Shop-floor control: a multi-agents approach

This paper proposes a novel approach to shop-floor control. In particular, its aim is to solve dynamic production control problems in real-time (due t o workstation breakdowns, urgent orders, etc), to automate as much as possi ble the control process in order to adapt the system to production plan mod ifications and to rationalize decision-making by a means of strong hierarch ical structure. To achieve this, the system is based on a twofold hybrid mu lti-agent platform. First, control is hierarchically distributed and decisi on-making is centralized, thus this type of system mediates between central ized and hierarchical architecture types. Centralization allows us to avoid the competition between agents to solve a problem, and hierarchical distri bution allows each agent to take care of only one product. Thus, significan t gains in terms of response times and reactivity capabilities are obtained thanks to this hybrid approach.