Special Session on Industry 4.0

No abstract available

A holonic multi-agent methodology to design sustainable intelligent manufacturing control systems

[EN] The urgent need for sustainable development is imposing radical changes in the way manufacturing systems are designed and implemented. The overall sustainability in industrial activities of manufacturing companies must be achieved at the same time that they face unprecedented levels of global competition. Therefore, there is a well-known need for tools and methods that can support the design and implementation of these systems in an effective way. This paper proposes an engineering method that helps researchers to design sustainable intelligent manufacturing systems. The approach is focused on the identification of the manufacturing components and the design and integration of sustainability-oriented mechanisms in the system specification, providing specific development guidelines and tools with built-in support for sustainable features. Besides, a set of case studies is presented in order to assess the proposed method.This research was supported by research projects TIN2015-65515-C4-1-R and TIN2016-80856-R from the Spanish government. The authors would like to acknowledge T. Bonte for her contribution to the NetLogo simulator of the AIP PRIMECA cell.Giret Boggino, AS.; Trentesaux, D.; Salido Gregorio, MÁ.; Garcia, E.; Adam, E. (2017). A holonic multi-agent methodology to design sustainable intelligent manufacturing control systems. Journal of Cleaner Production. 167(1):1370-1386. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.03.079S13701386167

Proactive computing in process monitoring:Information agents for operator support

While automation systems can track thousands of measurements it is still up to human process operators to determine the operational situation of the controlled process, particularly in abnormal situations. To fully exploit the computing power of embedded processors and to release humans from simple data harvesting activities, the concept of proactive computing tries to exploit the strengths of both man and machine. Proactive features can be implemented using intelligent agent technology, enabling humans to move from simple interaction with computers into supervisory tasks. Autonomous information agents can handle massive amounts of heterogeneous data. They perform tedious tasks of information retrieving, combining and monitoring on the behalf of their users. This paper presents a multi-agent-based architecture for process automation, which aims to support process operators in their monitoring activities. The approach is tested with a scenario inspired by a real-world industrial challenge. (24 refs.

Special Session on Industry 4.0

No abstract available

Applying agent technology to constructing flexible monitoring systems in process automation

The dissertation studies the application of agent technology to process automation monitoring and other domain specific functions. Motivation for the research work derives from the development of industrial production and process automation, and thereby the work load of operating personnel in charge of these large-scale processes has become more complex and difficult to handle. At the same time, the information technology infrastructure in process automation domain has developed ready to accept and utilise novel software engineering solutions. Agent technology is a new programming paradigm which has attractive properties like autonomy, flexibility and a possibility to distribute functions. In addition, agent technology offers a systematic methodology for designing goal based operations. This enables parts of the monitoring tasks to be delegated to the system. In this research, new agent system architecture is introduced. The architecture specifies a structure that enables the use of agents in the process monitoring domain. In addition, an introductory internal layered design of an agent aiming to combine Semantic Web and agent technologies is presented. The developed agent architecture is used in conjunction with the systematic agent design methodology to construct and implement four test cases. Each case has industrially motivated interest and illustrates various aspects of monitoring functionalities. These tests provide evidence that by utilising agent technology it is possible to develop new monitoring features for process operators, otherwise infeasible as such within current process automation systems. As a result of the research work, it can be stated that agent technology is a suited methodology to realise monitoring functionalities in process automation. It is also shown, that by applying solutions gained from the agent technology research, it is possible to define an architecture that enables to utilise the properties offered by agents in process automation environment. The proposed agent architecture supports features that are of generic interest in monitoring tasks. The developed architecture and research findings provide ground to import novel software engineering solutions to process automation monitoring

An extended process automation system : an approach based on a multi-agent system

This thesis describes studies on application of multi-agent systems (acronym: MAS) to enhance process automation systems. A specification of an extended process automation system is presented. According to this specification, MAS can be used to extend the functionality of ordinary process automation systems at higher levels of control. Anticipated benefits of the specification include enhanced reconfigurability, responsiveness and flexibility properties of process automation. Previous research concerning applications of MAS in process automation has been more limited than in other fields of automation. There has been more research about this topic for example in the area of discrete manufacturing. As goal-oriented distributed systems with coordination capabilities MAS have been found applicable to a part of automation functions, e.g. modification of control logic in abnormal situations. However, when applying MAS to process automation the particular characteristics of this application domain need to be taken into account. The important role of continuous control in process automation needs to be considered. In this thesis, a specification of an agent platform for process automation is presented as a basis for applying MAS in this application domain. The specification extends a FIPA-compliant agent platform with process automation specific functionality. It utilises a hierarchical agent organisation, a BDI-agent model and qualitative reasoning. It also presents a model for programming MAS applications for process automation with techniques of distributed planning and search. Two applications are specified using the platform. One of these shows how the techniques of distributed planning can be applied in sequential control. The other provides a design model for supervisory continuous control applications using the techniques of distributed search. Experiments performed with a laboratory test environment using prototype implementations of the applications are presented. The experiments are able to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach in limited test scenarios. They also provide information about in which ways MAS techniques are able enhance the properties of process automation. As a result of the work presented in this thesis more knowledge has been gained about application of MAS in process automation. The specification of the agent platform for process automation and its applications provide a basis for further studies of this topic.reviewe

mWater prototype #2 analysis and design

mWater is a regulated open MAS that uses intelligent agents to manage a flexible water-right market. One of the main goals of mWater is to be used as a simulator to assist in decision-taking processes for policy makers. Our simulator focuses on demands and, in particular, on the type of regulatory (in terms of norms selection and agents behaviour), and market mechanisms thatBotti Navarro, VJ.; Criado Pacheco, N.; Garrido Tejero, A.; Gimeno, J.; Giret Boggino, AS.; Noriega, P. (2013). mWater prototype #2 analysis and design. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/3212

Service-oriented architecture for device lifecycle support in industrial automation

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores Especialidade: Robótica e Manufactura IntegradaThis thesis addresses the device lifecycle support thematic in the scope of service oriented industrial automation domain. This domain is known for its plethora of heterogeneous equipment encompassing distinct functions, form factors, network interfaces, or I/O specifications supported by dissimilar software and hardware platforms. There is then an evident and crescent need to take every device into account and improve the agility performance during setup, control, management, monitoring and diagnosis phases. Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm is currently a widely endorsed approach for both business and enterprise systems integration. SOA concepts and technology are continuously spreading along the layers of the enterprise organization envisioning a unified interoperability solution. SOA promotes discoverability, loose coupling, abstraction, autonomy and composition of services relying on open web standards – features that can provide an important contribution to the industrial automation domain. The present work seized industrial automation device level requirements, constraints and needs to determine how and where can SOA be employed to solve some of the existent difficulties. Supported by these outcomes, a reference architecture shaped by distributed, adaptive and composable modules is proposed. This architecture will assist and ease the role of systems integrators during reengineering-related interventions throughout system lifecycle. In a converging direction, the present work also proposes a serviceoriented device model to support previous architecture vision and goals by including embedded added-value in terms of service-oriented peer-to-peer discovery and identification, configuration, management, as well as agile customization of device resources. In this context, the implementation and validation work proved not simply the feasibility and fitness of the proposed solution to two distinct test-benches but also its relevance to the expanding domain of SOA applications to support device lifecycle in the industrial automation domain

mWater prototype review

This document reviews our current water policy-making decision-support framework, build on top of a regulated open Multi-Agent System (MAS),mWater [BGG+10, GGG+11], that models a flexible water-rights market. Our simulator focuses on the effect of regulations on demand and thus provides means to explore the interplay of norms and conventions that regulate trading (like trader eligibility conditions, tradeable features of rights, trading periods and price-fixing conventions), the assumptions about agent behaviour (individual preferences and risk attitude, or population profile mixtures) and market scenarios (water availability and use restrictions). A policy-maker would then assess the effects of those interactions by observing the evolution of the performance indicators (efficiency of use, price dynamics, welfare functions) (s)he designs. 1.2 OurBotti Navarro, VJ.; Garrido Tejero, A.; Giret Boggino, AS.; Noriega, P. (2013). mWater prototype review. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/3212