Coordination mechanisms for multi-agent manufacturing systems:applications to integrated manufacturing scheduling |
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Authors: | Sikora R Shaw MJ |
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Affiliation: | Dept. of Ind. & Manuf. Syst. Eng., Michigan Univ., Dearborn, MI; |
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Abstract: | The advent of information technology (IT) has made today's manufacturing systems increasingly distributed. Typically such a system consists of a complex array of computer-based decision units, controllers and databases. Rather than dealing with each component individually, it is necessary to have a new paradigm for management of manufacturing systems, so that all the components and their operations can be managed in an integrated fashion. The multi-agent framework presented in this paper is such a paradigm for achieving system integration. The authors specifically emphasize the coordination mechanisms needed for ensuring the orderly operations and concerted decision making among the components-i.e., agents-of the manufacturing systems. The application of the framework to a printed circuit board manufacturing system and the performance results are also described |
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