Learning in Agent-Based Manufacturing Systems

Abstract

Agent-based technology has been taken as an important approach for developing advanced manufacturing systems. Learning is one of the key techniques for implementing such systems. This paper proposes some learning issues in agent-based manufacturing systems for further discussion in the working group. As examples, the paper describes two implemented learning mechanisms and presents some experimental results in an agent-based manufacturing system. Keywords: Learning, multi-agent learning, intelligent manufacturing, distributed manufacturing systems, mediator. 1 Introduction Recently, agent-based technology has been taken as a promising approach for developing advanced manufacturing systems (Cutkosky et al 1996; Maturana and Norrie 1996; Park et al 1993; Parunak et al 1997; Shen et al 1998). Such an approach provides rapid responsive and dynamic reconfigurable structures to facilitate flexible and efficient use of manufacturing resources in a rapidly changing environment. For most app...