A Multi-Agent Based Simulation Tool for supporting Intelligent Manufacturing System Activities

This paper focuses on the problem of defining the structure of a general simulation model for Multi-Agent Systems (MASs), and presents a MAS model development and simulation environment. The increasing application of MAS to distribute decision intelligence at different levels of manufacturing production processes and the complexity of the evaluation of the performance of a MAS behaviour, basically justify the need for such a kind of agent-based simulation approach. In this paper the characteristics of a simulation model for MASs are illustrated. The basic architecture and the features of a proposed software tool, called AgentLab, for modelling and simulating MASs are provided. Two preliminary examples of the use of AgentLab modelling in the field of manufacturing are finally discussed