Presentor: Weiming SHEN
Fellow of IEEE, EIC, AAIA, Member of Canadian Academy of Engineering
Dean and Chair Professor at School of Smart Manufacturing and Future Technology
Fuyao University of Science and Technology, Fuzhou, China.
Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China
Abstract:
This talk discusses the evolution of the agent concept in the context of intelligent manufacturing, tracing its trajectory from distributed artificial intelligence (DAI agent) and reinforcement learning (RL agent) to the recent emergence of large language models (AI agent). We distinguish between rule-driven DAI agents, learning-driven RL agents, and large language model based AI agents, clarifying their distinct architectures and functionalities to address current conceptual confusion. We envision future intelligent manufacturing systems as being based on hybrid multi-agent architectures, which integrate the structural coordination of DAI agents, the adaptability of RL agents, and the reasoning capabilities of AI agents, enabling stronger autonomy, responsiveness, and cognitive capabilities.
Biography:
Dr. Weiming Shen is a Chair Professor at Fuyao University of Science and Technology (FYUST) and a Professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). He worked for about 20 years at National Research Council Canada as Research Officer, Senior Research Officer, and Principal Research Officer. He is a Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering, Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC), and Fellow of Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA). He is an internationally-recognized expert on Agent-Based Collaborative Technologies and Applications, particularly in intelligent manufacturing. He has published several books and over 700 papers in scientific journals and international conferences in the related areas. His work has been cited about 30,000 times with an h-index of 85. He is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of IET Collaborative Intelligent Manufacturing, an Associate Editor or Editorial Board Member of over ten international journals and served as guest editor for several other international journals. He is a Vice-Chair of the Academic Committee of International Coalition of Intelligent Manufacturing, a Co-Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD), has been Program Committee Co-Chair of the CSCWD conferences since 2001, and served as General Chair/Co-Chair or Program Committee Chair/Co-Chair for over 50 international conferences.
