MAS and SOA: A Case Study Exploring Principles and Technologies to Support Self-Properties in Assembly Systems

Holonic assembly systems require intelligent and distributed IT support. Traditionally this has been achieved through the use of multiagent systems (MAS). Recently a significant research effort has been invested in applying service oriented architectures (SOA) in automation domains. MAS and SOA are often perceived has competing concepts and technologies. In this application oriented paper an informal comparative analysis between MAS and SOA, derived from the authors' experience, is presented with the goal of unveiling their strengths and weaknesses in supporting self-properties. A case study demonstrating self monitoring/diagnosis/healing in the assembly domain illustrates a first approach to merging the best of both worlds in a lightweight infrastructure that can be ported to embedded devices, following the trend that advocates the use of pervasive computing materialized in tiny devices for automation.