Resource allocation and network evolution considering economics and robustness in manufacturing grid

Manufacturing Grid (MG), a complex system, is a kind of collaboration network with scale-free characteristic structure, and system robustness is a critical statistic indicator for its sustainable operation. Resource allocation, a component in MG, plays an important function to satisfy customers' various requirements, and it is also a key step in MG evolutionary process with the expansion of tasks and factories (resource providers). Firstly, a particle swarm optimization-based resource allocation model is proposed with both task economics and system robustness as the optimization objectives. Then, the collaboration network and evolution models for MG are constructed by integrating the resource allocation model into its evolutionary process. Later on, the influence and impact of the allocation model to MG network structure are analyzed with the evolution of tasks, resources, and factories. Comparison with production-collaboration model for MG (MPC) and single-objective optimization model (SOP-MPC) reveal that the proposed recourse allocation model has much better agreement with our objective. In addition, the MG collaboration network can keep its scale-free structure during the evolution. Finally, a case study is used to illustrate with machine tool products and resources as the empirical analysis data to validate the results and comparisons.