Real-Time Based Agent Architecture for Power Plant Control

Building upon the work of the multi-agent system (MAS) based intelligent heuristic optimal control system (MAS-IHOCS) a new distributed real-time agent framework with time-warp (DRAFT) has been developed to enhance performance and development of multi-agent systems used to control real time processes. Using distributed discrete event simulation techniques for optimistic simulation with time-warp speeds up the simulation of the multi-agent system. Time-warp capabilities are embedded directly into the agents, which are capable of switching between fast-as-possible simulation using time-warp or pseudo-real time simulation. This allows faster development of agent systems with more thorough testing and validation. Additionally, these critical systems must continue to operate safely and securely despite failure of agents. This requires graceful degradation of the multi-agent system. The DRAFT agents will be applied to a simple power plant for demonstration purposes of these qualities.