Dynamic skills composition and execution in a Multi-agent Manufacturing System

Markets globalization and boosted customer demands in terms of product quality and customization are changing the way manufacturing need to be faced. Future manufacturing is obliged to effortlessly ensure agility, robustness and performance during (re)engineering processes. This article presents the application of a Coalition Agent on a Multi-agent shop floor environment with improved and user-friendly mechanism to model and execute complex skills promoting reconfiguration over reprogramming. The Coalition Agent embeds a rule and workflow engine to support the discovery of equipment skills and definition of the required process to achieve its composition into complex skills. This approach was deployed and tested on a experimental manufacturing environment where each equipment module is “agentified” and its skills are available to be discovered and executed.