An agent-based approach to design of Critical Mechanical Device controller

Critical mechanical devices (CMDs) such as high-pressure air compressors (HPACs) are these kinds of devices which are independently distributed, working in cluster, high-power-cost, big-volume and very crucial to industrial production. To make CMDs exhibit with characteristics of autonomy, interaction, collaboration, robustness, etc., this paper employs an agent-based approach to design CMD controllers. HPACs, the typical CMDs, are selected as one case study. The process flows of HPACs, concepts of agent and agent-based control technologies are described. The architecture of HPAC agent, including agent shell and agent kernel, is discussed and modeled. HPAC agent language system-HPACAL is constructed for communication. with assuring HPAC agents to efficiently realize the common control goal, TWTC Algorithm, a total-working-time-based collaboration algorithm for HPAC agents, is brought up and developed. HPAC agents controllers have been successfully applied and checked in LSBIS Project. This agent-based approach can be universally used to design the controllers of other CMDs, e.g., big dehumidifiers and diesel generators.