Autonomous Monitoring of Masonry Dams Based on Multi- Agent Technology

Kay Smarsly1 and Dietrich Hartmann2 Summary This paper summarizes the results of a study investigating multi-agent technology deployed for decentralized, autonomous dam monitoring. Multi-agent systems, representing decentralized computing systems, have been used in artificial intelligence research for many years to tackle problems that are difficult or impossible to be solved by individual computational entities or by monolithic computer systems. In this study, a multi-agent system consisting of multiple intelligent software entities, referred to as “software agents”, is designed for decentralized, autonomous monitoring of masonry dams. The multi-agent system, implemented in terms of an “agent-based monitoring system”, autonomously collects and analyzes sensor data recorded from the dam, e.g. pore pressure, displacement, and temperature. The software agents are situated on individual computer systems to proactively solve monitoring tasks, such as data acquisition, data storage, data analysis, and automated generation of safety reports. The agent-based monitoring system is validated using sensor data recorded from a masonry dam in Germany. In this paper it is demonstrated that, compared to conventional monitoring strategies, the agent-based approach significantly enhances the flexibility and scalability of dam monitoring systems.