Application of Agent Technology

1
Application of Agent Technology

• Dr. Thomas E. Potok
• Collaborative Technologies Research Center
• Computer Science and Mathematics Division
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Lockheed Martin Energy Research

2
Collaborative Technologies Research Center (CTRC)

• Computer Science and Mathematics Division
• Pioneering research in
• Agent technology
• Information integration
• Cluster analysis
• Software engineering
• We have successfully developed systems for
  Lockheed Martin, the Department of Energy, and
  the Defense Logistics Agency.
• Approach
• Small Entrepreneurial team of researchers and
  software developers
• Broad range of collaborators, including
• LM, DLA, DOE, University of Tenn, NIST, CMU,
  NCSU, NTRC

3
Key Projects

• SURGE - Supplier Utilization through Responsive
  Grouped Enterprises
• DLA funded to drastically reduce cost/delivery
  time for military spares
• Software agents and grouping technology used to
  define part families
• MABES - Manufacturing Agent Based Emulation
  System
• LMTAS to rapidly model fundamental changes to
  manufacturing systems
• Software agents to analyze the impact of changes
  to manufacturing lines
• CME - Collaborative Management Environment
• DOE funded to provide significant improvement in
  research funding
• Information integration used to gather, search
  over, and report on heterogeneous information
  from a number of national laboratories

4
Future Technology Trend
AGENTS
Internet
Telephone
Face to Face
5
Successful Projects
Supply Chain Management Agent System

• We have extensive expertise in agent development
• Began working with agent technologies in 1980s

Manufacturing Emulation Agent System
Collaborative Decision Support System
Neural Nets for Recovery Boiler Control
Neural Nets for Bankruptcy Prediction
Neural Nets for Spring-back Prediction
Collaborative Design System
Neural Nets for Resistance. Spot Welding
Neural Nets for Material Mix Optimization
Genetic Algorithms for Chemical Synthesis

• Over 10 successful projects within the last 5
  years
• Collaborations with leading agent experts

Knowledge-based Systems - Manufacturing Advisors
Knowledge-based Systems for Constructability
Design and Analysis of Computer Experiments
Knowledge-based Computer Systems Calibration
1985
1990
1995
2000
6
Recent Accomplishments

• Guest researcher at NIST for standardization of
  agent frameworks
• Delivered a multi-agent part grouping system for
  DLA
• Press Release Lockheed Martin Completes First
  Phase in Applying 'Agent-Based' Software to JSF
• Papers and Presentations
• Invited presentation to MITs Lean Aerospace
  Initiative Forum
• An invited paper to the IEEE Internet Computing
  Journal
• Presented two multi-agent papers at the ISAS'99
  conference
• Paper accepted by International Journal of
  Flexible Automation and Integrated Manufacturing.
• Paper accepted by Flexible Automation and
  Intelligent Manufacturing Conference

7
What are Agents?
...Software entities that assist people and act
on their behalf ...Software robots
Proactive detect changes in their environment and
react to those in a timely manner by answering
to events and initiating actions
Traditional Software Object
Goal-driven have a purpose and act in accordance
with that purpose until it is fulfilled
Behavior
State
Agent Technology
Communicative able to interact and communicate
with users and other agents
Autonomous can have control over their own
actions and be able to work and launch actions
independent of the user or other actors
Learning have the ability to learn from
experiences in their environment
8
Simple Agent Example
Agent, find me the book War and Peace, and I
need it tomorrow
Amazon
2 Days 18.50
Barnes and Nobel
1 Day 21.75
Borders
NA
...
Does the agent understand buying books?
Form a plan to buy the book
Execute the plan
Order the book
B. Dalton
1 Day 20.25
Learn for next time
9
SURGE/MABES
10
Process Overview
Projected or Actual Parts Need
Group Parts
Form Lean Cells
Optimize Cells
11
SURGE Grouping Agents
Part Families
Agent Group Themselves
Agent Mediator
Parts represented by Agents
12
Results on C-130 Parts
Input Data
Grouping Results
Group 1
Group 5
Group 2
Group 4
Group 3
13
C130 Grouping Results
Why two groups?
Common Processes
Group 3 Processes
Group 5 Processes
Why are extrusions spread over two groups?
14
Results
Cell 1
Group 2
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Cell 2
Group 1
Group 3
Cell 3
Wire Harness Data forms 3 groups
Possible cell layout
15
SURGE 1st Phase Results

• Investment
• Initial investment 3.3M
• Agent investment 812K of the 3.3M
• 1st phase duration of 9 months
• Return
• 7,832 of 130K spare parts grouped, 4400 Parts
  Bid
• 7.0M savings in Inventory Reduction (30)
• 5.8M Savings in reduced pricing (23)
• 58 Reduction in lead times (from 220 to 93 days)
• Total
• 12.8M in savings
• Significant reduction in lead times

Total Savings
Agent Investment

16
Structured Text Application for DOE
Groups by Program Managers
Natural groups
17
MABES Analytic Model
Minimization
Manufacturing Rules
Throughput
At 17 Planes Per month - Machine utilization
85 - Cost is 65M - Span time is 48 Days
Activity Metrics
Process Metrics
18
MABES Dynamic Model

Queues and Task Centers

• Identify
• Bottlenecks
• Network Sensitivity
• Outages

Pull/Push/Takt Animation
19
Visibility into the Supply Chain
Manufacturing Operations
Theater Operations
Supply Chain
PARTNER
SUPPLIER
SUPPLIER
SISTER DIVISION
3rd TIER SUPPLIER
2nd TIER SUPPLIER
PARTNER
FABRICATION - SUBASSEMBLY - FINAL - DELIVERY
1st TIER SUPPLIER
How does a problem here affect operations here
20
SURGE/MABES Summary

• An advanced logistics optimization system
• Significant research breakthroughs in clustering
  technology
• Provides significant savings and lead-time
  reductions to DLA

21
The Collaborative Management Environment
Ames Lab Berkeley Lab Fermi Lab Los Alamos
Lab Sandia Lab Livermore Lab Oak Ridge Lab
Database Management Human Computer
Interaction Meta-modeling Languages Object-oriente
d Technologies Scalable Algorithms Security
Collaborative Management Environment
Information Integration XML
Software Engineering
22
Current situation

• Problem
• Field Work Proposals (FWPs) submitted to DOE are
  in paper books
• Weeks and thousands of dollars are spend in
  collating, copying, binding, and shipping these
  books
• The books provide very limited query and search
  capability
• Approach
• Developed an FWP ontology for several national
  laboratories
• Pioneered use of the Extended Markup Language
  (XML) as a means of storing, querying, and
  presenting FWP information.
• Simple data storage technology
• Very low costs to the labs, integration work done
  by CME team
• Very well received article at XML98, InForum99,
  InterLab99.

23
Sample FWP
24
Same XML Data Type Definition
Tag Definitions
Tagged Document
25
CME System
26
CME Summary

• One common picture to DOE
• Integrated, collaborative, and distributed
  information in a secure web-based environment
• Innovation
• Use of Extended Markup Language (XML) for
  low-cost information integration
• Staged Schema migration CME information model
• DOE evaluating CME to be a corporate system

27
Summary

• We have expertise and experience with developing
• Advanced agent-based systems
• Collaborative decision support systems
• We are pioneering in agent and information
  integration technologies
• Proven track record of success