Realising Team-Working in the Field: An Agent-based Approach

Multi-agent systems technology is applied to enable co-operation between mobile workers in the field, minimising user intervention and increasing reachability. A component-based approach is taken to simplify the management of deployed co-operation services. A Personal Assistant running on a mobile device is introduced to show how an intelligent and autonomous agent can increase the utility of users during workforce co-operation processes. Finally, a real world trial of the technology by network installation and maintenance engineers in the UK is described. Some technical issues revealed during the trial are discussed, as is the impact of the technology on the business process

Microgrid energy management system for smart home using multi-agent system

This paper proposes a multi-agent system for energy management in a microgrid for smart home applications, the microgrid comprises a photovoltaic source, battery energy storage, electrical loads, and an energy management system (EMS) based on smart agents. The microgrid can be connected to the grid or operating in island mode. All distributed sources are implemented using MATLAB/Simulink to simulate a dynamic model of each electrical component. The agent proposed can interact with each other to find the best strategy for energy management using the java agent development framework (JADE) simulator. Furthermore, the proposed agent framework is also validated through a different case study, the efficiency of the proposed approach to schedule local resources and energy management for microgrid is analyzed. The simulation results verify the efficacy of the proposed approach using Simulink/JADE co-simulation

Modeling Emotion Oriented Approach through Agent-Oriented Approach

eLearning is introduced to promote self-learning anytime and anyway. To date, various components have been added into an eLearning platform to produce an interactive and engaging eLearning platform. Among an interest, component is embedded emotion into the eLearning system. While emotion is paying much attention nowadays, there is lacking a systematic way to model emotion-based eLearning. Without the systematic approach, it is hard to debug, design and develop an emotion-based e-learning system. This paper introduces emotion goals through the agent-oriented approach. Besides, we demonstrate how to design an emotion-based quiz master as an embedded emotion element for the eLearning system through the proposed modeling approach. This thesis suggests a standardized way to model an emotion-oriented application through Agent-Oriented Modelling (AOM). The AOM is extended to guide the elicitation, analysis, design and implementation of an emotion-oriented application, a kind of interactive application. With the emotion model, it can serve as a guide to design, redesign, discuss the emotional elements among the software development team. This is important for better debugging and project management, especially for emotion, led applications

An Agent-based Approach for Improving the Performance of Distributed Business Processes in Maritime Port Community

In the recent years, the concept of “port community” has been adopted by the maritime transport industry in order to achieve a higher degree of coordination and cooperation amongst organizations involved in the transfer of goods through the port area. The business processes of the port community supply chain form a complicated process which involves several process steps, multiple actors, and numerous information exchanges. One of the widely used applications of ICT in ports is the Port Community System (PCS) which is implemented in ports in order to reduce paperwork and to facilitate the information flow related to port operations and cargo clearance. However, existing PCSs are limited in functionalities that facilitate the management and coordination of material, financial, and information flows within the port community supply chain. This research programme addresses the use of agent technology to introduce business process management functionalities, which are vital for port communities, aiming to the enhancement of the performance of the port community supply chain. The investigation begins with an examination of the current state in view of the business perspective and the technical perspective. The business perspective focuses on understanding the nature of the port community, its main characteristics, and its problems. Accordingly, a number of requirements are identified as essential amendments to information systems in seaports. On the other hand, the technical perspective focuses on technologies that are convenient for solving problems in business process management within port communities. The research focuses on three technologies; the workflow technology, agent technology, and service orientation. An analysis of information systems across port communities enables an examination of the current PCSs with regard to their coordination and workflow management capabilities. The most important finding of this analysis is that the performance of the business processes, and in particular the performance of the port community supply chain, is not in the scope of the examined PCSs. Accordingly, the Agent-Based Middleware for Port Community Management (ABMPCM) is proposed as an approach for providing essential functionalities that would facilitate collaborative planning and business process management. As a core component of the ABMPCM, the Collaborative Planning Facility (CPF) is described in further details. A CPF prototype has been developed as an agent-based system for the domain of inland transport of containers to demonstrate its practical effectiveness. To evaluate the practical application of the CPF, a simulation environment is introduced in order to facilitate the evaluation process. The research started with the definition of a multi-agent simulation framework for port community supply chain. Then, a prototype has been implemented and employed for the evaluation of the CPF. The results of the simulation experiments demonstrate that our agent-based approach effectively enhances the performance of business process in the port community

Service management for multi-domain Active Networks

The Internet is an example of a multi-agent system. In our context, an agent is synonymous with network operators, Internet service providers (ISPs) and content providers. ISPs mutually interact for connectivity's sake, but the fact remains that two peering agents are inevitably self-interested. Egoistic behaviour manifests itself in two ways. Firstly, the ISPs are able to act in an environment where different ISPs would have different spheres of influence, in the sense that they will have control and management responsibilities over different parts of the environment. On the other hand, contention occurs when an ISP intends to sell resources to another, which gives rise to at least two of its customers sharing (hence contending for) a common transport medium. The multi-agent interaction was analysed by simulating a game theoretic approach and the alignment of dominant strategies adopted by agents with evolving traits were abstracted. In particular, the contention for network resources is arbitrated such that a self-policing environment may emerge from a congested bottleneck. Over the past 5 years, larger ISPs have simply peddled as fast as they could to meet the growing demand for bandwidth by throwing bandwidth at congestion problems. Today, the dire financial positions of Worldcom and Global Crossing illustrate, to a certain degree, the fallacies of over-provisioning network resources. The proposed framework in this thesis enables subscribers of an ISP to monitor and police each other's traffic in order to establish a well-behaved norm in utilising limited resources. This framework can be expanded to other inter-domain bottlenecks within the Internet. One of the main objectives of this thesis is also to investigate the impact on multi-domain service management in the future Internet, where active nodes could potentially be located amongst traditional passive routers. The advent of Active Networking technology necessitates node-level computational resource allocations, in addition to prevailing resource reservation approaches for communication bandwidth. Our motivation is to ensure that a service negotiation protocol takes account of these resources so that the response to a specific service deployment request from the end-user is consistent and predictable. To promote the acceleration of service deployment by means of Active Networking technology, a pricing model is also evaluated for computational resources (e.g., CPU time and memory). Previous work in these areas of research only concentrate on bandwidth (i.e., communication) - related resources. Our pricing approach takes account of both guaranteed and best-effort service by adapting the arbitrage theorem from financial theory. The central tenet for our approach is to synthesise insights from different disciplines to address problems in data networks. The greater parts of research experience have been obtained during direct and indirect participation in the 1ST-10561 project known as FAIN (Future Active IP Networks) and ACTS-AC338 project called MIAMI (Mobile Intelligent Agent for Managing the Information Infrastructure). The Inter-domain Manager (IDM) component was integrated as an integral part of the FAIN policy-based network management systems (PBNM). Its monitoring component (developed during the MIAMI project) learns about routing changes that occur within a domain so that the management system and the managed nodes have the same topological view of the network. This enabled our reservation mechanism to reserve resources along the existing route set up by whichever underlying routing protocol is in place

Software аgents in e-learning systems

У даній статті розглянуто питання використання мультиагентного підходу для вирішення завдань управління ресурсами в системах електронного навчання. Підкреслено переваги мультиагентних систем у порівнянні з традиційними системами: забезпечують простоту реалізації, здатність до перенесення та масштабування, дозволяють проводити паралельні обчислення, керуються системами на основі знань, мають здатність до самоорганізації та еволюціонування. Запропоновано формалізацію задачі динамічного розподілу ресурсів на основі мережі потреб та можливостей. Визначено базові принципи побудови мережі, описано формальну модель взаємодії агентів. В статті запропоновано алгоритм, який дозволяє гнучко та оперативно вирішувати завдання розподілу інформаційних ресурсів відповідно до потреб середовища, які швидко змінюються. Виділено спеціалізовані компоненти для роботи агентів в системі: компонент комунікації агентів, компонент прийняття рішень та компонент потокових розрахунків.The usage of the multi-agent approach for solving resource management problems in e-learning systems is discussed in this paper. The advantages of multi-agent system comparing with traditional systems are emphasized. Such systems provide simplicity of implementation, transferability, and scalability, allow parallel computing, are guided by systems based on knowledge, have the ability to self-organize and evolve. The formalization of dynamic distribution of resources based on the network of the needs and opportunities is proposed. Two types of autonomous interacting agents are identified. They need agents and opportunity agents. All agents act in accordance with their own goals and according to certain rules, allowing them to act independently and interact with each other. As a relation between two types of agents was used conformity. The basic principles of network construction are defined. The formal model of interaction between agents is described. It was defined that one of the most often problems that can arise in the e-learning system is the problem of coordination. Partly this problem can be solved by the detailed elaboration of a set of decision-making rules. The article proposes an algorithm that allows flexible and prompt solving of information resources distribution tasks in accordance with the needs of rapidly changing environments. The specialized components for the agents in the system are defined: the agent communication component, the decision making component, and the component of the flow calculations. The main obstacles for multi-agent approach implementation are defined. They are: difficulties to evaluate the optimality of the decision; solutions are sensitive to the history of events; small changes in the system input can lead to significant changes in the output; there are some difficulties in adjusting the solution in the "manual" mode; misunderstandings in explaining the results as a consequence of complex causal relationships are possible; delays of solutions are liable to occur because of long chains of changes; it is possible to obtain non-identical solutions under the same conditions of input when re-launching the mode

A normative approach to multi-agent systems for intelligent buildings

Building Management Systems (BMS) are widely adopted in modern buildings around the world in order to provide high-quality building services, and reduce the running cost of the building. However, most BMS are functionality-oriented and do not consider user personalization. The aim of this research is to capture and represent building management rules using organizational semiotics methods. We implement Semantic Analysis, which determines semantic units in building management and their relationship patterns of behaviour, and Norm Analysis, which extracts and specifies the norms that establish how and when these management actions occur. Finally, we propose a multi-agent framework for norm based building management. This framework contributes to the design domain of intelligent building management system by defining a set of behaviour patterns, and the norms that govern the real-time behaviour in a building

A multi-agent system to support location based group decision making in mobile teams

This paper describes an agent-based approach for developing a location-based asynchronous group decision-support system for mobile teams. The approach maximises the use of reusable service components (GSCmas — generic service component for multi-agent systems) as the main interaction mechanism between agents to allow flexible support of a new group-decision process. The paper describes the architecture of a GSCmas and provides details of how the GSCmas is integrated within a decision support system. Finally a system (mPower) based on the proposed approach is introduced and applied to a location-based group decision problem

A demand-driven approach for a multi-agent system in Supply Chain Management

This paper presents the architecture of a multi-agent decision support system for Supply Chain Management (SCM) which has been designed to compete in the TAC SCM game. The behaviour of the system is demand-driven and the agents plan, predict, and react dynamically to changes in the market. The main strength of the system lies in the ability of the Demand agent to predict customer winning bid prices - the highest prices the agent can offer customers and still obtain their orders. This paper investigates the effect of the ability to predict customer order prices on the overall performance of the system. Four strategies are proposed and compared for predicting such prices. The experimental results reveal which strategies are better and show that there is a correlation between the accuracy of the models' predictions and the overall system performance: the more accurate the prediction of customer order prices, the higher the profit. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg