An approach to information requirements analysis for holonic manufacturing systems development

Abstract

This paper presets a methodology for representing a manufacturing System in order to help with the requirements analysis (RA) in Holonic Manufacturing Systems (HMS) development. The proposed methodology can reduce the cost and time involved at this stage by producing precise and accurate plans, specification requirements, and a design for HMS information systems. The dynamic activities, working mechanism of each holon, and relationships among holons are modeled using the Agent Unified Modeling Language (AUML) with Multi Agent Systems (MAS) approach. An experimental case study has been carried out in a firm in the the casting industry in order to demonstrate the features and the potential industrial application of presented methodology. Copyright © 2008 by ASME.