Francisco P. Maturana

Rockwell Automation's Holonic and Multiagent Control Systems Compendium

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of long-term R&D activities of the Rockwell Automation (RA) company in the field of holonic and agent-based manufacturing control systems. It presents a coherent framework of methodologies for designing agent-based control systems, tools that support implementation and validation of them, and agent applications that were developed for various industrial systems. The common attribute is the integration of novel techniques, such as multiagent systems or semantics with the current “old-fashioned” automation architectures represented mainly by programmable logic controllers. Retaining the ability of the control system to meet the strict real-time constraints and concurrently raise its intelligence has always been of highest importance. The paper does not focus merely on RAs work, but discusses all its aspects in a context of other existing works in this area.

Rockwell automation agents for manufacturing

The paper provides an overview of the agent-based solutions developed by the Rockwell Automation company for the purposes of industrial control. Using agent-based manufacturing control, a higher degree of flexibility and reconfigurability of manufacturing solutions as well as higher robustness of the industrial systems can be achieved. Specific solutions connected with the proposed agent architecture, with implementation of the real-time control agents as well as with the information transfer among the SW agents and the real-time agents in a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) are presented. Attention is also paid to the simulation of both the agent-based manufacturing facilities and their control systems. A simulation environment MAST for material handling systems has been implemented in JADE. The opportunity to re-use directly the simulation software on the agent control level is one of the most important features of MAST.

Distributed multi-agent architecture for automation systems

Abstract In the 21st century, industrial automation will be greatly benefited by the advances in electronics, information systems, and process technology. However, these technological advances are still separate islands of automation. We believe that multi-agent systems will help the future of automation by providing flexible and scalable ways to integrate the different parts. This paper reports preliminary results of an ongoing research project that demonstrates advanced automation in a highly distributed architecture that is made of a synergy of intelligent agents, control, and physical devices. This was built to achieve the goals of reduced manning and improved readiness and survivability in US Navy shipboard systems.

Industrial MAS for Planning and Control

In this paper, we summarize advantages of using agent technology in the design and operation of industrial control systems. To support appropriate responses to dynamically generated events, we divided the agent operation into two main levels: planning and real-time control. A higher-level software agent covers the planning phase and low-level distributed control agent provides the real-time control. The proposed architecture is targeted on applications where real-time response is essential but also more sophisticated higher-level control mechanisms are needed for efficient control. An implementation of such system is briefly described.

MULTI-AGENT PLANNING AND COORDINATION FOR DISTRIBUTED CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

The centralized planning and control that has defined the traditional information processing structure of manufacturing systems is no longer suited to the current rapidly changing manufacturing environment. For efficient use of manufacturing resources and increased flexibility, it is necessary to migrate to a distributed information processing system in which individual entities can work cooperatively towards overall system goals. The next generation of manufacturing systems requires such an information technology framework to integrate the system components and activities into a larger collaborative enterprise. This paper describes a multi-agent approach to concurrent design, manufacturability analysis, process planning, routing and scheduling. A heterogeneous multi-agent concurrent engineering system consisting of multiple feature-based design sub-systems, multiple simulated shop-floor resource groups, a supervisory control interface and the coordination mechanisms for multi-agent cooperation, has been developed. The architecture of this distributed system and the associated implementation issues are discussed.

Multiagent technology for fault tolerance and flexible control

One of the main characteristics of multiagent systems (MAS) is fault tolerance. When an agent is unavailable for some reason, another agent with similar capabilities can theoretically compensate for this loss. The system can be designed not only for this kind of fault tolerance but also for others. Many key aspects of fault tolerance in MAS are described in this correspondence including social knowledge and physical distribution. We present a MAS framework that has been designed for control applications, in which fault tolerance and flexibility are key parts of the system

Using dynamically created decision-making organizations (holarchies) to plan, commit, and execute control tasks in a chilled water system

A multi-agent architecture to automate complex industrial systems is described. The multi-agent system is created with artificial social behaviors to enable cooperation among the agents. Agents organize their respective views about the system to react to changes and to discover system capabilities. We explore the implications of using agent technology in the design and operation of a chilled water system. Our aim is to contribute with a set of guidelines on how to build autonomous agents for industrial automation.

Agents in industry: the best from the AAMAS 2005 industry track

Agent technology provides industrial-applications developers with new abstractions for distributed-system development, new methodological tools, and a set of algorithms for creating autonomous, collaborative systems. Over the past few years, a number of industrial applications have deployed agents. However, a substantial gap still exists between the cutting-edge research carried out mainly in university laboratories and research institutes and the domain-specific industrial applications that commercial organizations develop. This article gives some indication of agent technologys readiness for commercial deployment, based primarily on the presentations and discussions at the inaugural Industry Track of AAMAS 2005 - the Fourth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems.

An Intelligent Agent Validation Architecture for Distributed Manufacturing Organizations

In this paper, we focus on validation of Multi-Agent System (MAS) behavior. We describe the simulation architecture and the system design methodology to accomplish the appropriate agent behavior for controlling a real-life automation system. The architecture is explained in the context of an industrial-sized water cooling system. Nevertheless, it is intended to operate in a wide spectrum of control domains. In general, after the design of the control system is accomplished, a set of validation procedures takes place. The current needs are to validate both the control and the agent levels as integrated parts. Hence there is a need to establish a general architecture and methodology for easing the commissioning process of the control solution.

A Real-Time Interface for Holonic Control Devices

In this paper we present a general specification for a real-time transformation interface for Holonic Control Devices. This interface is intended to provide the logical linkage between the two worlds of agents and machines, which is needed to realise truly holonic systems.