research-article

Decentralized control of automatic guided vehicles: applying multi-agent systems in practice

Authors:

Kurt Schelfthout,

Jan WielemansAuthors Info & Claims

OOPSLA Companion '08: Companion to the 23rd ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming systems languages and applications

Pages 663 - 674

https://doi.org/10.1145/1449814.1449819

Published: 19 October 2008 Publication History

Abstract

An automatic guided vehicle (AGV) transportation system is a fully automated system that provides logistic services in an industrial environment such as a warehouse or a factory. Traditionally, the AGVs that execute the transportation tasks are controlled by a central server via wireless communication. In a joint effort between Egemin, an industrial manufacturer of AGV transportation systems, and DistriNet Labs research at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, we developed an innovative decentralized architecture for controlling AGVs. The driving motivations behind decentralizing the control of AGVs were new and future quality requirements such as flexibility and openness. At the software architectural level, the AGV control system is structured as a multi-agent system; the detailed design and implementation is object-oriented. In this paper, we report our experiences with developing the agent-based control system for AGVs. Starting from system requirements, we give an overview of the software architecture and we zoom in on a number of concrete functionalities. We reflect on our experiences and report lessons learned from applying multi-agent systems for real-world AGV control.

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Cited By

de Curtò Jde Zarzà ICano JManzoni PCalafate C(2023)Adaptive Truck Platooning with Drones: A Decentralized Approach for Highway MonitoringElectronics10.3390/electronics1224491312:24(4913)Online publication date: 6-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12244913
Langford MChan KFleck JMcKinley PCheng B(2023)MoDALAS: addressing assurance for learning-enabled autonomous systems in the face of uncertaintySoftware and Systems Modeling10.1007/s10270-023-01090-922:5(1543-1563)Online publication date: 18-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-023-01090-9
Langford MChan KFleck JMcKinley PCheng B(2021)MoDALAS: Model-Driven Assurance for Learning-Enabled Autonomous Systems2021 ACM/IEEE 24th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS)10.1109/MODELS50736.2021.00027(182-193)Online publication date: Oct-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/MODELS50736.2021.00027
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Index Terms

Decentralized control of automatic guided vehicles: applying multi-agent systems in practice
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Artificial intelligence
    1. Distributed artificial intelligence
      1. Multi-agent systems
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. General programming languages
      1. Language features
        Patterns
  2. Software organization and properties
    1. Software system structures
      1. Distributed systems organizing principles
        Client-server architectures
      2. Software architectures

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cover image ACM Conferences

OOPSLA Companion '08: Companion to the 23rd ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object-oriented programming systems languages and applications

October 2008

306 pages

ISBN:9781605582207

DOI:10.1145/1449814

General Chair:
Gail E. Harris
Instantiated Software Inc.

Copyright © 2008 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 19 October 2008

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OOPSLA08: ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications

October 19 - 23, 2008

TN, Nashville, USA

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Cited By

de Curtò Jde Zarzà ICano JManzoni PCalafate C(2023)Adaptive Truck Platooning with Drones: A Decentralized Approach for Highway MonitoringElectronics10.3390/electronics1224491312:24(4913)Online publication date: 6-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12244913
Langford MChan KFleck JMcKinley PCheng B(2023)MoDALAS: addressing assurance for learning-enabled autonomous systems in the face of uncertaintySoftware and Systems Modeling10.1007/s10270-023-01090-922:5(1543-1563)Online publication date: 18-Mar-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-023-01090-9
Langford MChan KFleck JMcKinley PCheng B(2021)MoDALAS: Model-Driven Assurance for Learning-Enabled Autonomous Systems2021 ACM/IEEE 24th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS)10.1109/MODELS50736.2021.00027(182-193)Online publication date: Oct-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/MODELS50736.2021.00027
Baumgart SFroberg JPunnekkat S(2019)A State-based Extension to STPA for Safety-Critical System-of-Systems2019 4th International Conference on System Reliability and Safety (ICSRS)10.1109/ICSRS48664.2019.8987632(246-254)Online publication date: Nov-2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSRS48664.2019.8987632
Varga L(2019)Dynamic Global Behaviour of Online Routing GamesEngineering Multi-Agent Systems10.1007/978-3-030-25693-7_11(202-221)Online publication date: 14-Jul-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25693-7_11
Jafari ANair JBaumgart SSirjani MHaddad HWainwright RChbeir R(2018)Safe and efficient fleet operation for autonomous machinesProceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing10.1145/3167132.3167382(423-426)Online publication date: 9-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3167132.3167382
Furmans KSeibold ZTrenkle A(2018)Future Technologies in Intralogistics and Material HandlingOperations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management10.1007/978-3-319-92447-2_24(545-574)Online publication date: 30-Aug-2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92447-2_24
González SMondragón IZambrano GHernandez WMontaña H(2017)Manufacturing Control Architecture for FMS with AGV: A State-of-the-ArtAdvances in Automation and Robotics Research in Latin America10.1007/978-3-319-54377-2_14(157-172)Online publication date: 15-Mar-2017
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Kovačić ZButler MLista PVasiljević GDraganjac IMiklić DPetrović TPetric FBostelman RMessina E(2016)Harmonization of Research and Development Activities Toward Standardization in the Automated Warehousing SystemsAutonomous Industrial Vehicles: From the Laboratory to the Factory Floor10.1520/STP159420150050(106-128)Online publication date: 19-May-2016
https://doi.org/10.1520/STP159420150050
Abdenebaoui LKreowski H(2016)Modeling of decentralized processes in dynamic logistic networks by means of graph-transformational swarmsLogistics Research10.1007/s12159-016-0147-69:1Online publication date: 31-Aug-2016
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