Self-organization in automation - the IDEAS pre-demonstrator

While the application of IT in automation gains traction, mostly motivated by the introduction of Service Orientated Approaches and Multiagent modelling, it is sometimes unclear to practitioners what is the full potential and boundaries of such concepts and technologies. The FP7 IDEAS project is focused in the design and development of Multiagent systems in a Mechatronic context which, to a great extent, implies that Mechatronic Agents must consider and respect mechanical/physical constraints while delivering the widely acknowledged (yet elusively demonstrated) characteristics that may render Agent-based control unique in respect to tolerance to disturbances, plug-ability and scalability. In this context, the present paper details the preliminary proof of concept prototype that validates the IDEAS Mechatronic Agent Architecture. The focus of this early demonstrator is to enlighten on how self-organization, inspired by the Evolvable Assembly System (EAS) Paradigm, can be exploited towards promoting the above mentioned characteristics. The main lessons learned, open points and future developing directions are distilled as the prototype is presented.