A Generic Strategy Framework for Policy-directed Autonomous Trading Agents

In this paper, a strategy framework for coordinating decentralized autonomous agents is presented and applied within a smart energy grid. The framework brings together the concept of policy-based computing and market-based coordination. In this context, agents can be seen as self-interested entities that are governed by their local policies. Efficient coordination between these self-interested agents is realized through a market mechanism that incentivizes the agents to reveal their policies to the market. By knowing the agent’s policies, an efficient solution for the overall system can be determined. Leveraging a declarative, policy-based approach facilities the specification of highly customizable strategies that can be easily adapted to various resources and markets. As an example for a realworld application, the framework is used for efficient balancing of decentralized energy supply (e.g. photovoltaic, wind power, CHP) and demand (e.g. households, businesses) in a power grid.