A biomimetic approach to distributed maintenance management based on a multi-agent system

The evolution of modern production plants and the rising performance requirements lead to the need for more advanced maintenance systems. In such a context, autonomous Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMSs) are capable of estimating health conditions, and can be used to forecast maintenance needs and optimize maintenance schedules, therefore reducing the overall costs. In this chapter, an overview of the capabilities of IMSs is shown, and in particular a biomimetic maintenance system implemented using multi-agents is provided, in order to better understand the strength and limits of this approach.