Evaluating the design and development of Reagere

We have designed and implemented a multi-agent shop floor manufacturing con trol system, called Reagere (Latin for the word react). Reagere is one of t he first fully agent-oriented systems, where the agents represent all compo nents (hardware, software, sensors, etc) of the manufacturing environment. Hence Reagere was developed to explore the idea of shop floor control based on agent behavior and reactive techniques. This paper shares lessons learn ed by evaluating the design decisions taken during the research and impleme ntation of Reagere. By detailing our experiences we hope to provide a bette r understanding of applying agents within the manufacturing research commun ity.