A Multi-Agent Based Model for Shopfloor Reconfiguration

The research objective of dynamically reconfigurable shop-floor is to implement dynamic reconfiguration of manufacturing cell by quickly configuring variety of resources in terms of production task, to construct a virtual shop-floor by making good use of resources of other enterprise through Internet. Therefore, virtual shop-floor can achieve rapid response to the market changes. At the paradigm of agile manufacturing, in addition to conventional function of production control and management in shop-floor, the function of implementing dynamic reconfiguration of manufacturing cell and cooperating with other enterprise by network are illustrated. A multi-agent based model of dynamic reconfiguration for virtual shop-floor is proposed. The negotiating mechanisms between agents and the key technologies of implementing dynamic reconfiguration system for shop-floor are discussed.