Agent-based manufacturing control based on distributed bid selection and publish-subscribe messaging : a simulation case study

Bidding-based negotiation schemes play a major role in multi-agent manufacturing systems research. Despite some concerns with message congestion, researchers have been proposing and studying negotiation schemes based on the contract net protocol (CNP). On the other hand, research in robotics has considered a variant of CNP based on publish-subscribe messaging designed for multi-robot coordination. A distinct feature of this variant involves distributing the bid evaluation and selection functions among robot agents. This paper discusses our adaptation of this design variant for multi-agent manufacturing systems and examines its performance implications. Using discrete-event simulation, we study how the adapted CNP design can help address the message congestion problem by cutting down on negotiation slack time. Our case study results show that it can enhance the resilience of the agent negotiation process to message congestion, thereby contributing to the overall performance of a multi-agent manufacturing system.