Papers by Paul Valckenaers
A Holonic Chain Conveyor Control System: An Application
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2009
A Holonic Chain Conveyor Control System: An Application JanVanBelle, Bart SaintGermain, PaulVerst... more A Holonic Chain Conveyor Control System: An Application JanVanBelle, Bart SaintGermain, PaulVerstraete, PaulValckenaers, Osman Ali, Hendrik VanBrussel, and Dirk Cattrysse KU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300B, 3001 Heverlee, ...
THE DESIGN OF MULTI-AGENT COORDINATION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS USING STIGMERGY
Stigmergy is a coordination mechanism observable in biological insect societies like ant colonies... more Stigmergy is a coordination mechanism observable in biological insect societies like ant colonies. It is based on the behavior of these ants to create a dissipative field by spreading smelling substances into their environment. Ants permanently interact with this dissipative field, being guided by it to certain activities and changing it by spreading pheromones as a reflection of their activities.
CIM, simultaneous scheduling and schedule execution. Abstract : This paper presents an architectu... more CIM, simultaneous scheduling and schedule execution. Abstract : This paper presents an architecture for reactive scheduling that enables concurrent scheduling and schedule execution. When disturbances occur, the system reacts to them at several levels: an on-line shop floor control system reacts immediately, and the reactive scheduler responds more slowly, but with a higher response time. This approach enables a good
Aspects of co-operation in Distributed Manufacturing Systems
Dr. Tapio Heikkilä received the degree of Diploma Engineer in Control Engineering, Licentiate of ... more Dr. Tapio Heikkilä received the degree of Diploma Engineer in Control Engineering, Licentiate of Technology in Systems and Control Engineering, and Doctor of Technology in Computer Engineering from the University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland in 1983, 1986 and 1991, respectively. From ...
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2007
One interesting family of MAS applications is characterized (1) by their large scale in terms of ... more One interesting family of MAS applications is characterized (1) by their large scale in terms of number of agents and physical distribution, (2) by their very dynamic nature and (3) by their complex functional and non-functional requirements. This family includes a.o. manufacturing control, traffic control and web service coordination. For this family, the complexity of the software for the individual agents using traditional BDI-approaches is overwhelming. In this paper, we present an innovative approach to BDI which alleviates agent complexity through "delegate MASs", which use the environment and its resources to obtain BDI functionality. Delegate MASs consist of light-weight agents, which are issued either by resources for building and maintaining information on the environment, or by task agents in order to explore the options on behalf of the agents and to coordinate their intentions. We describe the approach, and validate it in a case study of manufacturing control. The evaluation in this case study shows the feasibility of the approach in coping with the large scale of the application and shows that the approach elegantly achieves flexibility in highly dynamic environments. This paper is a two-page discussion introducing a more extensive paper, accepted for publication in the E4MAS 2006 postproceedings .
Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Automation Technology, 1994
128 0-8186-6510-6/94 $4.00 0 1994 IEEE
Manufacturing control algorithm and architecture
This paper discusses the agent-basedmanufacturing control algorithm used to performthe distribute... more This paper discusses the agent-basedmanufacturing control algorithm used to performthe distributed resource allocation decisionmaking. A distinction is made between thearchitecture of the control system, the controlalgorithm's decision logic, and the communicationinfrastructure.
SCHEDULE EXECUTION IN HOLONIC MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS
To bridge the gap between advanced scheduling research and industrial practice, high performance ... more To bridge the gap between advanced scheduling research and industrial practice, high performance scheduling needs to be combined with reactivity to disturbances. This paper presents an architecture for shop floor control (SFC) that builds upon the concepts of holonic manufacturing and combines the advantages of traditional hierarchical control with the benefits of distributed control. The architecture supports the use of
On the design of emergent systems: an investigation of integration and interoperability issues
Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 2003
Many useful manmade systems in this world are extremely complex; a typical example is a large inf... more Many useful manmade systems in this world are extremely complex; a typical example is a large infrastructure. No design team ever invents these artifacts because they are too complex. These artifacts are made by combining existing elements (legacy) and by building new subsystems without explicit and comprehensive up-front coordination. To a large extent, these complex systems emerge and evolve. Experience
Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 1999
Future manufacturing systems will need to cope with frequent process disturbances and changes in ... more Future manufacturing systems will need to cope with frequent process disturbances and changes in production orders. Therefore, their control will require constant adaptation and high flexibility. Holonic manufacturing is a highly distributed control paradigm that promises to handle these problems successfully. It is based on the concept of autonomous cooperating agents, called “holons”. This paper presents the conceptual framework that
Proceedings. 1998 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.98CH36146), 1998
Resource allocation for manufacturing systems (including scheduling, reactive scheduling, and con... more Resource allocation for manufacturing systems (including scheduling, reactive scheduling, and control of discrete event systems) is a typical non-linear dynamic system, often at the edge of chaos. In previous work, we developed an architecture for resource allocation where a reactive scheduler co-operates with an autonomous on-line shop floor control (SFC) system to combine high performance with reactivity and robustness against disturbances. The on-line SFC system has to react to disturbances, while following the existing schedule as good as possible.
Benchmarking the performance of manufacturing control systems: Design principles for a web-based simulated testbed
... other analogous projects, is its main goal to provide users with an interactive environmentsi... more ... other analogous projects, is its main goal to provide users with an interactive environmentsimulating the physical ... Benchmarking the performance of manufacturing control systems ... A manufacturing scenario can be split into two sub-scenarios according to the generating domain ...
A Study of System Nervousness in Multi-agent Manufacturing Control System
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2006
This paper discusses a study on system nervousness in a multi-agent manufacturing control system.... more This paper discusses a study on system nervousness in a multi-agent manufacturing control system. Manufacturing control systems, built along this approach, are able to generate short-term forecasts that predict both resource loads and order routings. These forecasts become known throughout the multi-agent system with some time delay. If the agents make their decisions based on these forecasts, proper measures need to be taken to account for these delays, especially when disturbances (rush orders, machine breakdowns) occur. If agents ...
Emergent Forecasting Using a Stigmergy Approach in Manufacturing Coordination and Control
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2005
This paper presents the design of new manufacturing coordination and control systems based on mul... more This paper presents the design of new manufacturing coordination and control systems based on multi-agent technology. This design aims to cope with a dynamic environment characteristic for manufacturing systems nowadays. One important feature to handle these dynamics is having the ability to plan ahead, thus avoiding problems before they occur. Therefore, one novel characteristic of the system is the ability to perform emergent forecasting. Regarding emergent forecasting, an important issue that rises from this ...
Production planning and control in bio-inspired holonic manufacturing execution systems
8th IFAC International Workshop on Intelligent Manufacturing Systems, 2007, 2007
Abstract In manufacturing systems, production planning and control performs a key function. This ... more Abstract In manufacturing systems, production planning and control performs a key function. This paper discusses the production planning and control (PPC) aspects of a Bio-Inspired Holonic Manufacturing Execution Systems. The PPC system in such a bio-inspired system has a design that distinguishes it from more conventional systems. This design renders the PPC system robust and responsive when facing changes and disturbances that occur on a shop floor. ... [1] Askin, Ronald G. and Charles R. Standridge (1993). Modeling and Analysis of ...
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2004
In order to cope with today's dynamic environment the described manufacturing control system is d... more In order to cope with today's dynamic environment the described manufacturing control system is designed as a self-organising multi-agent system. The design of this novel system implements the PROSA reference architecture . Coordination among agents is done indirectly through a pheromone-based dissipative field as is done by social insects in coordinating their behaviour. In this case, our agents act as social insects interpreting the pheromones put by the others in the environment. This control system is built from the basic elements of any manufacturing controller, namely products, resources and orders. However, the overall control system is constructed not only from those basic elements but also employing the appropriate interaction patterns among the agents who represent them. For coordination purposes, the agents send out a kind of mobile agents -artificial ants -to lay down information on the environment. In our case, where fulfilling the manufacturing orders is the main concern, there are at least 3 types of ant in this system: 1) feasibility ants -to propagate information concerning the feasible finishing routes; 2) exploring ants -to explore the feasible routes; and 3) intention ants -to propagate the route preferences. The overall mechanism enables the system to exhibit a self-organising behaviour.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2007
This paper puts forward a novel concept: the intelligent being. Intelligent agents emphasize acti... more This paper puts forward a novel concept: the intelligent being. Intelligent agents emphasize action and decision-making, which is strongly reflected in the results of agent research. However, real-world applications require much more than decision-making and the intelligent being addresses a crucial part of this: reflecting reality into the agent world. Importantly, reflecting some part of reality offers significant benefits for software developers. Indeed, properly designed intelligent beings inherit the coherency and consistency of the corresponding reality. This allows the development of systems with unprecedented complexity and size. This paper discusses the novel concept and its implications for software development. Importantly, the intelligent agents themselves may be considered as part of the corresponding reality, resulting in short-term forecasting services.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2004
A self-organising system functions without central control, and through contextual local interact... more A self-organising system functions without central control, and through contextual local interactions. Components achieve a simple task individually, but a complex collective behaviour emerges from their mutual interactions. Such a system modifies its structure and functionality to adapt to changes to requirements and to the environment based on previous experience. Nature provides examples of self-organisation, such as ants food foraging, molecules formation, or antibodies detection. Similarly, current software applications are driven by social interactions (negotiations, transactions), based on autonomous entities or agents, and run in highly dynamic environments. The issue of engineering applications, based on the principles of selforganisation to achieve robustness and adaptability, is gaining increasing interest in the software research community. The aim of this paper is to survey natural and artificial complex systems exhibiting emergent behaviour, and to outline the mechanisms enabling such behaviours. environment. Insects, such as ants, termites, or bees, mark their environment using a chemical volatile substance, called the pheromone, for example, as do ants to mark a food trail. Insects have simple behaviour, and none of them alone "knows" how to find food but their interaction gives rise to an organised society able to explore their environment, find food and efficiently inform the rest of the colony. The pheromonal information deposited by insects constitutes an indirect communication means through their environment.
Special issue: Holonic Manufacturing Systems
Computers in Industry, 2001
Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 1998
This paper discusses the design of Holonic manufacturing systems (HMS), with emphasis on manufact... more This paper discusses the design of Holonic manufacturing systems (HMS), with emphasis on manufacturing control. First, it discusses the concept of a Holonic system. Second, it presents the HMS reference architecture for manufacturing control. Third, it addresses the overall design problem, i.e. designing both the holonic control system and the underlying manufacturing system. Finally, the paper addresses the design and development of the control software itself.
Uploads
Papers by Paul Valckenaers