Title :
A simulation test-bed to evaluate multi-agent control of manufacturing systems
Author :
Brennan, Robert W. ; O, William
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mech. & Manuf. Eng., Calgary Univ., Alta., Canada
Abstract :
Current research in the area of manufacturing planning and control has moved away from traditional centralized solutions towards distributed architectures that range from hierarchical to heterarchical. Between these two extremes of the control architecture spectrum lies the holonic manufacturing systems paradigm, where partial dynamic hierarchies of agents cooperate to meet global system objectives in the face of disturbances. The paper describes a simulation test bed for the evaluation of a distributed multi-agent control architecture for holonic manufacturing systems that integrates discrete-event simulation software into its design to allow the control architecture to be evaluated with a variety of emulated manufacturing systems
Keywords :
discrete event simulation; distributed object management; industrial control; intelligent control; manufacturing data processing; multi-agent systems; agent cooperation; control architecture; control architecture spectrum; discrete-event simulation software; distributed architectures; distributed multi-agent control architecture; emulated manufacturing systems; global system objectives; holonic manufacturing systems; holonic manufacturing systems paradigm; manufacturing planning/control; manufacturing systems; multi-agent control evaluation; partial dynamic hierarchies of agents; simulation test bed; simulation test-bed; Centralized control; Computer architecture; Control system synthesis; Control systems; Discrete event simulation; Distributed control; Manufacturing systems; Software design; Software testing; System testing;
Conference_Titel :
Simulation Conference, 2000. Proceedings. Winter
Conference_Location :
Orlando, FL
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-6579-8
DOI :
10.1109/WSC.2000.899165
