A Secure Multi-Agent-Based Decision Model Using a Consensus Mechanism for Intelligent Manufacturing Tasks

Multi-agent systems (MAS) have gained a lot of interest recently, due to their ability to solve problems that are difficult or even impossible for an individual agent. However, an important procedure that needs attention in designing multi-agent systems, and consequently applications that utilize MAS, is achieving a fair agreement between the involved agents. Researchers try to prevent agreement manipulation by utilizing decentralized control and strategic voting. Moreover, emphasis is given to local decision-making and perception of events occurring locally. This manuscript presents a novel secure decision-support algorithm in a multi-agent system that aims to ensure the system’s robustness and credibility. The proposed consensus-based model can be applied to production planning and control, supply chain management, and product design and development. The algorithm considers an open system i.e., the number of agents present can be variable in each procedure. While a group of agents can make different decisions during a task, the algorithm chooses one of these decisions in a way that is logical, safe, efficient, fast and is not influenced by factors that might affect production.