Implementation of an Agent-Based Manufacturing Grid

This paper describes the implementation of an agile autonomous agent-based manufacturing system based on a grid. This grid contains production machines, represented by agents, capable to perform certain production steps. Products to be made are also represented by agents. Many different products can be made in parallel, each product having its own sequence of production steps. The whole manufacturing is based on interaction of agents living in a distributed environment. This paper explains the basic design considerations and includes a simple example as a proof of concept.