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Intelligent systems are required to perform increasingly complicated tasks and interact with a variety of complex systems more often today than in the past. As systems become more complicated, the integration challenges become more demanding. Large, complicated intelligent systems are generally composed of smaller components of lesser complexity. These smaller components are integrated into the larger system to perform specific tasks. The key components of current manufacturing environments consist of such diverse elements as production machinery, communications hardware and software, sensors, computer, databases, file systems, operator interfaces, and production management software. In order to fully automate such manufacturing systems, these components must be able to work together in an integrated way to provide satisfactory product quality at a reasonable price. This paper discusses the development of an information architecture using an `agent-based' approach to put systems together fast, better, and cheaper that are connected to a network whether local or remote. This approach utilizes standardization of communication protocols and subsystem interfaces to allow maximum flexibility on the part of the computer modelers. Modeling resources are integrated together through the use of communication interfaces. Software drivers (translators) translate generic commands and information into the special instructions required by each software agent. Also significantly important is the ability to seamlessly merge the simulation environment with the real environment. This is accomplished by defining interfaces to allow the virtual models to communicate in the same manner as the hardware modules. Several intelligent systems consisting of robots, sensors, operator interfaces and input devices have been successfully configured and integrated via networks using this approach.
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