Design and implementation of an intelligent product agent architecture in manufacturing systems

Present-day manufacturing companies encounter a variety of challenges due to the dynamically changing industrial environment. Current control frameworks lack the adaptability and flexibility to effectively deal with challenges such as brokendown machines or altered customer orders. Multi-agent control has been proposed to improve the performance of manufacturing systems in uncertain or dynamic environments. Some multiagent architectures have been introduced with promising results. A key component of these architectures is the product agent, which is responsible for guiding a physical part through the manufacturing system based on the production requirements of the part. Even though the product agent has been previously used in multi-agent frameworks, a well-defined internal architecture for this agent has yet to be proposed. This work specifies a product agent architecture that can be utilized in multi-agent systems. The proposed architecture is tested using a manufacturing system simulation. The simulation results showcase the reactivity, proactiveness, and autonomy of the proposed product agent.