MetaMorph: an adaptive agent-based architecture for intelligent manufacturing

Global competition and rapidly changing customer requirements are forcing m ajor changes in the production styles and configuration of manufacturing or ganizations. Traditional centralized manufacturing systems are not able to meet such requirements. This paper proposes an agent-based approach for dyn amically creating and managing agent communities in such widely distributed and ever-changing manufacturing environments. After reviewing the research literature, an adaptive multi-agent manufacturing system architecture call ed MetaMorph is presented and its main features are described. Such archite cture facilitates multi-agent coordination by minimizing communication and processing overheads. Adaptation is facilitated through organizational stru ctural change and two learning mechanisms: learning from past experiences a nd learning future agent interactions by simulating future dynamic, emergen t behaviours. The MetaMorph architecture also addresses other specific requ irements for next generation manufacturing systems, including scalability, reliability, stability, maintainability, flexibility, real-time planning an d scheduling, standardized communication, fault tolerance, and security. Th e proposed architecture is implemented as a multi-agent virtual manufacturi ng system, in simulation form, which incorporates heterogeneous manufacturi ng agents within different agent-based shop floors or factories. The experi mental results have shown the potential of the agent-based approach for adv anced manufacturing systems.