAM support. The effectiveness of the mixed algorithmic and heuristic procedure is shown in an example application. A generalized and improved implementation is the object of further developments.