The model-based product agent: A control oriented architecture for intelligent products in multi-agent manufacturing systems. (May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kovalenko, Ilya; Tilbury, Dawn; Barton, Kira
• Is Part Of: Control engineering practice. Volume 86(2019)
• Page Start: 105
• Page End: 117
• Publication Date: 2019-05
• Subjects: Intelligent products -- Multi-agent systems -- Manufacturing control -- Software architectures -- Intelligent manufacturing systems; Automatic control -- Periodicals; 629.89
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conengprac.2019.03.009
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0967-0661

Abstract

Abstract: The multi-agent control strategy has been previously shown to improve the flexibility of complex, dynamic manufacturing systems. One key component of this strategy is the product agent. The product agent is responsible for autonomously guiding a physical part in the manufacturing system based on its production goals. Though the product agent has been described in previous works, a fully developed software architecture for the product agent that uses a model-based optimization approach has not been proposed. In this work, a product agent architecture with the capabilities to explore the local environment, plan and schedule events based on its knowledge, and request desired actions from the resources in the system is presented and tested.