Abstract
The optimal dispatching of orders to the production system and the assignment of workpieces to machines is influenced by numerous disturbances at run time, which can neither be foreseen nor regarded in every detail with conventional strategies for coordination. Often, workflows are defined manually and therefore they implicate problems in adapting to changed situations. To provide the maximum flexibility in exceptional situations, the concept of Plug&Produce is combined with the agent technology. The presented Plug&Produce-principles provide the fast build-up of production plants with construction kit elements, which consider the flow of material, energy and information in common. On top of this, extended functionality is featured by agent technology for the organisation and optimization of process steps. In this paper a formalism and system definition is derived from the Plug&Produce system model for the clear specification of an agent, its internal structure and external behaviour towards other agents and the real world. This is the basis for the further development of a continuous agent platform directly applied in the control system on shop floor.
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This research and development project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the Framework Concept “Research for Tomorrow’s Production” and managed by the Project Management Agency Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Production and Manufacturing Technologies Division (PTKA-PFT).
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Feldmann, K., Wolf, W. & Weber, M. Design of a formal model for the specification of agent platforms based on Plug&Produce-able production systems. Prod. Eng. Res. Devel. 1, 321–328 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11740-007-0036-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11740-007-0036-6