151 research outputs found
Spatio-Temporal Context in Agent-Based Meeting Scheduling
Meeting scheduling is a common task for organizations of all sizes. It involves searching for a time and place when and where all the participants can meet. However, scheduling a meeting is generally difficult in that it attempts to satisfy the preferences of all participants. Negotiation tends to be an iterative and time consuming task. Proxy agents can handle the negotiation on behalf of the individuals without sacrificing their privacy or overlooking their preferences. This thesis examines the implications of formalizing meeting scheduling as a spatiotemporal negotiation problem. The “Children in the Rectangular Forest” (CRF) canonical model is applied to meeting scheduling. By formalizing meeting scheduling within the CRF model, a generalized problem emerges that establishes a clear relationship with other spatiotemporal distributed scheduling problems. The thesis also examines the implications of the proposed formalization to meeting scheduling negotiations. A protocol for meeting location selection is presented and evaluated using simulations
Ontologies for the Interoperability of Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems in the scope of Energy and Power Systems
Tesis por compendio de publicaciones[ES]El sector eléctrico, tradicionalmente dirigido por monopolios y poderosas
empresas de servicios públicos, ha experimentado cambios significativos en las
últimas décadas. Los avances más notables son una mayor penetración de las
fuentes de energía renovable (RES por sus siglas en inglés) y la generación
distribuida, que han llevado a la adopción del paradigma de las redes inteligentes
(SG por sus siglas en inglés) y a la introducción de enfoques competitivos en los
mercados de electricidad (EMs por sus siglas en inglés) mayoristas y algunos
minoristas. Las SG emergieron rápidamente de un concepto ampliamente
aceptado en la realidad. La intermitencia de las fuentes de energía renovable y su
integración a gran escala plantea nuevas limitaciones y desafíos que afectan en
gran medida las operaciones de los EMs. El desafiante entorno de los sistemas de
potencia y energía (PES por sus siglas en inglés) refuerza la necesidad de
estudiar, experimentar y validar operaciones e interacciones competitivas,
dinámicas y complejas. En este contexto, la simulación, el apoyo a la toma de
decisiones, y las herramientas de gestión inteligente, se vuelven imprescindibles
para estudiar los diferentes mecanismos del mercado y las relaciones entre los
actores involucrados. Para ello, la nueva generación de herramientas debe ser
capaz de hacer frente a la rápida evolución de los PES, proporcionando a los
participantes los medios adecuados para adaptarse, abordando nuevos modelos
y limitaciones, y su compleja relación con los desarrollos tecnológicos y de
negocios.
Las plataformas basadas en múltiples agentes son particularmente
adecuadas para analizar interacciones complejas en sistemas dinámicos, como
PES, debido a su naturaleza distribuida e independiente. La descomposición de
tareas complejas en asignaciones simples y la fácil inclusión de nuevos datos y
modelos de negocio, restricciones, tipos de actores y operadores, y sus
interacciones, son algunas de las principales ventajas de los enfoques basados en
agentes. En este dominio, han surgido varias herramientas de modelado para
simular, estudiar y resolver problemas de subdominios específicos de PES. Sin
embargo, existe una limitación generalizada referida a la importante falta de
interoperabilidad entre sistemas heterogéneos, que impide abordar el problema
de manera global, considerando todas las interrelaciones relevantes existentes.
Esto es esencial para que los jugadores puedan aprovechar al máximo las
oportunidades en evolución. Por lo tanto, para lograr un marco tan completo aprovechando las herramientas existentes que permiten el estudio de partes
específicas del problema global, se requiere la interoperabilidad entre estos
sistemas.
Las ontologías facilitan la interoperabilidad entre sistemas heterogéneos al
dar un significado semántico a la información intercambiada entre las distintas
partes. La ventaja radica en el hecho de que todos los involucrados en un dominio
particular los conocen, comprenden y están de acuerdo con la conceptualización
allí definida. Existen, en la literatura, varias propuestas para el uso de ontologías
dentro de PES, fomentando su reutilización y extensión. Sin embargo, la mayoría
de las ontologías se centran en un escenario de aplicación específico o en una
abstracción de alto nivel de un subdominio de los PES. Además, existe una
considerable heterogeneidad entre estos modelos, lo que complica su integración
y adopción. Es fundamental desarrollar ontologías que representen distintas
fuentes de conocimiento para facilitar las interacciones entre entidades de
diferente naturaleza, promoviendo la interoperabilidad entre sistemas
heterogéneos basados en agentes que permitan resolver problemas específicos de
PES.
Estas brechas motivan el desarrollo del trabajo de investigación de este
doctorado, que surge para brindar una solución a la interoperabilidad de
sistemas heterogéneos dentro de los PES. Las diversas aportaciones de este
trabajo dan como resultado una sociedad de sistemas multi-agente (MAS por sus
siglas en inglés) para la simulación, estudio, soporte de decisiones, operación y
gestión inteligente de PES. Esta sociedad de MAS aborda los PES desde el EM
mayorista hasta el SG y la eficiencia energética del consumidor, aprovechando
las herramientas de simulación y apoyo a la toma de decisiones existentes,
complementadas con las desarrolladas recientemente, asegurando la
interoperabilidad entre ellas. Utiliza ontologías para la representación del
conocimiento en un vocabulario común, lo que facilita la interoperabilidad entre
los distintos sistemas. Además, el uso de ontologías y tecnologías de web
semántica permite el desarrollo de herramientas agnósticas de modelos para una
adaptación flexible a nuevas reglas y restricciones, promoviendo el razonamiento
semántico para sistemas sensibles al contexto
Fostering Distributed Business Logic in Open Collaborative Networks: an integrated approach based on semantic and swarm coordination
Given the great opportunities provided by Open Collaborative Networks (OCNs), their success depends on the effective integration of composite business logic at all stages. However, a dilemma between cooperation and competition is often found in environments where the access to business knowledge can provide absolute advantages over the competition. Indeed, although it is apparent that business logic should be automated for an effective integration, chain participants at all segments are often highly protective of their own knowledge. In this paper, we propose a solution to this problem by outlining a novel approach with a supporting architectural view. In our approach, business rules are modeled via semantic web and their execution is coordinated by a workflow model. Each company’s rule can be kept as private, and the business rules can be combined together to achieve goals with defined interdependencies and responsibilities in the workflow. The use of a workflow model allows assembling business facts together while protecting data source. We propose a privacy-preserving perturbation technique which is based on digital stigmergy. Stigmergy is a processing schema based on the principle of self-aggregation of marks produced by data. Stigmergy allows protecting data privacy, because only marks are involved in aggregation, in place of actual data values, without explicit data modeling. This paper discusses the proposed approach and examines its characteristics through actual scenarios
Coalition based approach for shop floor agility – a multiagent approach
Dissertation submitted for a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering, speciality of Robotics and Integrated Manufacturing from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e TecnologiaThis thesis addresses the problem of shop floor agility. In order to cope with the disturbances and uncertainties that characterise the current business scenarios faced by manufacturing companies, the
capability of their shop floors needs to be improved quickly, such that these shop floors may be adapted, changed or become easily modifiable (shop floor reengineering).
One of the critical elements in any shop floor reengineering process is the way the control/supervision architecture is changed or modified to accommodate for the new processes and equipment. This thesis,
therefore, proposes an architecture to support the fast adaptation or changes in the control/supervision architecture. This architecture postulates that manufacturing systems are no more than compositions of
modularised manufacturing components whose interactions when aggregated are governed by
contractual mechanisms that favour configuration over reprogramming.
A multiagent based reference architecture called Coalition Based Approach for Shop floor Agility – CoBASA, was created to support fast adaptation and changes of shop floor control architectures with minimal effort. The coalitions are composed of agentified manufacturing components (modules), whose relationships within the coalitions are governed by contracts that are configured whenever a coalition is established. Creating and changing a coalition do not involve programming effort because it only requires changes to the contract that regulates it
Multi-Agent Systems
A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems which are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains
A multi-agent approach for design consistency checking
The last decade has seen an explosion of interest to advanced product development methods, such as Computer Integrated Manufacture, Extended Enterprise and Concurrent Engineering. As a result of the globalization and future distribution of design and manufacturing facilities, the cooperation amongst partners is becoming more challenging due to the fact that the design process tends to be sequential and requires communication networks for planning design activities and/or a great deal of travel to/from designers' workplaces. In a virtual environment, teams of designers work together and use the Internet/Intranet for communication. The design is a multi-disciplinary task that involves several stages. These stages include input data analysis, conceptual design, basic structural design, detail design, production design, manufacturing processes analysis, and documentation. As a result, the virtual team, normally, is very changeable in term of designers' participation. Moreover, the environment itself changes over time. This leads to a potential increase in the number of design. A methodology of Intelligent Distributed Mismatch Control (IDMC) is proposed to alleviate some of the related difficulties.
This thesis looks at the Intelligent Distributed Mismatch Control, in the context of the European Aerospace Industry, and suggests a methodology for a conceptual framework based on a multi-agent architecture. This multi-agent architecture is a kernel of an Intelligent Distributed Mismatch Control System (IDMCS) that aims at ensuring that the overall design is consistent and acceptable to all participating partners.
A Methodology of Intelligent Distributed Mismatch Control is introduced and successfully implemented to detect design mismatches in complex design environments.
A description of the research models and methods for intelligent mismatch control, a taxonomy of design mismatches, and an investigation into potential applications, such as aerospace design, are presented. The Multi-agent framework for mismatch control is developed and described. Based on the methodology used for the IDMC application, a formal framework for a multi-agent system is developed.
The Methods and Principles are trialed out using an Aerospace Distributed Design application, namely the design of an A340 wing box. The ontology of knowledge for agent-based Intelligent Distributed Mismatch Control System is introduced, as well as the distributed collaborative environment for consortium based projects
EmC-ICDSST 2019: 5th International Conference on Decision Support System Technology - ICDSST 2019 & EURO Mini Conference 2019 on "Decision Support Systems: Main Developments & Future Trends"
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
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