The Design of an Intelligent

This paper presents a framework for the design of the planning and controlling components in a exible manufacturing system. A hierarchical planning structure is presented which consists of six layers: the layer of the production planning and control system, the layer of the shop oor control system, the task coordination layer, the task planning layer, the task execution layer and the machine control layer. The last four layers mentioned are present separately for each manufacturing device which is able to execute tasks autonomously. For the abstract system which consists of the task coordination component, the task planner, the task execution component , the machine control component, and the exible manufacturing device itself the term autonomous system is introduced. Special emphasis is placed on the description of the shop oor control system, the task coordination and the task planning layer. The implementation of the planning and controlling components of the hierarchical planning structure was done for the example of the model of a manufacturing plant 4, 7] using the rule-based multi-agent system MAGSY 8, 6].