Plan-coordination architecture for Multi-agent in the Fractal Manufacturing System (FrMS)

프랙탈 생산 시스템에서의 멀티에이전트를 위한 플랜 조율 체계

In this paper, a plan-coordination architecture is proposed for multi-agent control in the fractal manufacturing system (FrMS). A fractal in FrMS is a set of distributed agents whose goal can be achieved through cooperation, coordination, and negotiation with other agents. Since each agent in the FrMS generates, achieves, and modifies its own plan fragments autonomously during the coordination process with other agents, it is necessary to develop a systematic methodology for the achievement of global plan in the manufacturing system. The heterarchical structure of the FrMS provides a compromised plan-coordination approach, it compromise a centralized plan-generation/execution (which mainly focuses on the maximization of throughput) with a distributed one (which focuses on the autonomy of each module and flexibility of the whole system). Plan-coordinators in lower level fractal independently generate plan fragments according to the global plan of higher level fractal, and plan-coordinators in higher level fractal mediate/coordinate the plan fragments to enhance the global performance of the system. This paper assumes that generation method of the plan fragments and the negotiation policy of the fractal is achieved by a simple process, and we mainly focuses on the information exchanging and distributed decision making process to coordinate the combinations of plan fragments within a limited exchange of information.