Designing Agent-Based Household Appliances
- Keywords : Multiagent systems, household appliances, rational agent, BDI model, agent design methodology
As agents gain acceptance as a technology there is a growing need for practical methods for developing agent applications. Our paper introduces new technologies which are driven by fast new development of embedded systems and becoming very attractive for the design of intelligent household appliances. We assess the tools, design and development environments which have to support the implementation ideas in this field, we briefly focus on necessary agent structures, and reveal the parallels of the selected Prometheus agent design methodology and agent execution environment called Jadex. Finally a practical design example of an agent-based household appliance, namely Multiagent Washing Assistant as a special instance of Rational Home Assistant, is demonstrated. The applied steps have proven effective in assisting all the phases from the development, design, and documentation, to the system implementation and simulation.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Designing_Agent_Based_Household_Appliances.ppt | 206.67 KB |
| Designing_Agent_Based_Household_Appliances.wmv | 995.73 KB |
| PID241723.pdf | 668.05 KB |
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Thank you for your stimulative comment.
We are currently working in a simulator development of MWA with the Jadex, based on a design made with Prometheus metodology. Both tools must be used iteratively. This means that in parallel with the simulator development the Prometheus design is improving. Combined usage of both tools gives promising results.
We plan to develop as realistic simulator for the Multagent Washing Assistant as possible, and we believe that this can be implemented in a near future HW technologies used in the Intelligent home environment.
Thank you
Hiya
If we are to move towards network enabled household devices, how do you think standardisation of interface/infrastructure is best achieved? Do you think we need to bash out a new international standard, allow individual manfacturers to just compete, or create adaptive appliances that will try and fit in with whatever the dominant schema is in a given house?
Hi Mark!
Thank you for the question.
1. There is the European CECED CHAIN initiative (http://www.ceced.org/) that released AIS1.0 standard which should provide inteoperability of large appliances of different brands. We believe that we should try to follow it.
2. BUT WE BELIEVE ALSO THAT THE CREATION OF ADAPTIVE APPLIANCES AS YOU ARE PROPOSING IS A PERSPECTIVE WAY FOR THE FUTURE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF INTEROPERABILITY IN INTELLIGENT HOME ENVIRONMENT.
And there are even already initatives to develop something like:
"run-time management of reconfigurable software for ambient intelligent networked services environments in heterogeneous, and multi-vendor environments".
Thank you! Konrad
I think as time goes on an adaptive approach will be more feasible. With physical connections (MIDI, RJ45) there is a need for a standardisation of connector what cannot easily be avoided or adapted to. With the advent of wireless connections, it becomes easier to adapt.
Recently, a board was demonstrated that captured the whole radio spectrum for analysis. The Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) suggests that in the future adapting to different standards may be no harder than writing new software drivers (I know that's not too easy!). Together with cheaper and more powerful computer hardware, the need for predefined compatability might be on the wane.
A further path of technology suggests itself to me... There's also been a lot of talk about intelligent chargers which could be built into the tables at Coffee Shops which would negotiate with your mobile phone and recharge its batteries, and presumably also charge your credit card!
So, interesting times ahead?
And new challenges ahead also!!!
Thank you for your comment.
You are absolutely right about this, agent applications represent the future trend in household appliances. This is a concept that fits perfectly the present society climate. I believe that interpolating different appliance parts in an integrated feature is a reliable solution that also requires time to be correctly implemented.
Thanks for your excellent presentation.
What is good in Virtual Conferences like IPROM that there is no time limit for asking questions!
My question is: did you do any simulation to validate the model that you are trying to design in other word how do you guarantee that this design will work in real life?
Thanks
Sameh Otri
PhD Research Student