An Agent Based Solution for Dispatching Items in a Distributed Environment

1. An Agent Based Solution for Dispatching Items in a Distributed Environment C. Vecchiola, A. Grosso, A. Passadore, D. Anghinolfi, A. Boccalatte, M. Paolucci {christian, agrosso, passa, anghinolfi, nino, paolucci}@dist.unige.it l.i.d.o.-DIST – University of Genoa

2. Goals • Dispatching toolkit • Distribution and assignment of different kind of items • Customization • Dispatching policies • Item properties • Additional items elaboration • Interoperation with external application

3. Agenda • AgentService • Framework • Agent model • Herald Toolkit • Architecture • Dispatching protocol • Case Study • Conclusions

4. AgentService • Framework for the Multi-Agent systems development. • Developed by l.i.d.o. • Based on the Common Language Infrastructure (.Net Framework) • Modular Architecture

5. APX Wizards Knowledges Behaviours Development Agent model Design Tools Storage Maintenance Messaging Tools Core systems Platform infrastructure Roles Code Generator Persistence Services Monitoring Logging Ontologies AMS Agent mobility DF MTS AgentService

6. AgentService today • Pre-release 1.0 • Stable version • Continuously updated • OpenSource LGPL license • Available at www.agentservice.it • AgentService forum

7. Herald Toolkit • Herald… • …is an agent-based toolkit for dispatching and processing items, • …is aimed to a generic distribution network, • …is independent from the nature of items and from the problem domain, • …is based on AgentService.

8. Herald Toolkit • Herald is focused on scenarios with a hierarchical organization • Logistics • Routing • Scheduling

9. Herald Toolkit • N-level hierarchical structure • Root • Node • Leaf • Each element can have different capabilities in order to elaborate the items

10. Herald Toolkit • Multi-agent systems • Physical Agents • Entity Agent (EA-Root, EA-Node, EA-Leaf) • EA agents can elaborate and modify the organization and properties of the items • Logical Agents • Item Manager • Output Dispatch Agent

11. Herald Toolkit • Item Manager (IM) • Gets items from • Agent component • External non-agent application (XML document) • Pre-elaborate items • Send items to physical agents • Output Dispatch Agent (ODA) • Receives dispatching results from EA-Leafs and waits for EA-Root results confirmation • Transmits results to final user or client applications (XML document)

12. Herald - Architecture Herald EA Node EA Root EA Leaf Legacy Software Item Manager Output Dispatch Agent Multi-Agent System External Software Component

13. Herald Toolkit • External interoperation • Expose dispatching events to external application • The external application can indicate the dispatching strategy or elaboration process to be adopted • If anyone is registered for the event default strategies are applied

14. Herald - Negotiation Protocol External Component IM EA-Root EA-Node EA-Leaf ODA Item List Strategy Item List Strategy Item List Dispatching Result Performance Parameters Performance Parameters Ack Ack Ack

15. Herald - Parallel Execution IM EA Root EA Node EA Leaf ODA Item List Item List Item List Performance Parameters Performance Parameters Dispatching Result Ack Ack Ack

16. Herald - Customization • Item: • Subclassing the item class • Adding new properties • Dispatching strategies: • Custom distribution algorithms • Custom key performance indexes • External software module: • Protocol driver • Legacy software connector

17. Case Study • Scheduling Manufacturing • Production orders must be distributed on the plant structure • Hierarchical S95 structure (ISA-95 Standard) • Sites, Areas, Cells, Units • Once assigned to machines, scheduling strategies are applied in order to create the right sequence of tasks • Integrated with Siemens SIMATIC-IT Production Suite (MES)

18. SimaticIT Production Suite SimaticIT Gateway Case Study - Architecture Herald Herald COM Interface MAS AgentService

19. Site Area Working Cell Case Study – Architecture • MAS Architecture • Plant Reference Model • Compliant with ISA-95 standard

20. Case Study - Prototype • MAS Architecture • Physical Agents • EA Site - EA Area - EA Cell • dispatch the entries among cells/units following SIMATIC-IT based strategies • EA Unit • applies the scheduling strategy to the allocated entries and sends results to cells

21. Case Study - Prototype • MAS Architecture • Logical Agents • Item Manager - WOM (Work Order Manager) • communicates through the SIMATIC-IT Gateway to Siemens Production Suite components to get information about orders, product segments, plant, … • sends elaborated orders to physical agents • ODA - OSA (Output Schedule Agent) • builds the final schedule integrating partial agent unit results (EA Unit) • communicates and shows final results to the GUI

22. Case Study - Prototype • Interaction • The SIMATIC-IT Driven Protocol • Schedule start • Interaction with Prototype for selecting the best dispatching strategies according to plant parameters • Schedule approval

23. Case Study - Protocol WOM EA EC EU OSA SIT SIT Schedule KPI KPI SIT Acknowledge Acknowledge Acknowledge

24. Case Study - Protocol WOM EA EC EU OSA SIT SIT Schedule KPI KPI SIT Acknowledge (#S) Acknowledge (#S) Acknowledge (#S)

25. Case Study - Conclusions • Tested in industrial application scenario • SIMATIC-IT integration • Customization and system maintenance • Distribution

26. Conclusions • Easily to integrate with external components and to add functionalities • Customizable to application requirements • Require programming efforts • Improve hierarchical structure - Holonic structure

27. That’s all Thank you for your attention! E non ho mica detto che è bello!