The environment: An essential abstraction for managing complexity in MAS-based manufacturing control

This paper analyses the concept of an environment for multiagent systems from the perspective of a class of manufacturing control systems using stigmergy. The discussion reveals that significant responsibilities can be attributed to the environment as an essential abstraction in MAS. Analysis shows that the environment is well positioned to manage functionalities of multi-agent systems that otherwise would be scattered over the agents, execution platform and communication infrastructure. Importantly, the environment represents a significant contribution handling the complexity of manufacturing control applications and providing a common repository for subsystems originating from different parties.