Research on Multi-Agent Based Framework of Reconfigurable Shop Floor Control System

作     者：GAO E, WANG Zhi-sen (CIMS Institute, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China) 

出 版 物：《厦门大学学报（自然科学版）》 (Journal of Xiamen University：Natural Science)

年 卷 期：2002年第41卷第S1期

页      面：178-179页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 0802[工学-机械工程] 080201[工学-机械制造及其自动化] 

主　　题：agent Multi-Agent System (MAS) dynamic and log ical manufacturing cell 

摘      要：Manufacturing systems are in a dynamically changing e nvironment with uncertainty. Management of complexity, changes and disturbances is one of the key issues of production. The traditional hierarchical control of CIM systems limits the agility and the flexibility of the shop floor control sys tems and makes the reconfiguration and maintenance of shop floor control systems need high cost and much time. So new architectures are required to meet these c hallenges for the shop floor control systems. Recent fundamental research in distributed artificial intelligence and related applied research in intelligent manufacturing systems have shown that the Multi -Agent based system is one of the most promising methods. In a multi-agent man ufacturing system, the agents react to the information acquired from environment and communicate with other agents to co-operate to solve the global problem. I n this paper, a framework of reconfigurable shop floor control system based on m ulti-agent is presented. The concept of dynamic and logical manufacturing cell is proposed to organize manufacturing resources to achieve the ability of re configuration in dynamic shop floor environment. The framework is composed of three levels. First, the level of shop floor comp rises order agent, resource management agent, product management agent and t ask agent. Second, the level of dynamical cells consists of production agents an d control agents. Finally, the resource agents, such as AGV agents and machine a gents, belong to the equipment level. The control architecture in the framework is different from hierarchical control. It is hybrids of hierarchical and hetera rchical control architecture. The Contract Net protocol and its bidding mechanism are suitable and efficient t o implement the dynamic and logical manufacturing cells. Based on the Contract N et Model, dynamic negotiation during the process of forming the dynamic and logi cal manufacturing cells is analyzed in the paper. In this pape