Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: A Short Introduction for Power Engineers

More than twenty years of research in the field of agents and multi-agent systems have
offered remarkable results from both theoretical and practical point of view. However, after so
many years of the research there is no general consensus on some basic notions such as “what
is an agent?”, “what is a multi-agent systems”, agreement on the terminology used, etc.
Indeed, this fact makes confused those interested in applying agent based or multi-agent based
technology to solve practical problems. This short note is intended to serve as a “gentle”
introduction to the field of agents and multi-agent systems particularly for those interested in
using these technologies in solving practical engineering problems. The main purpose of the
note is to familiarize readers with basic terminology and definitions. This note will not
enumerate (many) and elaborate different views on the subject but rather presents a view on
the subject that (according to authors of the note) may help engineering people to get feeling
on this important subject. Throughout of this note, when deemed necessary, simple examples
are provided to illustrate different concepts. All the examples are based on the idea to use
agent or multi-agent technology to design effective load shedding scheme. For readers
interested for a deeper inside in the subject, from different points of view, this note offers at
the end a list of useful references and links.