Abstract
The multi-agent systems technology is a proper approach to implement distributed manufacturing systems exhibiting adaptation and flexibility. This paper proposes a multi-agent based solution for the adaptation of the functional test plan in a production line producing washing machines, aiming to increase the process productivity and product quality. The global adaptation mechanism is embedded on the multi-agent system infrastructure, allowing the optimized selection of tests based on the correlation of the quality data gathered along the production line. The proposed approach was developed and installed on a real production line producing washing machines under the European Seventh Framework Programme GRACE project.

Abstract
Benchmarking is comparing the output of different systems for a given set of input data in order to improve the system's performance. Faced with the lack of realistic and operational benchmarks that can be used for testing optimization methods and control systems in flexible systems, this paper proposes a benchmark system based on a real production cell. A three-step method is presented: data preparation, experimentation, and reporting. This benchmark allows the evaluation of static optimization performances using traditional operation research tools and the evaluation of control system's robustness faced with unexpected events.

Abstract
The intention of this paper is to provide an overview of using agent and service-oriented technologies in intelligent energy systems. It focuses mainly on ongoing research and development activities related to smart grids. Key challenges as a result of the massive deployment of distributed energy resources are discussed, such as aggregation, supply-demand balancing, electricity markets, as well as fault handling and diagnostics. Concepts and technologies like multiagent systems or service-oriented architectures are able to deal with future requirements supporting a flexible, intelligent, and active power grid management. This work monitors major achievements in the field and provides a brief overview of large-scale smart grid projects using agent and service-oriented principles. In addition, future trends in the digitalization of power grids are discussed covering the deployment of resource constrained devices and appropriate communication protocols. The employment of ontologies ensuring semantic interoperability as well as the improvement of security issues related to smart grids is also discussed.

Abstract
Scheduling plays an important role in the companies' competiveness, dealing with complex combinatorial problems subject to uncertainty and emergence. In particular, in the ramp-up phase of small lot-sizes of complex products, scheduling is more demanding, e.g. due to late requests and immature technology products and processes. This paper presents the principles of a distributed scheduling architecture based on holonic and swarm principles and implemented using multi-agent system technology. In particular, it is described the coordination among the network of the swarm of schedulers and analysed the impact of embedded self-organization mechanisms.

Abstract
Manufacturing companies are being pushed to their limits due to an increase of production complexity guided by a growing standards demand by the costumers. To respond properly to this, manufacturing companies must adopt innovative control architectures that are able to handle better the occurrence of disturbances at shop-floor level (e.g. workstation breakdown, orders cancellation or modification). Additionally, the selection of a proper scheduling algorithms assumes a crucial point, in the sense that the increase of optimization levels depend on this. This paper presents a Genetic Algorithm (GA) based technique to be embedded into the supervisor entity present at the ADACOR(2) aiming to improve the existing fast and non-optimal scheduling technique, improving the overall system processing execution. The main requirements of the GA is to be fast enough to be usable in demanding environments improving the optimization output. The proposed algorithm is tested using a Flexible Manufacturing System using different configurations of transportation and batch sizes. Results show that despite the presented GA technique increased the optimization calculation time it performs better considering the sum of this time with the gain in the optimization output.

Abstract
Multi-agent systems can play an important role in the realization of cyber-physical systems by providing intelligence, flexibility, robustness, self-adaptation, and self-organization to them. In spite of the promising perspective offered and concretized by the deployment of multi-agent systems in a few industrial systems and in several laboratory applications, its industrial adoption is far from the expected widely usage. Beside other issues, standardization is being identified as a critical aspect for this status and requires the need to be compliant with existing industrial practices but also a special effort to influence the specifications of existing standards and/or the introduction of new ones. The main objective of this paper is to analyze necessary standardization needs for applying and deploying agent-based technology in industrial environments, addressing industrial requirements imposed by different application fields.