A multi-agent-based negotiation approach for parallel machine scheduling with multi-objectives in an electro-etching process

Electro-etching is a critical process in producing aluminium foil, and it always involves many parallel machines with three distinct voltages. Therefore, production scheduling involves these parallel machines and their eligibility. In this paper, an agent-based negotiation approach is proposed to develop a distributed parallel machine scheduling application in this manufacturing environment. The agent-based system consists of types of agent, i.e. job agents, machine agents and management agents, to represent jobs, machines and supervisors, respectively. To establish job allocations, job agents and machine agents have to bid interactively. Negotiation protocol and bid decision models are developed for negotiations between job agents and machine agents. The management agent plays a centralised controller and system coordinator role. The main function of the management agent is to manage the negotiation process between job agents and machine agents to ensure that the global objectives of the system, such as ...