Multi-agent systems for power engineering applications - part 2 : Technologies, standards and tools for building multi-agent systems

This is the second part of a 2-part paper that has arisen from the work of the IEEE Power Engineering Society's Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) Working Group. Part 1 of the paper examined the potential value of MAS technology to the power industry, described fundamental concepts and approaches within the field of multi-agent systems that are appropriate to power engineering applications, and presented a comprehensive review of the power engineering applications for which MAS are being investigated. It also defined the technical issues which must be addressed in order to accelerate and facilitate the uptake of the technology within the power and energy sector. Part 2 of the paper explores the decisions inherent in engineering multi-agent systems for applications in the power and energy sector and offers guidance and recommendations on how MAS can be designed and implemented. Given the significant and growing interest in this field, it is imperative that the power engineering community considers the standards, tools, supporting technologies and design methodologies available to those wishing to implement a MAS solution for a power engineering problem. The paper describes the various options available and makes recommendations on best practice. It also describes the problem of interoperability between different multi-agent systems and proposes how this may be tackled

An intersection in population control: Welfare reform and indigenous people with a partial capacity to work in the Australian Northern Territory

In Australia, in the last decade, there have been significant policy changes to income support payments for people with a disability and Indigenous people. These policy reforms intersect in the experience of Indigenous people with a partial capacity to work in the Northern Territory who are subject to compulsory income management if classified as long-term welfare payment recipients. This intersection is overlooked in existing research and government policy. In this article, we apply intersectionality and Southern disability theory as frameworks to analyse how Indigenous people with a partial capacity to work (PCW) in the Northern Territory are governed under compulsory income management. Whilst the program is theoretically race and ability neutral, in practice it targets specific categories of people because it fails to address the structural and cultural barriers experienced by Indigenous people with a disability and reinscribes disabling and colonising technologies of population control

Practical applications of multi-agent systems in electric power systems

The transformation of energy networks from passive to active systems requires the embedding of intelligence within the network. One suitable approach to integrating distributed intelligent systems is multi-agent systems technology, where components of functionality run as autonomous agents capable of interaction through messaging. This provides loose coupling between components that can benefit the complex systems envisioned for the smart grid. This paper reviews the key milestones of demonstrated agent systems in the power industry and considers which aspects of agent design must still be addressed for widespread application of agent technology to occur

Inter-organizational fault management: Functional and organizational core aspects of management architectures

Outsourcing -- successful, and sometimes painful -- has become one of the hottest topics in IT service management discussions over the past decade. IT services are outsourced to external service provider in order to reduce the effort required for and overhead of delivering these services within the own organization. More recently also IT services providers themselves started to either outsource service parts or to deliver those services in a non-hierarchical cooperation with other providers. Splitting a service into several service parts is a non-trivial task as they have to be implemented, operated, and maintained by different providers. One key aspect of such inter-organizational cooperation is fault management, because it is crucial to locate and solve problems, which reduce the quality of service, quickly and reliably. In this article we present the results of a thorough use case based requirements analysis for an architecture for inter-organizational fault management (ioFMA). Furthermore, a concept of the organizational respective functional model of the ioFMA is given.Comment: International Journal of Computer Networks & Communications (IJCNC

A reference model for information specification for metalworking SMEs

The work reported in this thesis offers a novel basis for the realisation of specifications for information requirements to meet the distinct operational requirements of metalworking SMEs. This has been achieved through the development of a reference SME enterprise model based on fundamental ideas of the holon and fractal factory concepts. The novel concept of a node holon is introduced, which allows the representation of the human dominated interactions in a company based on the fundamental concepts of the holon. This offers a competitive alternative to the methods for enterprise modelling and information specification which are based solely around business processes and procedural rules. A new representation for the organisation of the SME has been based on identifying the major zones of activity within the enterprise, which is seen to provide a more appropriate representation for companies whose basis for operation is informally structured. Two classes of zones have been identified, these are the business support zone and manufacturing zone. The relationship between a top down description of the enterprise as zones and the complementary bottoms up modelling of the enterprise based on concepts of the node holon are described in detail. A critical study of two candidate modelling architectures, namely CIN40SA and ARIS will show the applicability of the individual architectures for the task information specification. The constituents of the SMEE enterprise reference model is placed within the context of contemporary enterprise modelling practice by mapping against one of the architectures. This will demonstrate how the architectures can readily accommodate new modelling approaches whilst retaining their major advantages, thereby increasing their applicability and potential uptake. The reference SME enterprise model has been readily applied in the study of an SME, where a representation of the company has been achieved solely on the current organisation of its business support and manufacturing activities. The holonic aspects of the enterprise have also been successfully modelled. This process is supported by a CASE tool which has it constructs underpinned by the reference SME enterprise model

Organizational alternatives for flexible manufacturing systems

There is an increasing importance of different productive architectures related to worker involvement in the decision making, where is given due attention to the intuitive capabilities and the human knowledge in the optimization and flexibilization of manufacturing processes. Thus having reference point architecture of a flexible manufacturing and assembling system existent at UNINOVA-CRI, we will present some exploratory hypothesis about applicability of the concept of hybridization and its repercussions on the definition of jobs, in those organizations and in the formation of working teams.flexibility; robotics; work organization; manufacturing industry

SYSTEM PLANOWANIA I KONTROLI PRODUKCJI Z WYKORZYSTANIEM CZUJNIKÓW TOMOGRAFICZNYCH

The article presents an idea of a production process control system. Advanced automation and control of production processes play a key role in maintaining competitiveness. The proposed solution consists of sensor networks for measurement process parameters, production resources and equipment state. The system uses wired and wireless communication, which gives possibility to acquisition data from existing in enterprise sensors and systems as well as acquisition data from new systems and sensors used to measure all processes, starting from production preparation to the final product. The solution contains process tomography sensors based on electrical capacitance tomography, electrical impedance tomography and ultrasound tomography. The use of tomographic methods enables to manage the intelligent structure of the companies in terms of processes and products. Industrial tomography enables observation of physical and chemical phenomena without the need to penetrate inside. It will enable the optimization and auto-optimization of design processes and production. Such solutions can operate autonomously, monitor and control measurements. All sensors return to the system continuous data about state of processes in some technologically closed objects like fermenters. Process tomography can also be used to acquisition data about a flow of liquids and loose ingredients in pipeline based on transport systems. Data acquired from sensors are collected in data warehouses in order to future processing and building the knowledge base. The results of the data analysis are showed in user control panels and are used directly in the control of the production process to increase the efficiency and quality of the products. Control methods cover issues related to the processing of data obtained from various sensors located at nodes. Monitoring takes place within the scope of acquired and processed data and parameter automation.W artykule przedstawiono ideę systemu kontroli procesu produkcyjnego. Zaawansowana automatyzacja i kontrola procesów produkcyjnych odgrywają kluczową rolę w utrzymaniu konkurencyjności. Proponowane rozwiązanie składa się z sieci czujników do pomiaru parametrów procesu, zasobów produkcyjnych i stanu wyposażenia. System wykorzystuje komunikację przewodową i bezprzewodową, która umożliwia pozyskiwanie danych z istniejących w przedsiębiorstwach czujników i systemów, a także pozyskiwanie danych z nowych systemów i czujników używanych do pomiaru wszystkich procesów, począwszy od przygotowania produkcji do produktu końcowego. Rozwiązanie zawiera czujniki tomografii procesowej oparte na elektrycznej tomografii pojemnościowej, elektrycznej tomografii impedancyjnej i tomografii ultradźwiękowej. Zastosowanie metod tomograficznych umożliwia zarządzanie inteligentną strukturą firm pod względem procesów i produktów. Tomografia przemysłowa umożliwia obserwację zjawisk fizycznych i chemicznych bez potrzeby penetracji wewnątrz. Umożliwi to optymalizację i automatyczną procesów projektowych i produkcji. Takie rozwiązania mogą działać autonomicznie, monitorować i kontrolować pomiary. Wszystkie czujniki przekazują do systemu ciągłe dane o stanie procesów w niektórych technologicznie zamkniętych obiektach, takich jak fermentory. Tomografia procesowa może być również wykorzystywana do pozyskiwania danych o przepływie płynów i luźnych składników w rurociągu w oparciu o systemy transportowe. Dane uzyskane z czujników gromadzone są w hurtowniach danych w celu ich dalszego przetwarzania i budowania bazy wiedzy. Wyniki analizy danych są wyświetlane w panelach sterowania użytkownika i są wykorzystywane bezpośrednio w kontroli procesu produkcyjnego w celu zwiększenia wydajności i jakości produktów. Metody kontroli obejmują zagadnienia związane z przetwarzaniem danych uzyskanych z różnych czujników zlokalizowanych w węzłach. Monitorowanie odbywa się w ramach pozyskanej i przetwarzanej automatyzacji danych i parametrów