A discrete-event system model for multi-agent control of automated manufacturing systems

In the area of multi-agent systems, many efforts have been recently devoted to find appropriate tools to model, and specify in a formal way the dynamics and the mechanisms of interaction of the various autonomous agents. In this paper, an approach based on the discrete event system specification technique is used. Typical agents used in manufacturing control systems can be viewed as discrete event systems, and analyzed with the proposed modeling tool. The models lend themselves both for developing a simulation platform, and for realizing the control software of the actual plant.