One of the major planning problems faced by medium and large manufacturing enterprises is the distribution of production over various (production) facilities. The need for cross-facility capacity management is most evident in the high-tech industries having capital-intensive equipment and short technology life cycle. There have been solutions proposed in the literature that are based on the lagragian decomposition method which separate the overall multiple product problem into a number of single product problems. We believe that multi-agent systems, given their distributed problem solving approach can be used to solve this problem, in its entirety, more effectively. According to other researchers who have worked in this field, auction theoretic mechanisms are a good way to solve complex production planning problems. This research study develops a multi-agent system and negotiation protocol based on combinatorial auction framework to solve the given multi-facility planning problem. The output of this research is a software library, which can be used as a multi-agent system model of the multi-product, multi-facility capacity allocation problem. The negotiation protocol for the agents is based on an iterative combinatorial auction framework which can be used for making allocation decisions in this environment in real-time. A simulator based on this library is created to validate the multi-agent model as well as the auction theoretic framework for different scenarios in the problem domain. The planning software library is created using open source standards so that it can be seamlessly integrated with scheduling library being developed as a part of the Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) system project or any other software suite which might require this functionality. The research contribution of this study is in terms of a new multi-agent architecture for an Advanced Planning and Control (APS) system as well as a novel iterative combinatorial auction mechanism which can be used as an agent negotiation protocol within this architecture. The theoretical concepts introduced by this research are implemented in the MultiPlanner production planning tool which can be used for generating master production plans for manufacturing enterprises. The validation process carried out on both the iterative combinatorial framework and the agent-based production planning methodology demonstrate that the proposed solution strategies can be used for integrated decision making in the multi-product, multi-facility production planning domain. Also, the software tool developed as part of this research is a robust, platform independent tool which can be used by manufacturing enterprises to make relevant production planning decisions. / Master of Science

Abstract The Internet of Things vision proposes a global platform in an unforeseen scale for distributed applications that rely on data provided by interconnected resource-constrained things. In such large-scale systems, centralized control of system operation by a single component through vertical interactions becomes unfeasible. Ideally, decentralized control in the proximity of things enables to take into account the local dynamic resource availability and environmental characteristics that are used to optimize the application execution. To realize decentralization, capabilities for horizontal interactions, that complement the vertical interactions, and for opportunistic participation of things are needed. This thesis explores mobile agent technology to implement distributed Internet of Things applications that benefit from both vertical and horizontal interactions of the application components. First, a resource-oriented reactive mobile agent architecture and a software framework are presented. The framework facilitates RESTful interactions between agents and other system components and provides a REST-based interface to build opportunistic agent-based applications. Two agent platforms are presented that integrate resource-constrained things into the framework as mobile agent hosts. Second, mobile agent based mobile crowdsensing and edge computing applications are evaluated with large-scale simulations and real-world experiments. The results show that energy consumption is decreased in the participating things, in comparison with the existing approaches, by agent-based in-network data processing and control of the thing operation. This thesis makes a valuable contribution by enabling mobile agent operations in a heterogeneous set of resource-constrained things. The presented empirical evidence shows how mobile agent technology increases energy efficiency in distributed application execution. The presented mobile agent architecture and software framework potentially accelerate the utilization of mobile agent technology in the Internet of Things. / Tiivistelmä Esineiden Internet liittää resurssirajoitteiset sulautetut laitteet laajamittaisesti Internet-verkkoon, jossa niiden tuottamaa tietoa hyödynnetään hajautettujen järjestelmien sovelluksissa. Esineiden Internetin järjestelmien odotetaan skaalautuvan niin laajoiksi, ettei keskitetty, vertikaaliseen vuorovaikutukseen perustuva järjestelmähallinta ole enää käyttökelpoinen ratkaisu. Hajautettu hallinta lähellä tietoa tuottavia laitteita tuo etuja, kun paikallisesti sovelluksen suorituksessa otetaan huomioon toimintaympäristön tila ja voidaan reagoida dynaamisesti resurssien saatavuuteen. Hajautus Esineiden Internetin sovellusalustoilla edellyttää menetelmiä sekä laitteiden vertikaaliseen ja horisontaaliseen vuorovaikutukseen, että niiden dynaamisen osallistumisen mahdollistamiseksi sovelluksen suorittamisessa. Tässä työssä tutkittiin mobiiliagentti-teknologiaa hajautettujen sovellusten toteuttamiseen Esineiden Internet-ympäristössä. Työssä esitettiin resurssisuuntautunut arkkitehtuuri reaktiivisille mobiiliagenteille sekä ohjelmistokehys, joita käyttäen voidaan toteuttaa agenttipohjaisia hajautettuja sovelluksia. Ohjelmistokehys perustuu REST-arkkitehtuurimalliin, jonka pohjalta esitettiin yhdenmukainen rajapinta agenttien ja järjestelmäkomponenttien väliseen vuorovaikutukseen. Ohjelmistokehyksen osana toteutettiin kaksi mobiiliagentti-ohjelmistoalustaa resurssirajoitteisille sulautetuille laitteille. Työssä tarkasteltiin mobiiliagentti-pohjaisten Esineiden Internet-sovellusten energiatehokkuutta simuloinneilla sekä tosielämän kokeilla. Tarkastelun kohteeksi valittiin joukkoistettu mobiilihavainnointi sekä reunalaskennan ulottaminen resurssirajoitteisiin laitteisiin. Saadut tulokset osoittavat, että laitteiden energiankulutusta voidaan pienentää verrattuna aiemmin esitettyihin ratkaisuihin hyödyntämällä mobiiliagentteja tiedonkäsittelyyn laitteessa sekä laitteen toiminnan ohjaamiseen. Työssä esitetty resurssisuuntautunut mobiiliagenttiarkkitehtuuri sekä ohjelmistokehys edesauttavat mobiiliagentti-teknologian hyödyntämistä resurssirajoitteisissa sulautetuissa laitteissa. Tosielämän kokeista saadut tulokset osoittavat mobiiliagenttiteknologian hyötyjä hajautettujen sovellusten toteuttamisessa Esineiden Internetiin.

The field training of army units includes high financial, material and human resource investments. From this reason, an emphasis on the simulator training of these units arised recently. But the training in simulator needs to have the simulated units as intelligent as a human beings are, so the field training with real human opponents can be successfully replaced with the simulator training. This work deals with the design of fighting unit's intelligent behaviour, that will be applicable in the E-COM simulator environment. Work covers the description of intelligent agents and ways how to achieve their rational and autonomous behaviour. The proposal and the analysis of intelligent fighting unit's implementation and unit's communication with surrounding environment, basic implementation of this proposal and experiments with created implementation are also described in this work.

Present-day Agent Based Modelling is used to simulate complex systems in which agents are explicitly heterogeneous. Researchers within the field of ABM have a set of tools at their disposal, yet little is known about the usability and learnability of these systems. Information Architecture establishes a set of guidelines for constructing digital spaces that facilitate the fulfilment of the user’s goal; these guidelines are expressed as Principles of Information Architecture and categories of user behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to determine the needs of ABM researchers and explore how scientific software can be improved to better support them in their work. A System Usability Scale questionnaire quantifies the current level of usability on ABM frameworks while semi-structured interviews with six expert modellers provide data on user needs and user behaviour. The participants are allowed to review more than one ABM framework by means of questionnaires and a cognitive walkthrough that exposes GUI elements and other framework features linked to procedural steps of modelling. Information Architecture principles are exposed in each interface along with user behaviour categories. Albeit limited in its scope of participants, the survey with in-depth interviews provides valuable information on the needs of domain experts. Data is analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively; the paper follows, therefore, a mixed-method approach. It is proven that, at the present moment, most ABM frameworks fail to meet established standards for usability and learnability. User needs are exposed through an analysis of the data reported by experts. Finally, considerations are presented upon the impact of implementing Information Architecture guidelines within ABM frameworks.

No description available.

Cette thèse présente PARDISIM, un modèle de simulation qui propose uneapproche économique institutionnelle pour la simulation du processus dedéveloppement résidentiel. Plutôt que de modéliser le développement résidentielcomme le résultat de choix de localisation au niveau des ménages, PARDISIMmet l’accent sur les objectifs et les interactions des acteurs du développementrésidentiel. L’idée est que les acteurs du développement, y compris les au-torités publiques d’aménagement, jouent un rôle important dans le processusde développement résidentiel. L’approche est donc top-down et se démarquedes approches habituelles bottom-up. Les premiers résultats obtenus montrentque PARDISIM est capable de produire des configurations spatiales réalistes. / This thesis presents PARDISIM, a simulation model that takes an institutionaleconomic approach in the simulation of the residential development process.Rather then modelling the residential development as the result of locationchoices at household level, PARDISIM focusses on the objectives and interac-tions of development actors. The idea behind this approach is that developmentactors, including public planning authorities, play an important role in the pro-cess of residential development. The model is top-down whereas the most recentefforts by other scholars focus instead on a bottom-up approach. Initial testingshows that PARDISIM is capable of producing realistic spatial patterns. / Dit proefschrift presenteert PARDISIM, een simulatiemodel dat een institu-tioneel economische benadering toepast in de simulatie van de ontwikkeling vanwoningbouw. In plaats van deze ontwikkeling te definiëren als gevolg van locatiekeuzes op huishoudniveau, richt PARDISIM zich op de doelstellingen en de in-teracties van actoren met een professioneel belang in de stedelijke ontwikkeling.Het idee achter deze aanpak is dat deze actoren, waaronder ondermeer localeoverheden, een belangrijke rol spelen in het proces van de ontwikkeling vanwoningbouw. Het model is top-down terwijl de meest recente inspanningen inde literatuur een bottom-up benadering toepassen. Uit de eerste testresultatenblijkt dat PARDISIM in staat is realistische, ruimtelijke configuraties te pro-duceren.

Many real-world decision processes require solving optimization problems which may involve different types of constraints such as inequality and equality constraints. The hurdles in solving these Constrained Optimization Problems (COPs) arise from the challenge of searching a huge variable space in order to locate feasible points with acceptable solution quality. Over the last decades Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) have brought a tremendous advancement in the area of computer science and optimization with their ability to solve various problems. However, EAs have inherent difficulty in dealing with constraints when solving COPs. This thesis presents a new Agent-based Memetic Algorithm (AMA) for solving COPs, where the agents have the ability to independently select a suitable Life Span Learning Process (LSLP) from a set of LSLPs. Each agent represents a candidate solution of the optimization problem and tries to improve its solution through cooperation with other agents. Evolutionary operators consist of only crossover and one of the self-adaptively selected LSLPs. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on benchmark problems, and the experimental results show convincing performance. The quality of individuals in the initial population influences the performance of evolutionary algorithms, especially when the feasible region of the constrained optimization problems is very tiny in comparison to the entire search space. This thesis proposes a method that improves the quality of randomly generated initial solutions by sacrificing very little in diversity of the population. The proposed Search Space Reduction Technique (SSRT) is tested using five different existing EAs, including AMA, by solving a number of state-of-the-art test problems and a real world case problem. The experimental results show SSRT improves the solution quality, and speeds up the performance of the algorithms. The handling of equality constraints has long been a difficult issue for evolutionary optimization methods, although several methods are available in the literature for handling functional constraints. In any optimization problems with equality constraints, to satisfy the condition of feasibility and optimality the solution points must lie on each and every equality constraint. This reduces the size of the feasible space and makes it difficult for EAs to locate feasible and optimal solutions. A new Equality Constraint Handling Technique (ECHT) is presented in this thesis, to enhance the performance of AMA in solving constrained optimization problems with equality constraints. The basic concept is to reach a point on the equality constraint from its current position by the selected individual solution and then explore on the constraint landscape. The technique is used as an agent learning process in AMA. The experimental results confirm the improved performance of the proposed algorithm. This thesis also proposes a Modified Genetic Algorithm (MGA) for solving COPs with equality constraints. After achieving inspiring performance in AMA when dealing with equality constraints, the new technique is used in the design of MGA. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm overcomes the limitations of GA in solving COPs with equality constraints, and provides good quality solutions.

Cette thèse présente l'utilisation conjointe de la théorie de l'évidente et du suivi multi-hypothèses pour la modélisation et la gestion d'un système de suivi multi-caméras dans un environnement autoroutier. Le suivi est basé sur la ré-identification des objets (véhicules) sur la base d'information visio-temporelles. Une concrétisation de ces concepts se traduit par la conception et la mise en oeuvre d'une architecture logicielle multi-agents de gestion du suivi multi-caméras. Après une présentation de l'état de l'art sur les cadres de gestion de l'incertain et celui relatif à fusion de l'information pour la mise en correspondance, et sur les systèmes multi-agents, notre apport dans ce travail se situe à trois niveaux. Le premier a été une adaptation de la phase de décision du modèle de croyance transférable pour y intégrer l'utilisation du suivi multi-hypothèses comme outil de levée d'ambigüité rn cas d'indécision face à une situation de mise en correspondance. Le second apport a été celui de proposer une architecture logicielle à base d'agents pour la gestion du système du suivi multi-caméras. Nous en avons proposé la modélisation globale ainsi que celle des agents et de leurs interactions en utilisant une démarche personnelle d'analyse mais toutefois inspirée de langages et outils de modélisation tels que Agent UML et MaSE pour ne citer que ceux-là, du fait qu'il n'existe pas réellement un standard normalisé à ce jour dans ce domaine. Notre troisième apport a été de faire un début d'implémentation de notre architecture logicielle à base d'agent en nous basant sur la plateforme JADE (Java Agent DEvelopment Framework). Quelques expérimentations et discussions des résultats sont présentées à la fin pour déboucher sur nos conclusions et perspectives. / This thesis presents the joint use of the theory of evidence and multiple hypothesis tracking for modeling and managing a system for monitoring multiple cameras in a motorway. The tracking is based on the re-identification of objects (vehicles) on the basis of visuals and times informations. A realization of these concepts results in the design and implementation of a software architecture for multiple agents management of multiple camera tracking system. After presenting the state of the art on the frameworks of uncertainty management and that on information fusion for the matching, and the multi-agent systems, our contribution in this work is on two or three levels. The first was an adaptation of the decision phase of the transferable belief model to incorporate the use of multi-hypotheses tracking as a tool of ambiguity survey in case of indecision in matching situation. The second contribution was a proposition of agent-based software architecture for management of a multiple cameras tracking system. We have proposed the global system modeling as well as agents and their interactions modeling using a personal analysis method but nevertheless inspired by modelisation languages and tolls such as Agent UML, MaSE and others, because there is not yet a standard and normalized tool on the subject. Our third contribution was to begin an implementation of our agent-based software architecture using JADE (Java Agent Development Framework). Some experiment and discussions are presented at the end to lead to our conclusions and perspectives.

This term project desribes simulator of multiagent system implementation. It explains basic concepts of agent and multiagent systems. Simulator is implemented as a separated object, which allows to join various models of environment and agents acting in this environment. Evaluation of several types of agent cooperation behavior is in last section of this project.

Le développement et la multiplication des systèmes et plateformes informatiques pour accéder à de l'information ne fait que s'accentuer depuis une trentaine d'années. Le grand volume d'information disponible a soulevé de nombreux défis scientifiques dans des domaines tel que la recherche d'information. Pour accéder à des documents regroupés dans un corpus numérique, il faut être en mesure d'exprimer son besoin en information, souvent sous la forme d'une requête, d'y associer les documents pertinents et de les présenter de la meilleure manière possible aux utilisateurs. La recherche documentaire dans un corpus documentaire thématique présentant un haut niveau de technicité dans la discipline concernée s'apparente à un processus de navigation guidé par un besoin d'information d'un utilisateur. Cette navigation nécessite l'usage d'outils classiques de recherche d'information pour sélectionner des documents pertinents en fonction d'une requête, mais ils doivent être complétés par des mécanismes de personnalisation et d'adaptation capable de faire évoluer la représentation du besoin en fonction des spécificités d'un utilisateur, de sa navigation en cours ou du corpus considéré. En effet, l'accès aux documents d'un corpus numérique soulève des problèmes liés à la recherche d'information, à la visualisation des résultats d'une requête et à la navigation entre les documents. Le processus de recherche d'information nécessite des améliorations et surtout l'intégration de l'utilisateur comme facteur principal à prendre en compte dans la recherche de satisfaction de son besoin informationnel. Nous considérons plusieurs approches pour aider un utilisateur dans sa recherche de documents. Une première assistance porte sur la reformulation de requêtes en visant un public d'utilisateurs peu familier avec les termes techniques du domaine et en difficulté pour exprimer sous la forme d'une requête leur besoin. La deuxième approche que nous proposons consiste à ne pas considérer l'utilisateur isolément mais à le rapprocher de ceux ayant exprimé des recherches similaires pour retrouver les documents qu'ils avaient jugés pertinents. Enfin, nous incluons des travaux issus du domaine de la recommandation afin de mieux cerner le besoin informationnel de l'utilisateur et l'aider à trouver plus facilement ce qu'il cherche en lui recommandant des ressources documentaires. Nous proposons dans cette thèse de traiter cette diversité d'influence par un système multi-agent interagissant par un environnement partagé représentant la navigation des utilisateurs, de manière à pouvoir adapter le système en utilisant l'une ou l'autre des techniques d'assistance proposées en fonction de l'expertise de l'utilisateur. Ce travail a été appliqué à une recherche documentaire dans un corpus numérique de documents juridiques. / The development and multiplication of information systems and platforms for information access has been accentuated over the past thirty years. The large volume of information available has raised many scientific challenges in different areas such as information retrieval. To access documents grouped in a digital corpus, one must be able to express his/her information need, often in the form of a query, to associate the relevant documents and present them in the best possible way to users. Document research in a thematic digital corpus presenting a high level of technicality in the concerned discipline can be considered as a browsing process driven by some information needs. Such browses requires the use of traditional information retrieval tools to select relevant documents based on a query But they can be improved by the use of customization and adaptation mechanisms in order to refine the representation of information needs according to the specificities of a user, his current browsing or the corpus considered. Indeed, access to digital documents raises problems related to the search for information, the visualization of the results of a query and the browsing between the documents. The process of information retrieval requires to be improved and especially by the integration of the user as a main factor to take into account in the search for satisfaction of his/her information needs. We consider several approaches to help users in their search for documents. A first assistance concerns the reformulation of queries by targeting an audience of users unfamiliar with the technical terms of the field and struggling to express in the form of a query their need. The second approach that we propose is not to consider the user in isolation but to bring it closer to those who have expressed similar research to find the documents they considered relevant. Finally, we include works from the field of the recommendation to better understand the informational needs of the user and help them find what they are looking for by recommending documentary resources. In this thesis, we propose to treat this diversity of influence by a multi-agent system interacting with a shared environment representing the users browsing so that the system may be adapted to use either assistance facilities according to the user's expertise. We applied our work for document research in a digital corpus of legal documents.