Distributed tool sharing in flexible manufacturing systems

We present a distributed approach to tool management in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). Tool sharing among cells in FMS enables greater utilization of tool resources, but requires greater coordination of tool use by different cells, especially when tooling requirements change unexpectedly. We discuss how concepts from distributed artificial intelligence, such as negotiation, can provide solution methods. In particular, we propose polite methods by which an agent can solve such a problem through negotiation with other agents. We present simulation results for a tool scheduling problem in which polite tool sharing is used for handling unexpected "rush" jobs.