On the Use of Asset Administration Shell for Modeling and Deploying Production Scheduling Agents within a Multi-Agent System
Industry 4.0 (I4.0) aims at achieving the interconnectivity of multiple industrial assets from different hierarchical layers within a manufacturing environment. The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is a pilar component of I4.0 for the digital representation of assets and can be applied in both physi...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/17/9540 |
| _version_ | 1797582909458087936 |
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| author | Vasilis Siatras Emmanouil Bakopoulos Panagiotis Mavrothalassitis Nikolaos Nikolakis Kosmas Alexopoulos |
| author_facet | Vasilis Siatras Emmanouil Bakopoulos Panagiotis Mavrothalassitis Nikolaos Nikolakis Kosmas Alexopoulos |
| author_sort | Vasilis Siatras |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Industry 4.0 (I4.0) aims at achieving the interconnectivity of multiple industrial assets from different hierarchical layers within a manufacturing environment. The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is a pilar component of I4.0 for the digital representation of assets and can be applied in both physical and digital assets, such as enterprise software, artificial intelligence (AI) agents, and databases. Multi-agent systems (MASs), in particular, are useful in the decentralized optimization of complex problems and applicable in various planning or scheduling scenarios that require the system’s ability to adapt to any given problem by using different optimization methods. In order to achieve this, a universal model for the agent’s information, communication, and behaviors should be provided in a way that is interoperable with the rest of the I4.0 assets and agents. To address these challenges, this work proposes an AAS-based information model for the description of scheduling agents. It allows multiple AI methods for scheduling, such as heuristics, mathematical programming, and deep reinforcement learning, to be encapsulated within a single agent, making it adjustable to different production scenarios. The software implementation of the proposed architecture aims to provide granularity in the deployment of scheduling agents which utilize the underlying AAS metamodel. The agent was implemented using the SARL agent-oriented programming (AOP) language and deployed in an open-source MAS platform. The system evaluation in a real-life bicycle production scenario indicated the agent’s ability to adapt and provide fast and accurate scheduling results. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T23:29:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f31982af823b4810b09eb047b1d47988 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T23:29:15Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-f31982af823b4810b09eb047b1d479882023-11-19T07:48:29ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172023-08-011317954010.3390/app13179540On the Use of Asset Administration Shell for Modeling and Deploying Production Scheduling Agents within a Multi-Agent SystemVasilis Siatras0Emmanouil Bakopoulos1Panagiotis Mavrothalassitis2Nikolaos Nikolakis3Kosmas Alexopoulos4Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, GreeceLaboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, GreeceLaboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, GreeceLaboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, GreeceLaboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, GreeceIndustry 4.0 (I4.0) aims at achieving the interconnectivity of multiple industrial assets from different hierarchical layers within a manufacturing environment. The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is a pilar component of I4.0 for the digital representation of assets and can be applied in both physical and digital assets, such as enterprise software, artificial intelligence (AI) agents, and databases. Multi-agent systems (MASs), in particular, are useful in the decentralized optimization of complex problems and applicable in various planning or scheduling scenarios that require the system’s ability to adapt to any given problem by using different optimization methods. In order to achieve this, a universal model for the agent’s information, communication, and behaviors should be provided in a way that is interoperable with the rest of the I4.0 assets and agents. To address these challenges, this work proposes an AAS-based information model for the description of scheduling agents. It allows multiple AI methods for scheduling, such as heuristics, mathematical programming, and deep reinforcement learning, to be encapsulated within a single agent, making it adjustable to different production scenarios. The software implementation of the proposed architecture aims to provide granularity in the deployment of scheduling agents which utilize the underlying AAS metamodel. The agent was implemented using the SARL agent-oriented programming (AOP) language and deployed in an open-source MAS platform. The system evaluation in a real-life bicycle production scenario indicated the agent’s ability to adapt and provide fast and accurate scheduling results.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/17/9540agent-oriented programmingAsset Administration Shellmulti-agent systemscheduling agent |
| spellingShingle | Vasilis Siatras Emmanouil Bakopoulos Panagiotis Mavrothalassitis Nikolaos Nikolakis Kosmas Alexopoulos On the Use of Asset Administration Shell for Modeling and Deploying Production Scheduling Agents within a Multi-Agent System Applied Sciences agent-oriented programming Asset Administration Shell multi-agent system scheduling agent |
| title | On the Use of Asset Administration Shell for Modeling and Deploying Production Scheduling Agents within a Multi-Agent System |
| title_full | On the Use of Asset Administration Shell for Modeling and Deploying Production Scheduling Agents within a Multi-Agent System |
| title_fullStr | On the Use of Asset Administration Shell for Modeling and Deploying Production Scheduling Agents within a Multi-Agent System |
| title_full_unstemmed | On the Use of Asset Administration Shell for Modeling and Deploying Production Scheduling Agents within a Multi-Agent System |
| title_short | On the Use of Asset Administration Shell for Modeling and Deploying Production Scheduling Agents within a Multi-Agent System |
| title_sort | on the use of asset administration shell for modeling and deploying production scheduling agents within a multi agent system |
| topic | agent-oriented programming Asset Administration Shell multi-agent system scheduling agent |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/17/9540 |
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