A Workshop on Agent-Based Manufacturing
to be held at Autonomous Agents '98
May 9, 1998
Minneapolis, MN. USA
http://www.cs.umn.edu/~gini/sigman/agents98.html
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It is increasingly evident that agent technologies will have some role
in the manufacturing enterprise of the future. Software agents are
inherently distributed systems, and so offer a convenient way of
modeling processes that are distributed over space and time. Agents
are also autonomous (at least to some degree), and so are good
candidates for domains that require constant adaptation to changing
environments or changing demands. A considerable body of recent work
also addresses multi-agent systems, in particular the processes
whereby multiple, communicating agents coordinate in the solution of a
problem, the management of a system, etc. This combination of
distributed, coordinated autonomy makes agent-based systems
well-suited for a wide variety of applications in manufacturing domains.
The main purpose of this workshop is to bring together researchers in
manufacturing processes and applications with researchers in software
agents to discuss how agent-based technology is used today and how it
could be used in the near future for manufacturing problems. The
workshop will provide a forum for reviewing the state of the art and
for proposing new avenues of exploration, both from the point of view
of agent theories and of manufacturing applications. The workshop
will focus on specific advantages/disadvantages of agent-based
architectures for manufacturing applications.
Areas of interest cover the full spectrum of agent-related topics
applied to manufacturing problems, with particular emphasis on
multi-agent applications. All aspects of manufacturing, from
enterprise modeling to shop floor control, are of interest. This
includes topics such as agile manufacturing, factory modeling,
supply chain modeling, scheduling and control, shop floor operations,
concurrent engineering, collaborative design, information
infrastructure, etc.
Papers are solicited in the following areas:
* agents in various manufacturing life-cycle activities, including
design, engineering, production planning, scheduling and control,
process diagnosis and control, re-manufacturing, etc.;
* agents for enterprise integration, including enterprise modeling,
supply chain management, architectures for coordination and
collaboration, for distributed decision-making, etc.;
* the role of agents in supporting new manufacturing concepts such
as agility, virtual manufacturing, holonic manufacturing, etc.
Papers addressing these and related issues in the area of manufacturing
will be considered. Work in progress, innovative ideas, field based
studies, experimental results in real manufacturing environments, and
completed projects will be of interest. Both practical and theoretical
work is welcome, but preference will be given to descriptions of
implemented systems.
The format of the workshop will be a combination of contributed and
invited presentations, panels, and discussion among the participants.
There will be a limited number of sessions, each focused on a specific
topic selected among the ones listed above, each including a small
group of papers, with time for brief presentations and ample
opportunities for discussion.
To participate please submit a paper on work in progress or a
completed project (no more than 12 pages, 12 points, one-column format,
including figures, tables, and bibliography) or an extended abstract or
position paper (no more than 4 pages, one-column). For two-column
papers or abstract, the page limits above should be roughly halved.
Accepted papers and abstracts will be published in the workshop notes.
Extended versions of the papers will be considered for publication in
a forthcoming special issue of the journal Integrated Computer Aided
Engineering. More details will be provided later.
Submission will be accepted either on paper (1 single-sided copy)
or by e-mail (please make sure your electronic submission is a
Unix-printable postscript file).
Do not forget to include with your submission author's name(s),
affiliation, complete mailing address, phone number, fax number and
email address.
Send your submissions to Maria Gini, Dept of Computer Science and
Engineering, 4-192 EE/CSci Building, 200 Union St SE, Minneapolis,
MN 55455, USA. phone: (612) 625-5582; fax: (612) 625-0572; email:
gini@cs.umn.edu.
Submissions are due by January 15, 1998.
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Notification of acceptance/rejection will be e-mailed by February 15.
Final copies of papers for the Workshop notes are due March 31.
Program Committee:
Suzanne Barber, University of Texas at Austin
Mark Boddy (co-chair), Honeywell Technology Center
Stefan Bussmann, Daimler-Benz AG
Maria Gini (co-chair), University of Minnesota
Caroline Hayes, University of Minnesota
Van Parunak, Industrial Technology Institute
Steve Smith, Robotics Institute, CMU
Richard Voyles, University of Minnesota
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