An agent-based framework for distributed intelligent control systems

For the demand of large scaled and complex control systems in industry process, this paper puts forward a general framework of agent-based distributed intelligent control systems (ADICS), which combines the natural distribution of distributed control systems and the facitious hierarchy of intelligent control systems, and constructs a multi-agent system (MAS) by taking agents as intelligent controllers. A dominant-subordinate mechanism to coordinate this kind of MAS is proposed and the general agent compound structure and implementation scheme of the systems is analyzed and expatiated. We illustrate the framework by means of a case study. An ADICS for digester process is described and a kind of distributed intelligent multi-objective optimization algorithm is also proposed.