Toward flexible and fault tolerant intelligent manufacturing: Sensible agents in shop-floor control

  • Authors:

  • Kathleen Suzanne Barber;Joonoo Kim

  • Affiliations:

  • The Laboratory for Intelligent Processes and Systems, Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA;The Laboratory for Intelligent Processes and Systems, Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA

  • Venue:
  • Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

The use of agent-based systems may offer significant advantages over centralized hierarchical manufacturing systems, including distribution of control/processing and data as well as adaptable automated or semiautomated problem solving. However, simply applying any agent-based paradigm to manufacturing domains may not be enough to address the various demands of these domains. Manufacturing domains require agent-based problem solving to be flexible and tolerant of faulty information (e.g., due to faulty sensors), equipments, and communication links. These issues are addressed by research on Sensible Agents, capable of 1) Dynamic Adaptive Autonomy and 2) explicit Perspective Modeling. Dynamic Adaptive Autonomy allows Sensible Agents to change problem-solving roles during system operation to address dynamic factory floor conditions, while Perspective Models internal to a respective Sensible Agent serve to maintain knowledge about the agent itself, other agents, and the environment. The application of the Sensible Agent paradigm to a shop-floor control is demonstrated.