Structural Monitoring of Dams Using Software Agents
Ingo Mittrup, Dietrich Hartmann · 2005
The present paper reflects the development of an innovative, agent-based software system for structural monitoring of dams which is capable of supporting the collaborative work of experts involved in monitoring. In contrast to conventional software systems, the agent-based approach is focusing on the distributed work flow of structural monitoring and considers structural monitoring as a result of collaborative work. For this, the complete work flow of dam monitoring is mapped onto a multi-agent system: the involved human experts are represented by personal agents, which assist the human experts in their daily work and allow a direct communication between the experts and the multi-agent system. In addition, regularly performed tasks are carried out by task-oriented agents. Supporting the collaborative work of multiple experts and the access to electronic measurement and control systems, the introduced concept provides a significant enhancement compared to existing monitoring applications. The present paper gives a short introduction to dam monitoring, then, outlines the conceptual design of the monitoring system and presents an insight into the current implementation. It is to be pointed out that the realization is still incomplete and a part of ongoing research.