Simulation in agent-based manufacturing control systems

The paper discusses the requirements put on simulation environments for agent-based manufacturing systems. Such a simulation environment should consist of the agent control part, the emulation part (emulating the physical controlled equipment), a run-time interface and a GUI. A Rockwell-specific universal run-time interface solution for PLC (programmable logic controller) is briefly described. The MAST simulation environment for material handling purposes designed and implemented in Java is presented. The main advantage of this environment is the fact it enables to re-use the simulation code in the real physical control.