P-SOP - A multi-agent based control approach for flexible and robust manufacturing
2015 (English)In: Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, ISSN 0736-5845, E-ISSN 1879-2537, Vol. 36, p. 109-118, article id 1301Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
In a truly flexible manufacturing system the description of the control strategy must be updated every day. Hence, a new way to handle changes in the environment down to control system deployment and production is required. This paper presents a novel approach, based on P-SOP, to handle multi-agent based control and verification. The P-SOP approach addresses flexibility, robustness and deployment in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort. P-SOP includes a description language where the control strategy based on actual circumstances easily can be defined. Based on the description multi-agents, to control the manufacturing, are automatically generated. An industrial advantage is that the multi-agent generator creates IEC 61131-3 PLC code that can be executed on standard PLC’s. This feature eliminates the need for experts in PLC programming and reduce deployment time to become more efficient. Hence, this flexibility enables small series down to one off production in a competitive way. With multi-agent control it is also possible to handle rebalancing due to market changes, scheduling of available humans, introduction of new part types, and rerouting due to a machine break down or planned service. The generated agents are not optimised for a final solution with specific timings. All decisions are made on-line and the generated solution adapts to the circumstances that arise. With the P-SOP multi-agents it is easy to manually remove or introduce parts to the manufacturing cell without disturbing the system, e.g. for manually random inspections, removal of parts due to restart. The formulated description language and the multi-agent generator has been successfully tested and evaluated in an industrial environment.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2015. Vol. 36, p. 109-118, article id 1301
Keywords [en]
Multi-agent, Flexible manufacturing, IEC 61131-3, Code generation, PLC
National Category
Computer Sciences Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics
Research subject
ENGINEERING, Manufacturing and materials engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-7665DOI: 10.1016/j.rcim.2014.12.005ISI: 000358464700013Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84936890418OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-7665DiVA, id: diva2:816265
Conference
International Workshop on Robotics in Smart Manufacturing (WRSM 2013) / 23rd International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM 2013), Porto, PORTUGAL, JUN 26-28, 2013
Note
Available online 7 February 2015
2015-06-032015-06-022020-02-20Bibliographically approved