Distributed monitoring and control of future power systems via grid computing

It is now widely accepted within the electrical power supply industry that future power systems operates with significantly larger numbers of small-scale highly dispersed generation units that use renewable energy sources and also reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In order to operate such future power systems securely and efficiently it will be necessary to monitor and control output levels and scheduling when connecting such generation to a power system especially when it is typically embedded at the distribution level. Traditional monitoring and control technology that is currently employed at the transmission level is highly centralized and not scalable to include such significant increases in distributed and embedded generation. However, this paper proposes and demonstrates the adoption of a relatively new technology 'grid computing' that can provide both a scalable and universally adoptable solution to the problems associated with the distributed monitoring and control of future power systems

Separating Agent-Functioning and Inter-Agent Coordination by Activated Modules: The DECOMAS Architecture

The embedding of self-organizing inter-agent processes in distributed software applications enables the decentralized coordination system elements, solely based on concerted, localized interactions. The separation and encapsulation of the activities that are conceptually related to the coordination, is a crucial concern for systematic development practices in order to prepare the reuse and systematic integration of coordination processes in software systems. Here, we discuss a programming model that is based on the externalization of processes prescriptions and their embedding in Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). One fundamental design concern for a corresponding execution middleware is the minimal-invasive augmentation of the activities that affect coordination. This design challenge is approached by the activation of agent modules. Modules are converted to software elements that reason about and modify their host agent. We discuss and formalize this extension within the context of a generic coordination architecture and exemplify the proposed programming model with the decentralized management of (web) service infrastructures

A Role-Based Approach for Orchestrating Emergent Configurations in the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is envisioned as a global network of connected things enabling ubiquitous machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. With estimations of billions of sensors and devices to be connected in the coming years, the IoT has been advocated as having a great potential to impact the way we live, but also how we work. However, the connectivity aspect in itself only accounts for the underlying M2M infrastructure. In order to properly support engineering IoT systems and applications, it is key to orchestrate heterogeneous 'things' in a seamless, adaptive and dynamic manner, such that the system can exhibit a goal-directed behaviour and take appropriate actions. Yet, this form of interaction between things needs to take a user-centric approach and by no means elude the users' requirements. To this end, contextualisation is an important feature of the system, allowing it to infer user activities and prompt the user with relevant information and interactions even in the absence of intentional commands. In this work we propose a role-based model for emergent configurations of connected systems as a means to model, manage, and reason about IoT systems including the user's interaction with them. We put a special focus on integrating the user perspective in order to guide the emergent configurations such that systems goals are aligned with the users' intentions. We discuss related scientific and technical challenges and provide several uses cases outlining the concept of emergent configurations.Comment: In Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on the Internet of Agents @AAMAS201

Design of an intelligent waterway ambient infrastructure based on Multiagent Systems and Wireless Sensor Networks

Lately Maritime research areas have moved their interests from traditional ship studies and traffic systems to new areas that confer a more general character to them as, for example, environmental monitoring. BOYAS project is proposed including these new perspectives as well as more classical ones. Trying to get this integral character for the waterway ambient and its activities management, the confluence between two recent research areas is studied. The convergence of Multiagent Systems and Wireless Sensor Networks constitutes a good framework and scenario in which this new research activities may be studied and develop.Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio FIT-340000-2006-2

A Survey on Sensor Networks from a Multiagent Perspective

Sensor networks (SNs) have arisen as one of the most promising technologies for the next decades. The recent emergence of small and inexpensive sensors based upon microelectromechanical systems ease the development and proliferation of this kind of networks in a wide range of actual-world applications. Multiagent systems (MAS) have been identified as one of the most suitable technologies to contribute to the deployment of SNs that exhibit flexibility, robustness and autonomy. The purpose of this survey is 2-fold. On the one hand, we review the most relevant contributions of agent technologies to this emerging application domain. On the other hand, we identify the challenges that researchers must address to establish MAS as the key enabling technology for SNs.This work has been funded by projects IEA(TIN2006-15662-C02-01), Agreement Technologies (CONSOLIDER CSD2007-0022, INGENIO 2010), EVE (TIN2009-14702-C02-01,TIN2009-14702-C02-02) and Generalitat de Catalunya under the gran t2009-SGR-1434. Meritxell Vinyals is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education (FPU grant AP2006-04636)Peer Reviewe

Resilience Enhancement in Cyber-Physical Systems: A Multiagent-Based Framework

The growing developments on networked devices, with different communication platforms and capabilities, made the cyber-physical systems an integrating part of most critical industrial infrastructures. Given their increasing integration with corporate networks, in which the industry 4.0 is the most recent driving force, new uncertainties, not only from the tangible physical world, but also from a cyber space perspective, are brought into play. In order to improve the overall resilience of a cyber-physical system, this work proposes a framework based on a distributed middleware that integrates a multiagent topology, where each agent is responsible for coordinating and executing specific tasks. In this framework, both physical and cyber vulnerabilities alike are considered, and the achievement of a correct state awareness and minimum levels of acceptable operation, in response to physical or malicious disturbances, are guaranteed. Experimental results collected with an IPv6-based simulator comprising several distributed computational devices and heterogeneous communication networks show the relevance and inherent benefits of this approach

Multiagent cooperation for solving global optimization problems: an extendible framework with example cooperation strategies

This paper proposes the use of multiagent cooperation for solving global optimization problems through the introduction of a new multiagent environment, MANGO. The strength of the environment lays in itsflexible structure based on communicating software agents that attempt to solve a problem cooperatively. This structure allows the execution of a wide range of global optimization algorithms described as a set of interacting operations. At one extreme, MANGO welcomes an individual non-cooperating agent, which is basically the traditional way of solving a global optimization problem. At the other extreme, autonomous agents existing in the environment cooperate as they see fit during run time. We explain the development and communication tools provided in the environment as well as examples of agent realizations and cooperation scenarios. We also show how the multiagent structure is more effective than having a single nonlinear optimization algorithm with randomly selected initial points

Aggregate Farming in the Cloud: The AFarCloud ECSEL project

Farming is facing many economic challenges in terms of productivity and cost-effectiveness. Labor shortage partly due to depopulation of rural areas, especially in Europe, is another challenge. Domain specific problems such as accurate monitoring of soil and crop properties and animal health are key factors for minimizing economical risks, and not risking human health. The ECSEL AFarCloud (Aggregate Farming in the Cloud) project will provide a distributed platform for autonomous farming that will allow the integration and cooperation of agriculture Cyber Physical Systems in real-time in order to increase efficiency, productivity, animal health, food quality and reduce farm labor costs. Moreover, such a platform can be integrated with farm management software to support monitoring and decision-making solutions based on big data and real-time data mining techniques.publishedVersio