A multi-agent approach for processing industrial enterprise data

The C2NET project aims to provide cloud-based platform for the supply chain interactions. The architecture of such platform includes a Data Collection Framework (DCF) for managing the collection of the company's data. The DCF collects, transforms and stores data from both Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the factory shopfloor and company enterprises data via two types of hub; Legacy system hub (LSH) and IoT hub. Since the C2NET, targets the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), the enterprise data, or legacy data as called in the C2NET project, can be provided via excel files. Thus, this research work highlights a technique for processing the excel files in the LSHs. This technique adopts the concept of Multi-Agent Systems for processing the data as table in the excel files in the LSH. The multi-agent approach allows the LSH to process any excel file regardless the complexity in the data structure or in the file table. Furthermore, the presented approach enhances the processing of the excel files in different aspects, such as the size of the excel file or the required processing power.