Although the agent technology has been with us some decades now, its acceptance in industry is still limited. As such, we conducted a survey and investigated the main factors that impact it. Thus, key industrial agent aspects are investigated-i.e., design, technology, intelligence/algorithms, standardization, hardware, challenges, applications, and cost. The results are analyzed and discussed, confirming that a decision on agent utilization in productive industrial systems is a complex undertaking, and there are still many issues to be resolved in order to lead to a wider acceptance of industrial agents.
