Interactive, agent based, modeling and simulation of virtual manufacturing assemblies

Abstract

The application of agent-based approaches to developing interactive, virtual environments for manufacturing assembly processes is explored and demonstrated in this paper. The overall research focus is on the investigation and integration of appropriate behavior specification mechanisms with virtual reality to build interactive virtual environments for dynamic online simulation based design of manufacturing systems, with the intent of designing intelligent and robust manufacturing control software. Specifically the design of virtual environments using an agent-based design framework, taking into account risks and uncertainties, while embedding domain-specific intelligence about system failures and breakdowns, is investigated.