Integrating Human Operators into Agent-based Manufacturing Systems: A Table-top Demonstration

摘要

To stay competitive in the modern market, manufacturing systems must be adaptable and flexible to deal with challenges such as machine breakdowns or requests for new, customized products. A strategy proposed to improve system flexibility is the integration of multi-agent control on the plant floor. The multi-agent control strategy consists of a system of distributed agents (e.g. resource agents, product agents) that are responsible for controlling various parts of the manufacturing system through cooperation. While previous Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) implementations have proposed architectures for resource and product agents, they do not specify how human workers can be integrated to improve system flexibility. This work specifies a Human Resource Agent (HRA) architecture that can be integrated into a manufacturing system with a multi-agent control strategy. The proposed architecture is demonstrated using a table-top manufacturing testbed showcasing the flexibility the HRA can add to a manufacturing system.