Ontology-based communication for the decentralized material flow control of a conveyor facility

Decentralized material flow control is a promising idea to deal with the growing complexity of modern material handling systems. The following paper introduces an ontology-based model for the description of information needed for communication among software agents in distributed material flow control systems. The presented basic ontology was developed by a group of experts from research and industry and holds the most important concepts, which can be easily customized for specific application purposes. The application of the proposed communication ontology is shown in a real-world example.