METHOD FOR DEVELOPING A MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM AND MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM

• US 20120029656A1
• Filed: 10/13/2009
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric Automation GmbH (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Schneider Electric Automation GmbH (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Colombo, Armando Walter, Mendes, Joao Marco, Leitao, Paulo
• Application Number:
  US13/123,762
• Publication Number:
  US 20120029656A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/7
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41845 characterised by system universality, reconfigurability, modularity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A method for developing a multi-agent system and a multi-agent system, such as an automation and/or production system, including software and/or hardware components, the resources and functions of these components being represented and/or controlled through software agents, each of the software agents having the capability of achieving goals through interaction with the environment and with other agents. In order to increase reconfigurability and flexibility, the resources and functions of the software agents are depicted as services, where each software agent, in order to achieve its own goals, calls up services of other software agents and offers its own resources and functions to other software agents as services.

Claims

1-2. -2. (canceled)

3. Method for the control of an automation and/or production system which presents software and/or hardware components, by means of a multi-agent system, where each software and/or hardware component is represented by a software agent, characterized in that each software agent interacts with the software and/or hardware component that it represents, and offers resources and functions of the latter in the form of a service-oriented software agent as individual services that can be called by other service-oriented software agents, and in that each service-oriented software agent, to achieve its own goals, calls services of other service-oriented software agents.

4. Multi-agent systems for the control of an automation and/or production system which comprises software and/or hardware components, where each software and/or hardware component is represented by a software agent,

characterized in that the software agents have a service-oriented design, where each a software agent presents means for service provision and means for service query, the service-oriented software agents present means for the interaction with the software/hardware component which is represented by these agents,

the resources and functions of the software/hardware component are acquired by the a service-oriented software agent, and offered as services for other service-oriented software agents, and

each service-oriented software agent presents means to achieve its individual goals by calling services provided by other service-oriented software agents.