30 research outputs found
Towards the next generation of smart grids: semantic and holonic multi-agent management of distributed energy resources
The energy landscape is experiencing accelerating change; centralized energy systems are being decarbonized, and transitioning towards distributed energy systems, facilitated by advances in power system management and information and communication technologies. This paper elaborates on these generations of energy systems by critically reviewing relevant authoritative literature. This includes a discussion of modern concepts such as ‘smart grid’, ‘microgrid’, ‘virtual power plant’ and ‘multi-energy system’, and the relationships between them, as well as the trends towards distributed intelligence and interoperability. Each of these emerging urban energy concepts holds merit when applied within a centralized grid paradigm, but very little research applies these approaches within the emerging energy landscape typified by a high penetration of distributed energy resources, prosumers (consumers and producers), interoperability, and big data. Given the ongoing boom in these fields, this will lead to new challenges and opportunities as the status-quo of energy systems changes dramatically. We argue that a new generation of holonic energy systems is required to orchestrate the interplay between these dense, diverse and distributed energy components. The paper therefore contributes a description of holonic energy systems and the implicit research required towards sustainability and resilience in the imminent energy landscape. This promotes the systemic features of autonomy, belonging, connectivity, diversity and emergence, and balances global and local system objectives, through adaptive control topologies and demand responsive energy management. Future research avenues are identified to support this transition regarding interoperability, secure distributed control and a system of systems approach
Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review
Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?†Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution.supply chain;MAS;multi agent systems
Multi Agent Systems in Logistics: A Literature and State-of-the-art Review
Based on a literature survey, we aim to answer our main question: “How should we plan and execute logistics in supply chains that aim to meet today’s requirements, and how can we support such planning and execution using IT?” Today’s requirements in supply chains include inter-organizational collaboration and more responsive and tailored supply to meet specific demand. Enterprise systems fall short in meeting these requirements The focus of planning and execution systems should move towards an inter-enterprise and event-driven mode. Inter-organizational systems may support planning going from supporting information exchange and henceforth enable synchronized planning within the organizations towards the capability to do network planning based on available information throughout the network. We provide a framework for planning systems, constituting a rich landscape of possible configurations, where the centralized and fully decentralized approaches are two extremes. We define and discuss agent based systems and in particular multi agent systems (MAS). We emphasize the issue of the role of MAS coordination architectures, and then explain that transportation is, next to production, an important domain in which MAS can and actually are applied. However, implementation is not widespread and some implementation issues are explored. In this manner, we conclude that planning problems in transportation have characteristics that comply with the specific capabilities of agent systems. In particular, these systems are capable to deal with inter-organizational and event-driven planning settings, hence meeting today’s requirements in supply chain planning and execution
HIERARCHICAL-GRANULARITY HOLONIC MODELLING
This thesis aims to introduce an agent-based system engineering approach,
named Hierarchical-Granularity Holonic Modelling, to support intelligent
information processing at multiple granularity levels. The focus is especially
on complex hierarchical systems.
Nowadays, due to ever growing complexity of information systems and
processes, there is an increasing need of a simple self-modular computational
model able to manage data and perform information granulation at different
resolutions (i.e., both spatial and temporal). The current literature lacks to
provide such a methodology. To cite a relevant example, the object-oriented
paradigm is suitable for describing a system at a given representation level;
notwithstanding, further design effort is needed if a more synthetical of more
analytical view of the same system is required.
In the literature, the agent paradigm represents a viable solution in complex
systems modelling; in particular, Multi-Agent Systems have been applied with
success in a countless variety of distributed intelligence settings. Current
agent-oriented implementations however suffer from an apparent dichotomy
between agents as intelligent entities and agents\u2019 structures as superimposed
hierarchies of roles within a given organization. The agents\u2019 architectures are
often rigid and require intense re-engineering when the underpinning ontology
is updated to cast new design criteria.
The latest stage in the evolution of modelling frameworks is represented by
Holonic Systems, based on the notion of \u2018holon\u2019 and \u2018holarchy\u2019 (i.e.,
hierarchy of holons). A holon, just like an agent, is an intelligent entity able to
interact with the environment and to take decisions to solve a specific
problem. Contrarily to agent, holon has the noteworthy property of playing the
role of a whole and a part at the same time. This reflects at the organizational
level: holarchy functions first as autonomous wholes in supra-ordination to
their parts, secondly as dependent parts in sub-ordination to controls on higher
levels, and thirdly in coordination with their local environment.
These ideas were originally devised by Arthur Koestler in 1967. Since then,
Holonic Systems have gained more and more credit in various fields such as
Biology, Ecology, Theory of Emergence and Intelligent Manufacturing.
Notwithstanding, with respect to these disciplines, fewer works on Holonic
Systems can be found in the general framework of Artificial and
Computational Intelligence. Moreover, the distance between theoretic models
and actual implementation is still wide open.
In this thesis, starting from the Koestler\u2019s original idea, we devise a novel
agent-inspired model that merges intelligence with the holonic structure at
multiple hierarchical-granularity levels. This is made possible thanks to a rule-based
knowledge recursive representation, which allows the holonic agent to
carry out both operating and learning tasks in a hierarchy of granularity levels.
The proposed model can be directly used in terms of hardware/software
applications. This endows systems and software engineers with a modular and
scalable approach when dealing with complex hierarchical systems. In order
to support our claims, exemplar experiments of our proposal are shown and
prospective implications are commented
Dynamics in Logistics
This open access book highlights the interdisciplinary aspects of logistics research. Featuring empirical, methodological, and practice-oriented articles, it addresses the modelling, planning, optimization and control of processes. Chiefly focusing on supply chains, logistics networks, production systems, and systems and facilities for material flows, the respective contributions combine research on classical supply chain management, digitalized business processes, production engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and mathematical optimization. To celebrate 25 years of interdisciplinary and collaborative research conducted at the Bremen Research Cluster for Dynamics in Logistics (LogDynamics), in this book hand-picked experts currently or formerly affiliated with the Cluster provide retrospectives, present cutting-edge research, and outline future research directions
Dynamics in Logistics
This open access book highlights the interdisciplinary aspects of logistics research. Featuring empirical, methodological, and practice-oriented articles, it addresses the modelling, planning, optimization and control of processes. Chiefly focusing on supply chains, logistics networks, production systems, and systems and facilities for material flows, the respective contributions combine research on classical supply chain management, digitalized business processes, production engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and mathematical optimization. To celebrate 25 years of interdisciplinary and collaborative research conducted at the Bremen Research Cluster for Dynamics in Logistics (LogDynamics), in this book hand-picked experts currently or formerly affiliated with the Cluster provide retrospectives, present cutting-edge research, and outline future research directions
Beyond Participatory Design for Service Robotics
The spread of technologies as Cloud and Distributed Computing, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning techniques comes with highly disruptive innovation potential and consequent design imperatives. High connectivity of devices and machines is shaping not only sensing and monitoring capabilities, but also describing ever more ubiquitous and diffuse computing capabilities, affecting decision-making with a wide range of assisting tools and methods. With the scaling potential of moving beyond its contemporary application such as industrial facilities monitoring, precision farming and agriculture, healthcare and risk management scenarios, RaaS is bound to involve an increasingly fluid and diverse range of users, shaping new socio-technical systems where practices, habits and relationships will evolve in respect to its adoption. On these premises, applied research at Polytechnic Interdepartmental Centre for Service Robotics in Turin, Italy, focuses on the development of a service robotics platform able to operate on the local scale and capable of adapting to evolving scenarios
An evaluation of the challenges of Multilingualism in Data Warehouse development
In this paper we discuss Business Intelligence and define what is meant by support for Multilingualism in a Business Intelligence reporting context. We identify support for Multilingualism as a challenging issue which has implications for data warehouse design and reporting performance. Data warehouses are a core component of most Business Intelligence systems and the star schema is the approach most widely used to develop data warehouses and dimensional Data Marts. We discuss the way in which Multilingualism can be supported in the Star Schema and identify that current approaches have serious limitations which include data redundancy and data manipulation, performance and maintenance issues. We propose a new approach to enable the optimal application of multilingualism in Business Intelligence. The proposed approach was found to produce satisfactory results when used in a proof-of-concept environment. Future work will include testing the approach in an enterprise environmen