A Multi-agent Model for Job-Shop Scheduling

摘要

The chapter is devoted to a multi-agent solution for the job-shop scheduling problem and its current migration to a service oriented platform. The co-ordination mechanism for the agent population and the Decision Control Petri Nets formalism for the behaviour modelling at agent level are introduced. In the framework provided by the Generic Prototyping Approach, the chapter presents the overall orientation of the manufacturing shop control system and identifies the generic prototypes devoted to decision support for resource allocation and activity monitoring at the shop floor level. The design specifications for the job-shop scheduling particular prototype developed according to the multi-agent paradigm are further detailed. Finally, in the context of building up a Grid computing platform for workflow oriented applications, the feasibility of the service oriented implementation of this particular prototype is evaluated.