  The increasing demand for flexibility of automated production systems also
affects the automated material flow systems (aMFS) they contain and demands
reconfigurable systems. However, the centralized control concept usually
applied in aMFS hinders an easy adaptation, as the entire control software has
to be re-tested, when manually changing sub-parts of the control. As adaption
and subsequent testing are a time-consuming task, concepts for splitting the
control from one centralized to multiple, decentralized control nodes are
required. Therefore, this paper presents a holistic agent-based control concept
for aMFS, whereby the system is divided into so-called automated material flow
modules (aMFM), each being controlled by a dedicated module agent. The concept
allows the reconfiguration of aMFS, consisting of heterogeneous, stationary
aMFM, during runtime. Furthermore, it includes aspects such as uniform agent
knowledge bases through metamodel-based development, a communication ontology
considering different information types and properties, strategic route
optimization in decentralized control architecture and a visualization concept
to make decisions of the module agents comprehensible to operators and
maintenance staff. The evaluation of the concept is performed by means of
material flow simulations as well as a prototypical implementation on a
lab-sized demonstrator.
