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

Voltage and Reactive Power Control in Islanded Microgrids

Previous studies put on view lots of advantages and concerns for islanded microgrids (IMGs), whether it is initiated for emergency, intentionally planned or permanent island system purposes. From the concerns that have not been addressed yet, such as: 1) The ability of the distributed generation (DG) units to maintain equal reactive power sharing in a distribution system; 2) The ability of the DG units to maintain acceptable voltage boundary in the entire IMG; 3) The functionality of the existing voltage and reactive power (Volt/Var) DG, this thesis analyzes the complexity of voltage regulations in droop-controlled IMGs. A new multi-agent algorithm is proposed to satisfy the reactive power sharing and the voltage regulation requirements of IMGs. Also, the operation conflicts between DG units and Volt/Var controllers, such as shunt capacitors (SCs) and load-ratio control transformer (LRT) during the IMG mode of operation, are investigated in this thesis. Further, a new local control scheme for SCs and LRTs has been proposed to mitigate their operational challenges in IMGs

Two agent-based approaches for solving multi-objective multi-constraint optimization problems

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC