The scope of application of multi-agent systems in the process industry:: three case studies

It has been suggested that multi-agent systems (MAS) are specially adequate for the solution of problems with a dynamic, uncertain and distributed nature. Within industrial applications, there is a wide spectrum of problems with these characteristics, in particular those covering the modelling of artifacts, methodologies and organisations. Three case studies on the application of MAS in the process industry are presented. All of them relate to tools that are being developed to support very diverse core tasks in the process industry (and, by extension, the petroleum industry): An intelligent search system composed of Internet information agents which are able to gather, compile and classify data available in web pages related to a specific technological domain. This search engine is the first step towards the construction of a knowledge management platform that will allow chemical process industries to improve their capabilities to monitor, predict and respond to technological trends and challenges. A system to support the concurrent design of processes, to ease communication between engineers who perform design and keep them informed about the progress of the design process. A tool to support the configuration of work teams. This tool will assist in the configuration of the most suitable team for a specific project. It takes into account the ideal size of the team (2 to n members); its specific composition (managers, engineers/scientists, assistants, etc.); and the proposed type of organisation (centralised, tree hierarchy, etc.). These case studies are representative of a large variety of the possible applications of agent based systems in the process industry. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.