Cooperative multi-agent reconfigurable manufacturing environments

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of resource-bounded intelligent agents acting in (complex) manufacturing environments. Agents operate for the coordination of multitasks performed within the plant. In particular, we discuss the agents' operation selection problem. The agent's required capabilities requires effective design and implementation approaches able to cope with the high-level demands. In this paper, we provide a cooperative control scheme for a team of Flexible Manufacturing Workcells. This paper provides a modelling framework that eases the design of autonomous agents for complex large-scale multi-agent production systems. Agents' behaviours are simple, allowing to be easily implemented, scalable and practical. The proposed approach creates effective coordinated and self-organised agents capable of accomplishing their goals.