Agent-based fractal architecture and modelling for developing distributed manufacturing systems

For their timely response to the rapidly changing manufacturing environment and markets, future manufacturing systems must be flexible, adaptable, and reusable. Recently, bionic (or biological), holonic, and fractal manufacturing systems (FrMS) have been discussed as potential candidates for the next generation of manufacturing systems. This study focuses on the FrMS, which is based on the concept of autonomous cooperating agents referred to as fractals. The major component of the FrMS is a basic fractal unit. It consists of five functional modules: observing module (observer), analysing module (analyser), resolving and executing module (resolver), organizing module (organizer), and reporting module (reporter). Although the FrMS has many conceptual advantages, the implementation of the system has been known to be difficult. This paper is a preliminary study of the basic components and the architecture with an eye toward the future implementation of FrMS. In order to describe the characteristics of a fractal, this paper presents several models including function models using IDEF0, working models using Petri-net, and static/dynamic models using the unified modelling language.