Design choices for agent-based control of AGVs in the dough making process

We consider a multi-agent system for the logistics control of Automatic Guided Vehicles that are used in the dough making process at an industrial bakery. Here, logistics control refers to constructing robust schedules for transportation jobs. We discuss how alternative MAS designs can be developed and compared. Qualitative design guidelines turn out to be insufficient to select the best agent architecture. Therefore, we also use simulation to support decision making, where we use real-life data from the bakery to evaluate alternative designs. We show that depending on the degree of dynamism and objectives of the bakery, different architectures are preferred.