Applications of Semantics in Agent-Based Manufacturing Systems

Distributed intelligent control systems compared to traditional centralized manufacturing architectures provide much more powerful instruments for developing robust, flexible and reconfigurable factory automation systems. The basic characteristic of any distributed system is a communication between the system's components needed for information exchange and coordination of activities for accomplishing collective goals. To achieve effective knowledge exchange and integration in open, reconfigurable environments, an explicit definition of semantics is needed to capture the data and information being processed and communicated. The paper shows how semantics and ontologies can be employed in industrial systems, considering particularly distributed, agent-based solutions. A new manufacturing ontology providing semantic model of production planning and scheduling, material handling and customer order specification is presented. Its integration with an agent-based simulation and control system MAST is demonstrated.