Wasp nests for self-configurable factories

Agent-based approaches to manufacturing scheduling and control have gained increasing attention in recent years. Such approaches are attractive because they o er increased robustness against the unpredictability of factory operations. But the speci cation of local coordination policies that give rise to e cient global performance and e ectively adapt to changing circumstances remains an interesting challenge. In this paper, we introduce a new approach to this coordination problem, drawing on various aspects of a computational model of how wasp colonies coordinate individual activities and allocate tasks to meet the collective needs of the nest. We focus speci cally on the problem of con guring machines in a factory to best satisfy potentially changing product demands over time. Our system models the set of jobs queued in front of any given machine as a wasp nest, wherein wasp-like agents interact to form a social hierarchy and prioritize the jobs that they represent. Other wasp-like a...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2001
• Where: AGENTS
• Authors: Vincent A. Cicirello, Stephen F. Smith
• Keywords: AGENTS 2001, Er Increased Robustness, Other Wasp-like Agents, Security Privacy, Wasp-like Agents