Agent-Based Substrate Process Control for Smart Factory Autonomy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current substrate manufacturing processes lack a mechanism to autonomously handle events in physical spaces, hindering the realization of a Smart Factory by not making substrate processing devices fully autonomous.
Innovation Solution
A management system with agent units that monitor substrate processing devices and detect events, using a transmission path to transmit and receive information between units, allowing the derivation of instructions to optimize substrate manufacturing process index values.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If substrate processing devices are made autonomous with agent units and transmission paths, then the extent of automation is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The management system is segmented into multiple independent agent units, each responsible for specific substrate processing devices or process steps. Each agent unit operates autonomously to monitor states, detect events, and generate instructions, reducing the complexity burden on any single component while collectively achieving high-level automation.
Solution Approach 2:
Agent units serve as intermediary components between substrate processing devices and the central management system. These intermediaries handle local monitoring, event detection, and instruction generation, thereby distributing system complexity across multiple intelligent agents rather than concentrating it in a single centralized controller.
2Productivity
If agent units monitor and detect events in real-time, then the productivity is improved, but the use of energy increases
Solution Approach 1:
Agent units perform monitoring and event detection through periodic sampling of device states rather than continuous monitoring. This periodic action maintains real-time awareness of process conditions and enables timely productivity improvements while significantly reducing energy consumption compared to continuous monitoring approaches.
Data Source
AI summary
A management system for managing a substrate manufacturing process includes agent units configured to monitor a state of a substrate processing device that performs the substrate manufacturing process and detect a predetermined event, and transmission paths configured to, when a predetermined event is detected in any one of the agent units, transmit and receive information between the agent units based on the detected event, wherein the one agent unit derives an instruction to the substrate processing device based on the information transmitted and received via the transmission paths so that an index value of the substrate manufacturing process is optimized.