Agent-based control systems
Nicholas R. Jennings, Stefan Bussmann · ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) · 2003
This article has sought to justify precisely why agent-oriented approaches are well suited to developing complex software systems in general and control systems in particular. These general points are then made concrete by showing how they apply in two very different agent-based control systems--Iber- 26 drola's electricity transportation management system and DaimlerChrysler's manufacturing line control system. In making these arguments, proponents of other software engineering paradigms can claim that the key concepts of agent-oriented computing can be reproduced using their technique. This is undoubt- edly true. Agent-oriented systems are, after all, computer programs, and all programs have the same set of computable functions. However, this misses the point. The value of a paradigm is the mindset and the techniques it provides to software engineers. In this respect, agent-oriented concepts and techniques are both well suited to developing complex, distributed systems and an extension of those currently available in other paradigms