Reactive Agent Mechanisms for Manufacturing Process Control

In this paper we face a problem for chemical processes in a production system; items should undergo chemical reactions in different baths to be processed by the system. Recipes for the processes only specify minimum and maximum times for each bath, and recipes depends strongly on characteristics of the item. We have applied the PACO paradigm for reactive agents to create control software for the system, and designed simple physical force-like interaction mechanisms, so the agents manage to fulfill their individual and global goals. We outline the problem and argue why the PACO approach suits this problem, before detailed explaining how the agents are design and the interactions established for the planning to succeed.