An Agent Based Approach for Coordination of Energy Allocation and Demand in Cyber-Physical Systems

Energy efficient systems are receiving worldwide attention in response to the negative effects of global warming. Energy efficient systems are concerned with allocation of adequate resources in the Energy Domain to meet the energy demand in possibly several Process Domains. In allocation, a balancing problem arises when the energy resources demanded by the Process Domains do not match the resources allocated in the Energy Domain. This situation may lead to suboptimal process performance and inefficient usage of energy. Solving this allocation problem requires a coordination and control mechanism that can balance allocation and demand between multiple coupled subsystems. In this paper, we propose a novel agent-based software system for solving this type of cooperative control problem. The system performs energy allocation for several Process Domains while considering the individual requirements of each domain. In case of resource inadequacy the proposed solution is able to handle the resulting conflicts according to domain specific requirements for system operation. The efficacy of the proposed approach is demonstrated through simulation. Our results show that it is possible to create a coordination mechanism that can achieve a global stable state for energy allocation and demand between multiple coupled systems.