IceHMS, a middleware for distributed control of manufacturing systems

Abstract

This paper presents a new middleware, dubbed IceHMS specifically designed to support the development of distributed manufacturing control systems requiring flexibility. IceHMS has been used in several research applications in the field of flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing which are documented in dedicated scientific papers. This paper focuses on the description of the IceHMS middelware. IceHMS distinguishes itself from mainstream multi-agent platforms by its design for distributed applications and in its cross-programming language and cross-OS (operating system) support. IceHMS is a thin, non-intrusive multi-agent layer running over a proven communication engine, the Internet Communication Engine (Ice™ ) by ZeroC Inc. The code of IceHMS is open-source and is freely available. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.