Aligning decision support with shop floor operations: a proposal of intelligent product based on BDI physical agents

Multi-agent system (MAS) models have the drawback of an excessive dependence on up-to-date field information and on complex interaction protocols. This work proposes a theoretical and experimental agent-based decision support system (DSS) architecture that is designed and developed to align shop floor operations, but including the radio frequency identification (RFID) information feedback. This product-driven MAS has been structured on a split organization model to enforce the idea of division between physical elements and information and communication technology. The proposed MAS framework, called MAS-DUO, has been tested at the ground-handling operations at the Ciudad Real Central Airport and in a simulated logistics centre at the Autolog Labs-UCLM. This paper introduces the beliefs–desires–intentions (BDI) physical agents of this framework as the core of this new approach, a new vision that mixes BDI reasoning, RFID and the Markov decision process.