On the engineering design for systematic integration of agent-orientation in industrial automation

In today´s automation industry, agent-oriented development of system functionalities appears to have great potential for increasing autonomy and flexibility of complex operations, while lowering the workload of users. In this paper we present a reference model for the harmonious and systematical integration of agent-orientation in industrial automation. Considering compatibility with existing automation systems and best practice, this model combines advantages of function block technology, service orientation and native description methods from the automation standard IEC 61131-3. This approach can be applied as a guideline for the engineering design of future agent-oriented automation systems.