M Kollingbaum

Multi-agent Coordination and Control Using Stigmergy Applied to Manufacturing Control

This manuscript discusses multi-agent coordination and control using techniques inspired by the behavior of social insects. It presents a system design that enables desirable overall behavior to emerge without exposing the individual agents to the complexity and dynamics of the overall system. The research, which this paper discusses, focuses on manufacturing control. However, the approach remains applicable to the coordination and control of other types of ironware systems (e.g. traffic, supply chain...).

On the design of complex emergent systems

Abstract Many useful manmade systems in this world are extremely complex; a typical example is a large infrastructure. No design team ever invents these artefacts because they are too complex. The artefacts are made by combining existing elements (legacy) and by building new subsystems without explicit and comprehensive up-front coordination. To a large extent, these complex systems emerge and evolve. Experience shows that designers often fail to develop artefacts that, when combined, facilitate the emergence of effective and efficient emerging systems. This paper formally elaborates the mechanism behind this phenomenon, and proposes design principles for the design of emergent systems components. These principles are discussed and illustrated.

MULTI-AGENT MANUFACTURING CONTROL USING STIGMERGY

Abstract This paper discusses a multi-agent coordination and control system design, inspired by the behaviour of social insects. This design makes desirable overall system behaviour emerge without exposing individual agents to the complexity and the dynamics of the overall system. This enables these individual agents to survive changes without maintenance, it allows individual agents to be re-usable across systems, and it allows having the emergent behaviour handle disturbances. The paper starts with the biological concept, stigmergy, that constitutes the basis of the coordination and control system. Next, it discusses the different steps in the development of a coordination and control system.