Birgit Vogel-Heuser

Due to the increase in Artificial Intelligence in the production systems domain, Industry 4.0 (I4.0) experts must collaborate with autonomous systems. Industrial AI raises several concerns about existing standards, which provide guidelines and design patterns. One way to realize I4.0 systems are Industrial Agents (IAs) due to their inherent autonomy and collaboration. Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) are well suited for realizing distributed AI in I4.0 components. Considering the properties of IAs and existing standards, an MAS architecture is presented for flexible and intelligent Cyber-Physical Production Systems. The article compares I4.0 standardization efforts relevant to adapt AI in the form of IAs, illustrates how IA design patterns can be used, and introduces the Multi-Agent aRchitecture for Industrial Automation applying desigN patterNs practicEs “MARIANNE”. An implementation guideline is presented to put this CPPS into practice.