MULTI-AGENT BASED AUTOMATION PLATFORM FOR DISTRIBUTED INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS

摘要

For distributed complex industrial systems, a conventional automation system is not capable of providing sufficient information management and control with high-level intelligent approaches, as achieving these functionalities requires the support of comprehensive data management and coordination between system devices and heterogenous information. This paper proposes a multi-agent based automation platform (MAbAP), which adopts computer networking and intelligent agent technologies, and presents a hardware and software architecture that implements this platform. The open architecture based on multi-agent systems is developed to allow the implementation of diverse tasks of distributed automation systems and to permit greater configurability than that provided by traditional automation systems. To evaluate our proposed architecture, this paper presents a case study of the integration of information management, condition monitoring and control for power system substations. The results of the case study have been successfully obtained from the e-Automation Laboratory at the University of Liverpool.