Intelligent Production Machines and Systems - First I*PROMS Virtual Conference

Chapter . A multi-agent scheduler for reconfigurable manufacturing systems

S.P. Walsh^[a]

Abstract

The challenges of current and future manufacturing suggest that manufacturers will need to be more flexible and responsive if they are to thrive. Reconfigurable manufacturing systems are seen as one approach that could help with these challenges. However, many issues must be solved if a high degree of reconfigurability is to be achieved. Apart from the physical implementation issues that reconfigurable manufacturing systems present, they create significant issues that make effective scheduling more complex. This paper discusses the major issues of reconfigurable manufacturing systems from a scheduling perspective and describes a scheduler framework ...