Design of a monitoring and control system for the support of a co-operative dynamic monitoring model

Many control systems are based on a static monitoring model. In this model, there is a central monitor which maintains overall control of all the components in the system. This model is simple to implement but is clearly very inflexible. In this paper, we proposes to extend this model by introducing cooperative monitoring mechanisms. By adding an intelligent mobile monitoring agent, the capability of the system is further improved. Advances in multimedia conferencing and wireless communication technology are exploited in the design and implementation of a prototype system to support this extended monitoring model