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ABSTRACT: Today, more than 80% of energy is produced from fossil fuels that pollute the air and surrounding environments each and every day, creating global warming. Therefore it is time to think about alternative sources of energy to build a climate friendly environment. In contrast to fossil fuels, renewable energy offers alternative sources of energy which are in general pollution free, unlimited, and environmentally sustainable. This paper presents a feasibility study undertaken to investigate the prospects of solar energy for the climate similar to Australia so as to further investigate the impacts of renewable energy sources in existing and future smart power systems. The monthly average global solar radiation has been collected for twenty-one locations in Australia from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Hybrid Optimisation Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER), and Renewable-energy and Energy-efficient Technologies (RETScreen) computer tools were used to perform comparative analysis of solar energy with diesel and hybrid systems. Initially, total net present cost (NPC), cost of energy (COE) and the renewable fraction (RF) were measured as performances metrics to compare the performances of different systems. For better optimisation, the model has been refined with a sensitivity analysis which explores performance variations due to solar irradiation and electricity prices. Finally, a statistical analysis was conducted to select the best potential places in Australia that produce maximum solar energy.
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ICECE), 2010 International Conference on; 01/2011
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ABSTRACT: Renewable energy offers alternative sources of energy which is in general pollution free, climate friendly, sustainable and unlimited. Therefore in the starting of 21<sup>st</sup> century, Government, utilities and research communities are working together to develop an intelligent power system that has potential to better integrate renewable energy sources with the grid. However, there are a number of potential challenges in integrating renewable energy with the existing grid due to its intermittent nature. This paper investigates about the potential challenges of integrating renewable energy with the smart power grid including the possible deployment issues for a sustainable future both nationally and internationally. The paper also proposes a prediction model that informs the typical variation of energy production as well as effect on grid integration using modern machine learning techniques.
Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC), 2010 20th Australasian; 01/2011
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ABSTRACT: The Belief, Desires, and Intention (BDI) agent model is used in operations analysis and computer generated forces. It has been shown that the BDI approach to agent programming brings the particular advantage of using terms and concepts that are familiar to all. At present the challenge is to bring this a step forward with appropriate tools and a control environment that enable pilots to operate an uninhabited airborne vehicle (UAV) during mission by means of tactical directives. The BDI model provides a suitable framework for capturing tactical behaviours in the air operation domain. The representation of these behaviours in terms of BDI plans is readily understandable by domain experts. However the current development process requires an experienced BDI developer to work with a domain expert in order to develop an appropriate set of agent behaviours. We would like to remove the BDI developer from the loop - this paper represents a first step in the achievement of that objective. The idea is that for controlling a UAV as an 'autonomous wingman', the pilot instructs the UAV by forming and commanding tactical plans at a suitable level of abstraction. The autonomous wingman would process these plans in the context of common-sense background behaviour. Technically this control environment is a simplified programming environment, where the pilot is presented with a collection of programming 'primitives' of high-level tactical behaviours and world-events based on the platform's sensor system. By combining primitives into plans, the pilot can build up a sensible instruction sequence for the UAV to accomplish particular tasks in ways appropriate for the situation at hand during mission.
Aerospace Conference Proceedings, 2002. IEEE; 02/2002
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ABSTRACT: This paper describes a novel agent-based execution architecture
for manufacturing. Integral to this architecture is the separation of
part processing concerns from manufacturing concerns. Thus we have part
agents which are able to issue and track resource-independent
part-processing requests. An interface agent then transforms a
resource-independent request into one or more resource-dependent
requests and dispatches them to the appropriate manufacturing agents.
Execution of the dispatched requests then proceeds autonomously, taking
into account safety constraints. We also describe an implementation of
this architecture targeted for a robotic assembly cell, located at the
University of Cambridge
Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 2001 IEEE International Conference on; 02/2001
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ABSTRACT: Remote space operations is a very demanding domain for software
systems, requiring the characteristics of high availability, robustness,
autonomy, real-time or near real-time response times, ease of
reprogramming, and low computational footprint. A further desirable
characteristic is the ability for remote systems or vehicles to
collaborate to achieve tasks such as exploration or remote processing or
sensing. Intelligent agent technology has advanced to the point where it
is now finding application in robotic manufacturing, such as the
application described in this paper. The authors believe that many of
the lessons being learned in the collaborative manufacturing domain have
relevance to space operations. This paper describes a novel agent-based
execution architecture. Integral to this architecture is the separation
of part processing concerns from manufacturing concerns. Thus we have
part agents which are able to issue and track resource-independent
part-processing requests. An interface agent then transforms a
resource-independent request into one or more resource-dependent
requests and dispatches them to the appropriate manufacturing agents.
Execution of the dispatched requests then proceeds autonomously, taking
into account safety constraints. We also describe an implementation of
this architecture for a robotic assembly cell located at the University
of Cambridge using JACK Intelligent Agents<sup>TM</sup>. The paper
concludes with the lessons learned from this experiment, and highlights
those of relevance to the domain of space operations
Aerospace Conference, 2001, IEEE Proceedings.; 02/2001
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ABSTRACT: Holonic architectures have been suggested as a possible building
block for future manufacturing systems. The term holonic implies a unit
in manufacturing that demonstrates the dual characteristics of
autonomous behaviour (when required) and the ability to function
cooperatively when the situation requires it. One of the key functions
that is important to both of these properties is the need for the
manufacturing unit to be able to (self) diagnose performance and
functional failures in a systematic manner. This paper proposes a
generic methodology for self-diagnosis within a holonic manufacturing
system, in which faults and problems are analysed as a standard function
of the system
Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 1995. Intelligent Systems for the 21st Century., IEEE International Conference on; 11/1995
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ABSTRACT: Holonic manufacturing is a concept of considerable promise in terms of providing the flexibility and responsiveness required by virtual enterprises. However if this promise is to be realised then two key issues need to be addressed. Firstly, migration strategies need to be developed to enable existing manufacturing systems which use conventional controller technology to progressively incorporate holonic manufacturing concepts. Secondly, holonic manufacturing principles need to be applied and integrated at all levels of the production planning and control process. In this paper, our primary concern is the first issue—we present and evaluate the technical feasibility of a strategy for the incremental introduction of holonic manufacturing principles into existing production control systems. We believe that the approach that we present, through its adoption of a strong part and task execution focus, will provide a sound platform for addressing the second issue.
Computers in Industry.
