Currency-based Iterative Multi-Agent Bidding Mechanism Based on Genetic Algorithm

This paper introduces a multi-agent system which i nt egrates process planning and production scheduling, in order to increase the fle xibility of manufacturing systems in coping with rapid changes in dynamic market and dealing with internal uncertainties such as machine breakdown or resources shortage. This system consists of various autonomous agents, each of which has t he capability of communicating with one another and making decisions based on it s knowledge and if necessary on information provided by other agents. Machine ag ents which represent the machines play an important role in the system in that t hey negotiate with each other to bid for jobs. An iterative bidding mechanism is proposed to facilitate the process of job assignment to machines and handle the negotiation between agents. This mechanism enables near optimal process plans a nd production schedules to be produced concurrently, so that dynamic changes in the market can be coped with at a minimum cost, and the utilisation of manufactu ring resources can be optimised. In addition, a currency scheme with currency-l ike metrics is proposed to encourage or prohibit machine agents to put forward t heir bids for the jobs announced. The values of the metrics are adjusted iterati vely so as to obtain an integrated plan and schedule which result in the minimum total production cost while satisfying products due dates. To deal with the optimisation problem, i.e. to what degree and how the currencies should be adj usted in each iteration, a genetic algorithm (GA) is developed. Comparisons are made between GA approach and simulated annealing (SA) optimisation technique.

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF A TYPE OF Al-ALLOY WELD

The mechanical properties of a type of Al-alloy weld including strength, fracture tough-ness and ductility were comprehensively studied at different temperatures. The frac-ture behavior and weld micro features were also characterized. The surface crack test method was adopted to study the fracture toughness and a multiple specimen test ap-paratus was designed to perform the cryogenic experiments. The relationship between the mechanical properties and temperature was obtained together with the fracture toughness distribution in the weld.

Agent-based Modeling and Mapping of Manufacturing System

Considering the gent-based modeling and mapping in m anufacturing system, in this paper, some system models are described, which are including: Domain Based Hierarchical Structure (DBHS), Cascading Agent Struc ture (CAS), Proximity Relation structure (PRS), and Bus-based network structure (BNS). In DBHS, one sort of agent individually delegates Domain Agents, Res ources Agents, UserInterface Agents and Gateway Agents and the other one is a br oker of tasks and process flow. Static agents representing a subsystem may itsel f be an agent network and should learn as the mobile agents to deal with new sit uation. Mobile agents move around the network domains taking advantage of th e resources to fulfill their goals. In CAS, we use Unified Modelling Language (U ML) to build up the agent-based manufacturing system It is said Enterprise agen t (main agent) has factory agents together with some directly jurisdictional wor kshop agents, cell agents, and individual resource agents. Likewise, factory age nt has workshop agents together with some directly jurisdictional cell agents an d individual resource agents, and so on. In PRS, the resources agents are locate d together by it function and abilities. There is only one agent acts as the tas k-announcer. The communication just occurs among the Proximity Relational agent s. In BNS, It is very similar with the society of human being connected with a n etwork, some agents, such as ’cost calculating’, are just cope with the matter- of-fact job. And some agents run as the individual resources which can negotiat e with each other and advertise a necessary message within the whole domain or g iven group of agents. The administration just relies on the individual addre ss of agents and the group ID code of agents.

INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF TEMPERATURES ONTENSILE LOAD DROPS OF TITANIUM ALLOY

Low temperature may greatly affect the mechanical properties of materials. Some in-teresting mechanical phenomena were detected at very low temperature. In this study,a multi-sample tensile installation was designed to study the plastic deformation be-havior for Ti-5Al-2.5Sn extra-low-interstitial (ELI) alloy at liquid helium temperature.The special geometrical instability phenomena in low temperature, serrated deforma-tion and multi necking, was studied in detail in this project. Slip and twinning were determined in the process of plastic fiow by SEM/TEM analysis. Efficts of temper-ature and sequential straining on load drops in tensile stress-strain curves were also studied. Optical measurement method was used to gauge the geometrical characteristic of multi-necking specimens. The sensitivity of partial thermoplastic deformation and the equivalency of low tempemture with high velocity of this material were studied by using micro-mechanics analysis.The criterion of geometrical instability has been discussed. A computer simulation of the low temperature instability of plastic fiow in Ti-5Al-2.5Sn ELI alloy has been carried out. A computer model has been established which links the hot dtffusion and the plastic fiow of hcp alloys under assumption that the tempemture is homogeneous within the specimen and that the heat exchange with the thermal bath is the control-ling step in the heat release. The computer simulation of the deformation curves as a function of several mechanincal, geometrical and thermal parameters provides a re-alistic description of the experiments. The experimental data available are discnssed in the light of the computer simulation model.

A Framework to Support Agility Strategy Formulation

In the last decade, turbulent times and uncertainti es in the business environment have made ground for a new business era, and "chang e" has become a major characteristic of the new era. This has resulted in tirele ss evolution of business systems and the creation of new manufacturing and manag ement philosophies. Agile Manufacturing (AM) is a step forward in generation of new means for better performance and success of business, and in practice is a s trategic approach to manufacturing by considering the new conditions of the business environment. This paper discusses the concepts and development of a met hodology to achieve agility in manufacturing organisations. Following an introdu ction of the subject of agility, a discussion of the methodology and practical t ools to support the implementation of the methodology, including metrics for the assessment of agility drivers, capability and performance are given. Aspects of the tools are tested in an aerospace company.