The project will demonstrate a holonic multi-agent system architecture (HMSA) capable of adaptively controlling future electrical power distribution systems, which are expected to include a large number of renewable power generators, energy storage devices, and advanced metering and control devices. The project will produce a general, extensible, and secure cyber architecture based on holonic multi-agent principles to support adaptive PDS.
This research proposal focuses on event--based information acquisition, state estimation and control in the context of high dimensional cyber physical systems. In particular, as part of the cyber system a (set of) decision maker(s) or agents is responsible for the acquisition of information, learning, and control about the underlying physical system of interest. The information acquisition process may be instigated or adapted based on events in the systems.
Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are being increasingly deployed in critical infrastructures such as electric- power, water, transportation, and other networks. These deployments are facilitating real-time monitoring and control by exploiting the advances in wireless sensor-actuator networks, the internet of "everything", data-driven analytics, and machine-to-machine interfaces. CPS operations depend on the synergy of com- putational and physical components. In addition, in many cases, CPS also interact with human decision makers.
Motivation: Power transmission networks underpin our way of life and are at the center of the transformation of the US energy system. "Keeping the lights on" as we transform an already large and complicated power system is a fundamental challenge for cyber- physical engineering. Future power networks will be instrumented with synchrophasor measurement units, communication infrastructures and distributed computing, and are therefore prototypical examples of cyber-physical systems with tightly coupled compu- tational and physical resources.
