A KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM FOR COOPERATIVE/COLLABORATIVE ASSEMBLY MODELING AND PROCESS PLANNING

Issue title: MANUFACTURING AND DESIGN

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Zha, Xuan F. | Lim, Samuel Y.E. | Lu, Wen F.

Affiliations: Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Product Design and Development Group, 71 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 638075. Email: zha@nist.gov | Nanyang Technological University, School of Mechanical and Production Engineering, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798

Abstract: An intensive knowledge engineering system is a large-scale knowledge framework that allows modeling and processing various types, different levels and multiple functionalities of knowledge in a process. This paper develops a knowledge intensive multi-agent system for cooperative/collaborative assembly modeling and process planning in a distributed design environment. In this paper, an AI protocol based knowledge intensive methodology is first developed for distributed collaborative design in facilitating concurrent integration and cooperation/collaboration of intelligent design agents. Then, a unified class of knowledge intensive Petri nets is defined using an O-O knowledge-based Petri net approach and used as an AI protocol for knowledge objects cooperation formalisms. Detailed cooperative/collaborative mechanisms and algorithms for handling integration and negotiation problems among intelligent agents are provided based on the knowledge objects cooperation formalisms. A research prototype system is implemented under the knowledge-intensive multi-agent framework with concurrent integration of multiple cooperative knowledge sources and software tools/packages. Thus, assembly-oriented design could be carried out simultaneously and intelligently in a distributed & integrated collaborative environment (DICE).

Keywords: multi-agent system, collaborative design, assembly modeling, assembly planning, expert Petri net, AI protocol

Journal: Journal of Integrated Design & Process Science, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 99-122, 2003