A hybrid software agent model for decentralized control

We present an approach to the control of manufacturing systems via agent interactions. Based on a decentralized control strategy the agents can collaborate with each other conveniently. We provide a distributed architecture to model the elementary services (an unreliable machine coupled with a finite buffer) in terms of hybrid automata which are co-operating in a manufacturing system, and we show how the agents can efficiently make their control decisions using their local rules.