Methods for an autonomous robotic manufacturing network

An automated manufacturing supply chain planning service comprises manufacturing facilities 140, which may be robotic or human, and transport agents 150 (e.g. aerial, rail, road, water or tubular transport systems), a product specification being received and the service compiling an optimised manufacturing plan based on the specification and the capabilities of the manufacturing facilities. The facilities and transport agents are registered with the system and checked for compatibility. The manufacturing plan may include vehicle route plans to optimize conveyance of materials and/or products and manage whole fleets. The service may also include peer-to-peer contract agreements, real-time payment facilities and generation of authentication certificates. The facilities and transport agents may be grouped into local clusters connected by long distance transport agents. A communication network analogous to the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model used in computing allows standardized communication between networks. Thus manufacturing can be done on a pull model instead of the traditional push model.