Real-Time Fine-Grained Multiple-Target Tracking on an Extensible Virtual Fab Architecture Using Multi-Agents
Ching-Hu Lu, Chun-Feng Liao, Chao-Lin Wu, Li‐Chen Fu · 2007
The concept of a “Virtual Fab ” (VF) stems from the IC industry and emphasizes the idea of intangible manufacturing service provision. In addition to satisfying customers ’ order fulfillment, providing remote service accessibility and real-time data granularity with gratifying performance and flexibility are among major challenges of a VF system. In this paper, we propose an architecture for a VF based on multi-agents that provides fine-grained real-time multiple-target tracking service for both the customers and internal managerial personnel of an IC foundry. Each function module is constructed as an autonomous agent and performs dedicated tasks. To provide flexibility and allow for future enhancements, our proposed extensible architecture also can utilize currently available RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) techniques to cooperate with other tracking sensors for the purpose of improving tracking accuracy and mitigating the power consumption issues inherent in RFID systems. Finally, an integrated simulation which utilizes technologies including RFID, Web Services and embedded-systems has also been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of this architecture.