A conceptual framework for holonic manufacturing: Identification of manufacturing holons
1999; Elsevier BV; Volume: 18; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s0278-6125(99)80011-9
ISSN1878-6642
AutoresHendrik Van Brussel, Luc Bongaerts, Jo Wyns, Paul Valckenaers, Tony Van Ginderachter,
Tópico(s)Collaboration in agile enterprises
ResumoFuture 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 is needed for the development of holonic manufacturing systems (HMS). The paper defines the identification task of the manufacturing holons as the first task in the development process and shows the role of a holon taxonomy herein. The holon taxonomy is based on orders, products, and resources as basic building blocks. They are structured using object-oriented design concepts like aggregation and specialization. Additional staff holons provide the basic holons with specialized advice. The resulting architecture fulfills the requirements for holonic manufacturing, where the autonomy of the agents provides the system with the ability to react to disturbances, while the existence of hierarchical control elements provides the system with opportunities for global optimization. The resulting architecture remains flexible, allowing control strategies ranging from very hierarchical to very heterarchical. A case study is given featuring the PMA testbed HMS.
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