OROMACS: A Design Framework for Multi-agent Control System

Abstract

This paper presents a controller-agent-based design framework (named OROMACS) for the construction of hierarchically structured multi-agent control system (MACS). OROMACS uses the decentralized coordination mechanism to build MACS. Each MACS can be in the form of an elementary controller-agent or a composite controller-agent. The latter consists of a group of elementary and/or composite controller-agents and a coordinator; the coordinator has a role to coordinate the activity behaviour of the whole group. The main idea in creating composite controller-agents is to consider a group of coordinated controller-agents as if it is an individual controlleragent. Then, a composite controller-agent can be used in other groups, leading to hierarchical structures of MACS. To provide real-time features for MACS, the OROMACS framework has used the real-time OROCOS software framework as running environment. The OROMACS-based design method is illustrated through a design of MACS for a single-axis electro-mechanical motion system using a linear motor with the dominant compliance in the transmission. The process starts with the design of an Operation Controller Agent and then reusing its whole design to develop a more complex system called Safe-Guarded MACS. Software-In-the-Loop (SIL) co-simulation results have demonstrated the applicability of the design method.