Using multi-agent in distributed manufacturing scheduling

The growing complexity of manufacturing causes the complexity of manufacturing scheduling increasing. To solve dynamic scheduling of manufacturing problems, based on analyzing the technology of agent, a multi-agent based manufacturing scheduling system was presented, which was open, distributed, reconfigurable, integratable and maintainable, and the corresponding framework of system was given. The multi-agent based manufacturing scheduling system was mainly composed of three agents: task agent, resource agent and management agent. Finally, key technologies in this system were discussed in detail, and compared with traditional approaches. Via simulation, results show that multi-agent based manufacturing scheduling system has the advantages of quick responsiveness, flexibility, scalability and robustness.