Transforming SME manufacturing plants into evolvable systems through agents

Manufacturing plants need to be flexible and evolvable, which might be achieved by stepping up the level of abstraction at which they are designed. In this work a methodology that starts by creating ontologies of the plants that represent information flows is proposed. Agent-based technology is then used to provide systems with the ability to evolve. The proposal is designed to suit the needs of SME' plants, whose operation cannot be disturbed while progressively undergo a transformation into more advanced ones. The methodology has been based on a partial implementation on a real case that, in its turn, has served to validate the whole procedure.