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Abstract: This paper is aimed at summarizing the current state-of-the-art in the development of agent-based solutions in three areas connected with industrial production, namely in holonic control, production management and virtual enterprises. This paper shows how the results in these three sub-areas are converging and discusses how the agent-oriented technologies could provide a good background for developing a unifying approach. Two industrial applications of agent-based systems are described in some detail. The paper also presents both the positive and negative aspects of applying agent-based technologies in industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Remote access to industrial plants has proven a serious competitive advantage. However, building efficient and safe systems is not a trivial task. It requires the integration of diverse complex technologies at different levels. Even though these technologies are not extended in industrial environments, in the authors’ opinion, they are mature enough to be used in industrial applications. This paper proposes a systematic object-oriented methodology to build applications with remote access to industrial plants through Internet-like networks. The methodology guides the designer regarding key issues, such as security, concurrency, distribution of alarms and monitoring information to different kinds of users. A generic architecture for building remote access applications is proposed. The central components of the architecture are the so-called Application Servers (ASs). Each of them offers services to remote users and directly accesses to specific parts of the physical plants. The proposed methodology suggests the basic structure for these ASs, based on several reusable components, as well as mechanisms to determine the number of ASs required. The instantiation of the generic architecture as well as the stages of the methodology are validated through an industrial case study: a laboratory manufacturing cell. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Increasingly, there is a move towards in-built intelligence for sensors and actuators in order to integrate these “smart” peripheral elements as part of a distributed control system. The utilisation of local intelligence to provide local fault detection and fault tolerance allows the incorporation of new variables into the structure of the system. The proposed approach is to integrate this information into the structure of the control law. Thus, the main goal is to integrate a decision-making procedure between peripheral elements and different control strategies. The reconfiguration of the control law, based upon local health measures, is decided by this procedure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]