Development of a Networked Multi-agent System Based on Real-Time Ethernet

This paper proposes a networked multi-agent system based on the real-time Ethernet. The developed system consists of a set of smart networked agents, which are connected by a ring topology through the real-time Ethernet. Each networked agent is designed to realize motion control tasks and real-time communication capabilities using digital signal processor and field-programmable gate array technologies. Furthermore, a real-time communication protocol is proposed to cope with the non-deterministic problem of Ethernet. Then, time delays caused by data processing and message transmission are analyzed. A platform is built to evaluate the capabilities of the developed networked multi-agent system. The experimental results demonstrate that the presented system achieves good performance in terms of real-time communication and servo-control performance.