Self-Reconfiguration of Industrial Mobile Robots

In this paper a flexible self-reconfiguration mechanism for industrial mobile robots in car manufacturing is presented. Implemented in a holonic multi-agent system, user-inserted process changes are executed self-organised. Starting with a natural-language based description of the desired process change, an uncoupled recombination mechanism is the core part of the presented approach. The novel recombination of already existing system functionalities enables the addition of new functions to an already existing system while stability and productivity are assured. A hierarchical-organised standard holon and heterarchical-organised reconfiguration holons are provided to separate the execution of routine tasks and self-reconfiguration tasks. By using the principles of holonic manufacturing and skill evolvability, the self-reconfiguration mechanism supplies functional flexibility for industrial mobile robots without uncontrolled loss of productivity.