Research on a virtual manufacturing system

In the paper a multi-agent virtual manufacturing system is presented. This system offers a tremendous opportunity for a new kind of communication. The implementation of such a system has been made possible only by the advent of the Internet and distributed programming, increasing the flexibility of the client-server-based approach. The architecture, detailed functional models, and implementation of the system have been presented. As part of the architecture, the concept of an application independent server composed of autonomous modules is proposed. Ideally the user can access the system from any part of the world through the Internet.