Empowering Agents with Empathy – a Conceptual Framework for Enhancing Agent-Based Self-Organizing Production

This paper introduces a conceptual framework for empathy-inspired self-organizing production systems to address the increasing complexity in manufacturing under VUCA and BANI conditions. By integrating the bio-inspired mechanism of empathy, the framework enhances adaptive capabilities of multi-agent systems, enabling agents to handle incomplete data, align local decisions with global objectives, and foster cooperative behavior. The 3E principle – empathetic perception, reasoning, and decision-making – is operationalized for enhancing agent properties. This approach aims to overcome current challenges in self-organizing production, providing a foundation for future innovations in resilient, efficient, and adaptive manufacturing systems while bridging the gap between theory and industrial application.