Design Support for Multi-Agent Controller Specification in 20-Sim

Practical complex control problems are often solved using multiple control algorithms. In such cases a complex problem is divided into smaller simpler problems for which separate local controllers can be developed. These local controllers may work together to solve the complete problem. Multi Agentbased Controllers (MAC) are based on this idea. To aid in the design of Multi Agent-based Control (MAC) systems, an agent-based implementation framework has been developed in the past. An XML based specification language for MAC systems, MacsML (Multi-Agent Controller Specification Markup Language) has also been defined. A support tool is available which is able to generate C++ controller code from a specification of a MAC in MacsML. The generated code can be compiled and used for real-time control or compiled as a Dynamic Link Library (dll) and incorporated and tested in the 20-Sim simulation environment. Manual specification of multi-agent controller systems in MacsML using a plain text editor is a tedious task, prone to errors. In this project design specifications have been given allowing a designer to describe a multi-agent controller in a hierarchical and user-friendly manner in the 20-Sim simulation environment. A software tool, 20-MACS (20-Sim Multi-Agent Controller Specification) has been developed that is able to convert the 20-Sim MAC description into MacsML. An existing multi-agent controller described in MacsML has been described in the 20-Sim environment. The 20-MACS software tool was successfully used to recreate the MacsML specification of the controller. From this specification a controller has been built in the form of a dynamic link library which has been used in a 20-Sim simulation of a mechatronic setup (DemoLin).