A Generic Reconfigurable Agent Model for distributed manufacturing system

Agent-based system have been considered to be a powerful methodology in developing competent manufacturing management systems controlling the whole manufacturing cycle in a distributed manner. This paper reviews the technologies about ABS and proposes a generic reconfigurable agent model (GRAM): an XML-based framework implemented by Java. This model excels in its flexibility and adaptability to reconfigure distributed manufacturing. It can be applied either to develop an intelligent ABS or to integrate with legacy systems. Experiments show that it is easy to embed intelligence or knowledge in the GRAM application. The GRAM employs the dominant paradigm with client-server mechanism, providing agent clients with more ability to utilize agent resources through controllable XML-based communication