Modeling and implementation of agent-based discrete industrial automation

Yuval Cohen, Ming En Wang, Bopaya Bidanda

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

In shop floors dominated by programmable logic controllers (PLCs), the implementation of flexible control has bee held back due to difficulties in generation and modification of the PLC code. This paper presents a technique that not only automates the PLC code generation and modification, but also integrate it into a framework of process planning and scheduling. The purpose of this technique is to enable a specific set of software agents to automate the specification, generation, validation, and implementation of discrete shop-floor control systems. The first part of the paper presents a framework of five software agents that interact with each other to plan model and implement flexible manufacturing using current control equipment (i.e.PLCs). The framework specifies the roles and rough communications protocols of each agent. The five agents are: (1) Process planning agent, (2) Scheduling agent, (3) Modelling and simulation agent, (4) Validation and exception handling agent, and (5) PLC language translation agent. The second part of the paper addresses the operations details of each agent. For this purpose, it presents a new technique used to model, validate and generate the PLC code. We named this technique Three Levels Approach (TLA) to reflect the three levels of detail used to describe the manufacturing process.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInnovative Algorithms and Techniques in Automation, Industrial Electronics and Telecommunications
Pages535-540
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Event2006 Int. Conf. on Telecommunications and Networking, TeNe 2006, and the 2006 Int. Conf. on Industrial Electronics, Technology and Automation, IETA 2006, Part of the CISSE 2006 -
Duration: 4 Dec 200614 Dec 2006

Publication series

NameInnovative Algorithms and Techniques in Automation, Industrial Electronics and Telecommunications

Conference

Conference2006 Int. Conf. on Telecommunications and Networking, TeNe 2006, and the 2006 Int. Conf. on Industrial Electronics, Technology and Automation, IETA 2006, Part of the CISSE 2006
Period4/12/0614/12/06

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