Prototype design of a multi-agent system for integrated control and asset management of petroleum production facilities

This paper addresses a practical intelligent multi- agent system for asset management for the petroleum industry, which is crucial for profitable oil and gas facilities operations and maintenance. A research project was initiated to study the feasibility of an intelligent asset management system. Having proposed a conceptual model, architecture, and implementation plan for such a system in previous work and defined its autonomy, communications, and artificial intelligence (AI) requirements, we are proceeding to build a system prototype and simulate it in real time to validate its logical behavior in normal and abnormal process situations. We also conducted a thorough system performance analysis to detect any computational bottlenecks. Although the preliminary system prototype design has limitations, simulation results have demonstrated an effective system logical behavior and performance.