Recent developments and future trends of industrial agents

The agent technology provides a new way to design and engineer control solutions based on the decentralization of control over distributed structures, addressing the current requirements for modern control systems in industrial domains. This paper presents the current situation of the development and deployment of agent technology, discussing the initiatives and the current trends faced for a wider dissemination and industrial adoption, based on the work that is being carried out by the IEEE IES Technical Committee on Industrial Agents

A Hybrid Pso Algorithm for Order Assignment Problem with Buffer Zone in Holonic Manufacturing System

Abstract. In order to make the enterprise assessment system become more intelligent and efficient for the application and realization technology of advanced manufacturing technology, the enterprise alliance and its business reconfiguration model for Holonic Manufacturing System(HMS) are processed. The enterprise alliance with dynamic reconfiguration and Holon feature is established by constructing the information platform to Holonic Manufacturing system. The system can realize the informationize in enterprise and between enterprise. The cooperation between enterprises can also be supported. The task assignment problem in the enterprise with directed graph model is presented. Task assignment problem with buffer zone is solved via a hybrid PSO algorithm. Simulation result shows that the model and the algorithm are effective to the problem

A new approach for the validation of conceptual holonic constructions

The concepts of holon and holarchy were first applied in the manufacturing world to develop Holonic Manufacturing Systems. Since then, they have been used in many fields and have proved to be applicable concepts for developing applications in any business area. Resulting applications are based on conceptual holonic constructions. Like any model, a holarchy needs to be validated under real circumstances. Such validation assures the quality of the holarchy before it is implemented. In general, validation research tends to target: 1) the specific types of holons handled in each proposal and/or the selected development paradigms; and 2) algorithm performance rather than architecture quality. This paper proposes and evaluates a methodology that focuses on the quality of the architecture. This methodology is able to validate any holonic architecture built to meet trade requirements. Moreover, this is a general-purpose methodology. Therefore, the methodology would be valid for any domain and would not be invalidated by holon types and/or implementation paradigms emerging, changing or falling into disuse. For this purpose, we consider holonic architectures as conceptual models, using the pure holon and holarchy concepts and passing up not only any specific implementation paradigm but also any set of specific holon types

Coupling order release methods with autonomous control methods – an assessment of potentials by literature review and discrete event simulation

[EN] Production planning and control faces increasing uncertainty, dynamics and complexity. Autonomous control methods proved themselves as a promising approach for coping with these challenges. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the interaction between autonomous control and precedent functions of production planning and control. In particular, up to now previous research has paid no attention to the influence of order release methods on the efficiency of autonomous control methods. Thereby, many researchers over the last decades provided evidence that the order release function has great influence on the logistic objective achievement in conventional production systems. Therefore, this paper examines the influence of order release methods on the efficiency of autonomous control methods by both theoretic evaluation and discrete event simulation. The simulation results indicate an overall high influence. Moreover, the logistic performance differs considerably depending on the implemented order release methods and the combinations of order release methods with autonomous control methods. The findings highlight demand for further research in this field.This research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under the reference number SCHO 540/26-1 “Methods for the interlinking of central planning and autonomous control in production”.Grundstein, S.; Schukraft, S.; Scholz-Reiter, B.; Freitag, M. (2015). Coupling order release methods with autonomous control methods – an assessment of potentials by literature review and discrete event simulation. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering. 3(1):43-56. https://doi.org/10.4995/ijpme.2015.3199SWORD435631Park, H.-S., & Tran, N.-H. (2012). An autonomous manufacturing system based on swarm of cognitive agents. Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 31(3), 337-348. doi:10.1016/j.jmsy.2012.05.002Pinedo, M. L. (2008). Scheduling. theory, algorithms and systems. New York, USA: Springer.Rekersbrink, H. (2012). Methoden zum selbststeuernden Routing autonomer logistischer Objekte. (doctoral disserta-tion). Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany.Scholz-Reiter, B., Böse, F., Jagalski, T., & Windt, K. (2007a). Selbststeuerung in der betrieblichen Praxis. Ein Framework zur Auswahl der passenden Selbststeuerungsstrategie. Industrie Management, 23(3), 7-10.Scholz-Reiter, B., Freitag, M., de Beer, C., & Jagalski, T. (2006). The influence of production network's complexity on the performance of autonomous control methods. Proceedings of the 5th CIRP International Seminar on Computation in Manufacturing engineering, 317-320.Scholz-Reiter, B., Freitag, M., de Beer, C., & Jagalski, T. (2005b). Modelling and Analysis of Autonomous Shop Floor Control. Proceedings of 38th CIRP International Seminar on Manufacturing Systems, 16-18.Scholz-Reiter, B., & Scharke, H. (2000). Reaktive Planung. Industrie Management, 16(2), 21-26.Weng, M. X., Wu, Z., Qi, G., & Zheng, L. (2008). Multi-agent-based workload control for make-to-order manufacturing. International Journal of Production Research, 46(8), 2197-2213. doi:10.1080/00207540600969758Westphal, J. R. (2001). Komplexitätsmanagement in der Produktionslogistik - ein Ansatz zur flussorientierten Gestal-tung und Lenkung heterogener Produktionssysteme. Wiesbaden, Germany: Deutscher Universitäts Verlag.Wiendahl, H.-P. (Ed.). (1991). Anwendung der belastungsorientierten Auftragsfreigabe. Munich, Germany: Carl Hanser.Wiendahl, H.-P. (1997). Fertigungsregelung. Logistische Beherrschung von Fertigungsabläufen auf Basis des Trich-termodells. Munich, Germany: Carl Hanser.Wiendahl, H.-P. (Ed.). (2005). Betriebsorganisation für Ingenieure. Munich: Hanser.Wyssusek, B. (1999). Grundlagen der Systemanalyse. In Krallmann, H., Frank, H., & Gronau, N. (Eds.), Sytemanalyse im Unternehmen (pp. 19-43). Munich, Germany: Oldenbourg

Derivação de sistemas multiagentes industriais através do framework O-MaSE

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Automação e Sistemas, Florianópolis, 2013.O problema de derivação de sistemas multiagentes industriais envolve complexos aspectos. Uma derivação consiste basicamente em gerar uma instância de sistema multiagente a partir de um modelo ou arquitetura genérica, com posteriores adaptações para um certo caso particular. No caso específico, este caso particular corresponde a um dado chão-de-fábrica, a ser gerenciado pelo sistema multiagente derivado. A complexidade deste problema reside principalmente na natureza do cenário de chão-de-fábrica, que agrega inúmeros aspectos que devem ser consideradas no momento da modelagem do sistema. A presença de uma estrutura heterogênea de sistemas legados e equipamentos deve ser muito bem analisada e descrita para que o resultado final seja coerente com as características, layout e funcionamento do chão de fábrica em questão. A abordagem de solução utilizada neste trabalho para fazer frente a essa complexidade foi a de executar uma derivação com o apoio de uma metodologia especialmente desenvolvida para tal. Esta metodologia é composta por etapas criadas a partir da análise e escolha dos meta-modelos do framework O-MaSE, que comporão a metodologia propriamente dita. Além disto, para suportar os necessários requisitos, duas etapas específicas de descrição de cenários industriais foram criadas em relação ao modelo original do O-MaSE. Uma para especificar o chão de fábrica e outra para representação do conhecimento deste, o que é feito através de uma ontologia. O resultado obtido pela derivação elaborada e pela adaptação feita da O-MASE é representado pela geração de códigos-base de agentes que representam virtualmente o cenário. Com a utilização do framework O-MaSE foi possível conceber e formalizar esta metodologia via diagramas UML e outras documentações auxiliares referentes à especificação dos equipamentos.2014-08-06T17:11:39

Sistema de control reconfigurable y sostenible para aplicación en sistemas de manufactura flexibles

Dado el continuo y acelerado crecimiento de la economía global, la producción mundial se ha visto afectada por un incremento significativo de recursos y energía. Este incremento ha traído diversos avances tecnológicos y digitales en el sector industrial que han evolucionado el área de sistemas de control reconfigurables. Específicamente, esta nueva tecnología ha surgido para dar respuesta a la volatilidad de sistemas de manufactura y satisfacer niveles adecuados de efectividad y reactividad. Sin embargo, los sistemas enfrentan el reto de generar un balance entre sus indicadores. En las últimas décadas, se ha visto la necesidad de incluir la sostenibilidad como una nueva métrica de eficiencia para los sistemas de manufactura. Igualmente, existe la necesidad mundial de incorporar la sostenibilidad en las operaciones industriales y se evidencia una falta de estudios en la integración entre productividad y sostenibilidad. Por esta razón, este trabajo de investigación propone un sistema de control con una arquitectura que hace el balance de eficiencia y efectividad entre indicadores de productividad y sostenibilidad. Dicho sistema propuesto consta de una arquitectura compuesta por distintos tipos de entidades. Así mismo, la propuesta también incluye un mecanismo de reconfiguración compuesto por tres módulos. Para mostrar los beneficios del sistema propuesto, se presenta la validación mediante la realización de experimentos en un ambiente simulado haciendo uso del software basado en agentes denominado Netlogo. Se evalúa la aplicación en un sistema de manufactura real ubicado en Francia. Como resultados, se evidencia que sí es posible integrar eficiencia y efectividad en un sistema de control. Esto mejora el desempeño de la energía hasta en un 69% y el del tiempo en 30%.Given the continuous and accelerated growth of the global economy, world production has been affected by a significant increase in resources and energy. This increase has brought several technological and digital advances in the industrial sector that have evolved the area of reconfigurable control systems. Specifically, this new technology has emerged to respond to the volatility of manufacturing systems and meet adequate levels of accuracy and reactivity. However, these systems lack of generating a balance between their indicators. In recent decades, the need to include sustainability as a new efficiency metric for manufacturing systems has grown. Similarly, there is a worldwide need to incorporate sustainability in industrial operations and there is a lack of studies on the integration between productivity and sustainability. For this reason, this work proposes a control system with an architecture that balances efficiency and effectiveness between productivity and sustainability indicators. This proposed system consists of an architecture composed of different types of entities. Likewise, the proposal also includes a reconfiguration mechanism composed of three modules. To show the benefits of the proposed system, validation is presented by conducting experiments in a simulated environment using an agent-based software known as Netlogo. The application is evaluated in a real manufacturing system located in France As a result, it is evident that it is possible to integrate efficiency and effectiveness into a control. This improves energy efficiency by up to 69% and processing time by 30%.Magíster en Ingeniería IndustrialMaestrí

Proactive services ecosystem framework

Dissertation presented to obtain the degree of Doctor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, specialization on Collaborative Enterprise NetworksCollaborative-Networks (CN) have experienced a fast evolution in the last two decades. The collaboration among independent entities or professionals supported by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has attracted the research community to establish the conceptual basis for this scientific discipline. Service Orientation has been one of the key selected paradigms for that conceptual basis. Nevertheless, the service concept itself does not have a common understanding in the Business and ICT worlds. In the former, client satisfaction, resources management and business process models are some example concerns, whilst the later deals with interoperability, remote function calling or communication protocols. If for example an enterprise provides some service, it may hire specialists to wrap such service into web-services, expecting to reach worldwide potential new clients. In fact, nowadays Web Services and Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) are the technological elements most commonly used. However, these are passive elements in the sense they do not perform any action towards pursuing business interests, which constitute a limiting factor from a business perspective. Another approach for the above mentioned enterprise is to follow the Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) approach, as the pro-activity is a keyword in such contexts. Nevertheless, as MAS approaches are not so commonly used and not so robust yet, the worldwide potential set of new clients is reduced; which also constitutes an inhibitor factor from the business perspective. This dissertation proposes a Pro-Active Services Ecosystem Framework, gathering inspiration from both the SOA and MAS research areas, trying to bridge the business and ICT worlds through the base concepts for the creation of a Services’ Ecosystem where business services are represented in a pro-active manner towards pursuing business interests, like finding collaboration opportunities or improving the chances each CN member has to see its services selected among competitors, for example. This work also includes a prototype system applied / validated in the area of a Professional Virtual Community of Senior Professionals

Worker-robot cooperation and integration into the manufacturing workcell via the holonic control architecture

Cooperative manufacturing is a new field of research, which addresses new challenges beyond the physical safety of the worker. Those new challenges appear due to the need to connect the worker and the cobot from the informatics point of view in one cooperative workcell. This requires developing an appropriate manufacturing control system, which fits the nature of both the worker and the cobot. Furthermore, the manufacturing control system must be able to understand the production variations, to guide the cooperation between worker and the cobot and adapt with the production variations.Die kooperative Fertigung ist ein neues Forschungsgebiet, das sich neuen Herausforderungen stellt. Diese neuen Herausforderungen ergeben sich aus der Notwendigkeit, den Arbeiter und den Cobot aus der Sicht der Informatik in einem kooperativen Arbeitsplatz zu verbinden. Dies erfordert die Entwicklung eines geeigneten Produktionskontrollsystems, das sowohl der Natur des Arbeiters als auch der des Cobots entspricht. Darüber hinaus muss die Fertigungssteuerung in der Lage sein, die Produktionsschwankungen zu verstehen, um die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Arbeiter und Cobot zu steuern

ARTI-based holonic control implementation for a manufacturing system using the base architecture

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2022.ENGLISH SUMMARY: With industry’s drive to adopt Industry 4.0 technologies, and their enabling technologies, in manufacturing processes, intelligent automated manufacturing has become largely sought after. With defining features such as robustness, reconfigurability and scalability, the Holonic Manufacturing Execution System (HMES) approach shows great potential to satisfy Industry 4.0 requirements. Implementations of these systems have been historically known to require great development effort and time. These implementations are however being aided by the development of holonic reference architectures, such as the Product-Resource-Order-Staff-Architecture (PROSA) and its recent revision the Activity-Resource- Type-Instance (ARTI) architecture. This thesis presents an ARTI-based HMES implementation. The implementation of this system is aided through the use of the Biography-Attributes-Schedule-Execution (BASE) architecture for digital administration shells. The BASE architecture was initially developed as a framework for the development of a digital administration shell for a human worker, in order to elevate the human worker to the level of a Cyber-Physical System. It was however proposed that the BASE architecture also had the potential to be used in a manufacturing context. The possibility of implementing the ARTI-based HMES using the BASE architecture for the respective ARTI holons is confirmed through a mapping of the ARTI architecture to the BASE architecture. The HMES is implemented on a Fischertechnik Industry 4.0 Training Factory, a small-scale manufacturing system, as a case study system. The complexity of the case study, which comprises several interacting subsystems, provides a good basis for evaluating the ARTI and BASE architectures for HMES development. The thesis concludes that the ARTI architecture provides a well-defined structure for the conceptual design of HMESs, while the BASE architecture effectively supports the implementation of ARTI-based HMESs with little additional development required.AFRIKAANS OPSOMMING: Met die industrie se strewe om Industrie 4.0-tegnologieë, en hul bemagtigende tegnologieë, in vervaardigingsprosesse aan te neem, het intelligente geoutomatiseerde vervaardiging grootliks gesog geword. Met kenmerke soos robuustheid, herkonfigureerbaarheid en skaleerbaarheid, toon die Holonic Manufacturing Execution System (HMES) benadering groot potensiaal om aan Industrie 4.0 vereistes te voldoen. Dit is histories bekend dat die implementering van hierdie stelsels groot ontwikkelingspogings en tyd verg. Hierdie implementerings word egter aangehelp deur die ontwikkeling van holoniese verwysingsargitekture, soos die Product-Resource-Order-Staff-Architecture (PROSA) en die onlangse hersiening daarvan die Activity-Resource-Type-Instance (ARTI) argitektuur. Hierdie tesis bied 'n ARTI-gebaseerde HMES-implementering aan. Die implementering van hierdie stelsel is aangehelp deur die gebruik van die Biography-Attributes-Schedule-Execution (BASE) argitektuur vir digitale administrasiedoppe. Die BASE argitektuur is aanvanklik ontwikkel as 'n raamwerk vir die ontwikkeling van 'n digitale administrasiedop vir 'n menslike werker, om die menslike werker tot die vlak van 'n Cyber-Physical System te verhef. Daar is egter voorgestel dat die BASE argitektuur ook die potensiaal het om in 'n vervaardigingskonteks gebruik te word. Die moontlikheid om die ARTI-gebaseerde HMES te implementeer deur gebruik te maak van die BASE argitektuur vir die onderskeie ARTI-holone, is bevestig deur 'n kartering van die ARTI argitektuur na die BASE argitektuur. Die HMES is geïmplementeer op 'n Fischertechnik Industry 4.0 Training Factory, 'n kleinskaalse vervaardigingstelsel, as 'n gevallestudiestelsel. Die kompleksiteit van die gevallestudie, wat verskeie interaktiewe substelsels bevat, bied 'n goeie basis vir die evaluering van die ARTI en BASE argitekture vir HMES-ontwikkeling. Die tesis bevind dat die ARTI argitektuur 'n goed-gedefinieerde struktuur vir die konseptuele ontwerp van ‘n HMES verskaf, terwyl die BASE argitektuur die implementering van ‘n ARTI-gebaseerde HMES effektief ondersteun, met min bykomende ontwikkeling wat nodig is.Master