A Multi-agent Controller on Embedded System for Complex Mechatronics

A multi-agent controller on embedded system is presented for complex mechatronics in this paper. The agents' concept is combined with a physical control system to produce a controller agent. The multi-controller system of complex mechatronics can be regarded as a series of controller agents, and they can be converted to the Multi-Agent System (MAS) easily by changing corresponding concepts. Controller agents can be implemented by a number of agent tasks located on different microprocessors at the hardware level and coordinated by a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) at the software level. In the view of control agents and MAS, an embedded control system with ARM and DSP is designed and developed for a vision-based Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV), from the agents' partitions to the MAS design, and from the hardware construction to the software programming. This development paradigm demonstrates an effective and concise implementation way in which the MAS-based approach is adopted on the embedded control system. It is expected to help the multi-controller system design for complex mechatronics.