A novel algorithm for agent based reconfiguration of ring-structured shipboard power system

The shipboard power system supplies energy to electric equipment on ships. It is critical for the system to be reconfigurable for the purpose of survivability and reliability. In one of authors earlier work a decentralized approach for a radial shipboard power system reconfiguration is successfully developed. Each agent in this system only communicates with its immediate neighbors, which reduces the dependency on the system topology. However, the ring structure in this agent system leads to the problem of redundant information accumulation among the agents, making the information flow in the system unstable. In this paper, the authors propose the use of the spanning tree algorithm in IEEE 802.1d protocol for an agent system to detect and break the ring structure in the agent system. Then an algorithm for reformulating the information flow without redundant information accumulation is put forward. Finally the proposed methodology is illustrated through a test case on a simplified shipboard power system.