A negotiation scenario using an agent-based modeling approach to deal with dynamic scheduling.

Summary In order to ensure an overall efficient production performance , the industrial experiences and research activities have demonstrated the interest of hybrid control systems, which couple a predictive scheduling with a distributed reactive control. In this context , it is commonly accepted that using the multi-agent systems (MAS) paradigm enhances the reactivity to treat disturbances and improves the decision making process of a shop floor. Each agent could have different capability (evolution, learning etc.) and the whole system, based on the agent interaction, leads emerging behaviors to dynamically adapt the production schedule. This paper is aimed to develop and simulate a negotiation scenario to deal with disturbed manufacturing processes. The scenario was implemented on the basis of TRACILOGIS test-bed platform. The negotiation protocol consists in setting the best sequential priority based on some performance indicators. This protocol is compared with a purely reactive production mode.