Agent-based control systems for operation and management of intelligent network-enabled devices

This paper outlines an agent-based control approach for operation and management of network-enabled devices that exhibit intelligent behaviors cost effectively. The basic idea is to transform control algorithms into control agents in networked environments under distributed system architectures and new hosting mechanisms for performing operational and control functions. Issues related to modeling and analysis of agent-based control processes as well as corresponding software platforms and middlewares are addressed here. Finally, case studies of agent-based control in real-world industrial applications are described and discussed.