Agent- and CORBA-based application integration platform for an agile manufacturing environment

A new application integration platform for an agile manufacturing environment is presented, which is based on agent and common request broker architecture (CORBA). CORBA enhances the system integration because it is an industry-standard for interoperable, distributed objects across heterogeneous hardware and software platforms. Agent technology is used to improve the intelligence of the integration system. The platform is open, distributed, and modular to enable the user to adapt its content to his requirements. This application integration platform supports the goals of agile manufacturing: rapid response to changing requirements, reduction in both time and cost of the product realisation process, and integration within a heterogeneous, wide-area-networked enterprise. In order to implement the application integration platform, we use a network integration server to integrate the network, design a generic database agent to integrate database, adopt a multi-agent based architecture to integrate application, and utilise a wrapper as a CORBA object to integrate the legacy code. Finally, a prototype framework is presented.