Reactive agent mechanisms for scheduling manufacturing processes
Ask Just Jensen, Kasper Hallenborg, Yves Demazeau · University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) · 2008
This paper will present an agent based solution to control chemical processes in a manufacturing environment; items should undergo chemical reactions in dierent chemical baths to be processed by the system. Recipes for the processes only specify minimum and maximum times for each bath, and recipes depend strongly on characteristics of the item. We have applied the PACO paradigm for reactive agents to develop control software for the system, and we have designed simple physical force-like interaction mechanisms, so agents manage to fulll their individual and global goals. We outline the problem and argue why the PACO approach suits this problem, before explaining in detail how the agents are designed and the interactions established for the planning to be successful. We conclude the paper by presenting results of the agentbased approach, based on data and scenario recipes from the real system.