Lightweight robust behavior industrial agent methodology

Abstract

Assembly systems today face significant pressure to provide highly adaptable and quickly deployable solutions in order to deal with unpredictable changes according to market trends. However, control of assembly processes are dominated by the use of Programmable Logical Controllers (PLC) which do not provide the necessary mechanisms to easily deal with these challenges. The concept of agent-based control has been introduced as a solution to deal these challenges and support new production paradigms based on the plug and produce concept. However, this solution has not yet been proven to be a real alternative to the traditional PLC approach in terms of performance. This work is investigating the use an approach that is able to benefit from the relative advantages of both PLC and agents solutions. A new hybrid architecture is presented which combines the functionalities of a PLC with those of industrial agents. The focus is on assessing the performance of this approach and help change the minds of an industry averse to changes.