Application of Multi-Agent Systems in Welding Flexible Manufacturing System

An important trend of the welding manufacturing is the welding flexible manufacturing system(WFMS).It is inefficient to control this sort of systems by traditional theory and technology of cybernetics with a single mathematic model.The theory and technology of multi-agent systems(MAS) has been applied to the flexible manufacturing system.Because of the internal distribution of time,space and function in WFMS,and the internal comparability between WFMS and MAS,MAS has become one of the best control strategy in WFMS.In this paper we discuss the conception,characteristics and the system frame of the MAS in details.By analysis of the WFMS structure and the characteristics of welding manufacturing techhique,we discuss the internal relationship between WFMS and MAS and feasibility of MAS application in WFMS.