Multi-agent simulation for balancing of assembly lines

One of the main applications of simulation is in manufacturing systems. The complexity of this kind of systems is related to the number of decisions that must be taken in shorter time. The main difficulty is to predict the effects of decisions on the overall system performance. In this context simulation becomes an important tool by means of which it is possible to predict the future performance of the system, and so compare and analyse different decisions. The actual discrete-event simulation scenario reveals a systematic demand for more sophisticated and powerful computational tools in order to fulfil the increasing problem of complexity. Computer network technology provides the computational power needed. The combination of distributed simulation with that of multi-agent systems presents a very interesting perspective to design and develop such kinds of environments. We propose an architecture based on multi-agent simulation to help solving problems in balancing and distributing the human resources in manual assembly lines, and in the future we hope to extend the model to other kinds of manufacturing systems.