Background
Type:

Facility layout design using virtual multi-agent system

Journal: Journal Of Intelligent Manufacturing (15728145)Year: August 2009Volume: 20Issue: Pages: 347 - 357
Tarkesh, HamedAtighechian A.a Nookabadi A.S.
DOI:10.1007/s10845-008-0109-1Language: English

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to the facility layout design problem based on multi-agent society where agents' interactions form the facility layout design. Each agent corresponds to a facility with inherent characteristics, emotions, and a certain amount of money, forming its utility function. An agent's money is adjusted during the learning period by a manager agent while each agent tries to tune the parameters of its utility function in such a way that its total layout cost can be minimized in competition with others. The agents' interactions are formed based on market mechanism. In each step, an unoccupied location is presented to all applicant agents, for which each agent proposes a price proportionate to its utility function. The agent proposing a higher price is selected as the winner and assigned to that location by an appropriate space-filling curve. The proposed method utilizes the fuzzy theory to establish each agent's utility function. In addition, it provides a simulation environment using an evolutionary algorithm to form different interactions among the agents and makes it possible for them to experience various strategies. The experimental results show that the proposed approach achieves a lower total layout cost compared with state of the art methods. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.


Author Keywords

Evolutionary algorithmsFacilities layout designMulti emotional-agent systems

Other Keywords

CostsDesignEvolutionary algorithmsPlant layoutFacilities layout designFacility layout designFuzzy theoryMarket mechanismsMulti agent societyMulti emotional-agent systemsSimulation environmentSpace-filling curveState-of-the-art methodsTotal layout costsUtility functionsMulti agent systems