http://akturk.bilkent.edu.tr/ie573/aytug.pdf

Executing production schedules in the face of uncertainties: a review and some future directions

The emerging paradigm of agent-based computation has revolutionized the building of intelligent and decentralized systems. The new technologies met well the requirements in all domains of manufacturing where problems of uncertainty and temporal dynamics, information sharing and distributed operation, or coordination and cooperation of autonomous entities had to be tackled. In the paper software agents and multi-agent systems are introduced and through a comprehensive survey, their potential manufacturing applications are outlined. Special emphasis is laid on methodological issues and deployed industrial systems. After discussing open issues and strategic research directions, we conclude that the evolution of agent technologies and manufacturing will probably proceed hand in hand. The former can receive real challenges from the latter, which, in turn, will have more and more benefits in applying agent technologies, presumably together with well-established or emerging approaches of other disciplines.

/pdf/agent-based-systems-for-manufacturing-xij8ryuzc7.pdf

Agent-based systems for manufacturing

Issues in Multiagent Resource Allocation
Yann Chevaleyre, Paul E. Dunne, Ulle Endriss, Jerome Lang, Michel Lemaitre,
 Nicolas Maudet, Julian Padget, Steve Phelps, Juan A. Rodrigues-Aguilar,
 Paulo Sousa

Abstract:
The allocation of resources within a system of autonomous agents, that
not only have preferences over alternative allocations of resources
but also actively participate in computing an allocation, is an
exciting area of research at the interface of Computer Science and
Economics. This paper is a survey of some of the most salient issues
in Multiagent Resource Allocation. In particular, we review various
languages to represent the preferences of agents over alternative
allocations of resources as well as different measures of social
welfare to assess the overall quality of an allocation. We also
discuss pertinent issues regarding allocation procedures and present
important complexity results. Our presentation of theoretical issues
is complemented by a discussion of software packages for the
simulation of agent-based market places. We also introduce four major
application areas for Multiagent Resource Allocation, namely
industrial procurement, sharing of satellite resources, manufacturing
control, and grid computing.

/pdf/issues-in-multiagent-resource-allocation-2kqgmuyht3.pdf

Issues in multiagent resource allocation

https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/254822/1/doct+Jo+Wyns.pdf

Reference architecture for holonic manufacturing systems, the key to support evolution and reconfiguration

The ever fast changes of customers’ needs and demands ask for reconfigurable and adaptive production systems, which can provide companies with the proper level of agility and effectiveness, without disregarding at the same time cost factors. In the last decade, a large amount of research works on the adoption of multi-agent systems (MAS) in several industrial environments has flourished. This approach, unlike traditional centralized or multilevel hierarchical approaches, assumes the presence of several decision-making entities, distributed inside the manufacturing system, interacting and cooperating each other in order to achieve optimal global performance. Aim of this paper is at first to provide readers, which are not experienced with the multi-agent approach, with some definitions and categorizations of this paradigm. Secondarily, by making use of an extensive database of more than 100 contributions on this field, authors intend to evaluate how multi-agents systems have really impacted on the industria...

Multi-agent systems in production planning and control: an overview

Management of complexity, changes and disturbances is one of the key issues of production today. Distributed, agent-based structures represent viable alternatives to hierarchical systems provided with reactive/proactive capabilities. In the paper, approaches to distributed manufacturing architectures are surveyed, and their fundamental features are highlighted, together with the main questions to be answered while designing new structures. Moreover, an object-oriented simulation framework for development and evaluation of multi-agent manufacturing architectures is introduced.

E. Szelke

Papers

An object-oriented framework for developing distributed manufacturing architectures

Management of changes and disturbances in manufacturing systems

Reactive and proactive scheduling with learning in reactive operation management

Intelligent techniques for management of changes and disturbances in manufacturing