Autonomous distributed control involving constraint on resources
First Claim
1. A method for use in a system including:
- a plurality of entities (agents) each adapted to exhibit a specific performance while consuming a resource;
a mechanism adapted to supply the resource to each of said entities;
a mechanism provided in each of said entities to accept the resource; and
means provided in each of said entities to carry out a committing function of effecting said specific performance, or an actuation device provided in each of said entities to effect said specific performance, said method being designed to satisfy a constraint on an aggregated resource to be input from said resource supply mechanism into the entire system, and simultaneously control the respective specific performances of said entities, said method comprising;
providing a network adapted to connect between respective ones of said entities so as to allow data about the resource consumption and the specific performance in each of said entities to be exchanged therebetween, and communication means having a function of transmitting and receiving said data;
assigning to each of said entities a target index with which said specific performance is to be brought into conformity within an allowable range around said target index;
assigning to each of said entities an interval reference index during which the resource is input into said entity;
providing means for carrying out a function of measuring the specific performance or the resource consumption in each of said entities;
providing to each of said entities means for carrying out a software function of autonomously and cooperatively determining a strategy;
allowing said entities to take turns to perform said software function,wherein said software function includes, when each of said entities is assigned with an initial index of said interval reference index, and dynamically shifted between two roles of a server and a client, dynamically performing four actions of said server consisting of bidding, evaluating, committing and shifting, or an action of said client consisting of reporting, so as to allow said entities to distributedly perform a processing of determining a strategy for the entire system; and
wherein the software function in any selected one of said entities to whom said role of said server is delegated according to said shifting action, further comprises;
performing said committing the resource consumption in said selected entity to bring said specific performance into conformity to said target index or maintain said specific performance at said target index;
performing said bidding action to collect first data about a difference index between an actual specific performance and said target index in each of the remaining entities and second data about a difference index between said assigned interval reference index allowing the resource to be consumed at a predetermined index, and an actual number of time-frames in an elapsed time period after the latest turn-on instance in each of said remaining entities;
performing said evaluating action to select one of said remaining entities which is to be allowed to commit the resource consumption in a subsequent time-frame; and
performing said shifting action to delegate an authority to determine said strategy.
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Abstract
Disclosed is a distributed control method of cooperatively allowing a control strategy for satisfying a constraint on an aggregated resource and simultaneously achieving or maintaining a performance of a system to be determined in a real-time manner by any one of a plurality of entities which have the highest need for the resource at any given time, without providing a specified management entity. The proposed method or “card game scheme” of the present invention is designed to dynamically carry out a function of satisfying a constraint on an aggregate resource and simultaneously achieving or maintaining a performance of the entire system, based on a distributed control with high flexibility, wherein an “agent”, i.e., a software having a function of performing autonomous determination and control, is set in each of the entities, to allow the entities to dynamically take turns to perform a processing of determining a strategy for resource allocation.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. A method for use in a system including:
- a plurality of entities (agents) each adapted to exhibit a specific performance while consuming a resource;
a mechanism adapted to supply the resource to each of said entities;
a mechanism provided in each of said entities to accept the resource; and
means provided in each of said entities to carry out a committing function of effecting said specific performance, or an actuation device provided in each of said entities to effect said specific performance, said method being designed to satisfy a constraint on an aggregated resource to be input from said resource supply mechanism into the entire system, and simultaneously control the respective specific performances of said entities, said method comprising;providing a network adapted to connect between respective ones of said entities so as to allow data about the resource consumption and the specific performance in each of said entities to be exchanged therebetween, and communication means having a function of transmitting and receiving said data; assigning to each of said entities a target index with which said specific performance is to be brought into conformity within an allowable range around said target index; assigning to each of said entities an interval reference index during which the resource is input into said entity; providing means for carrying out a function of measuring the specific performance or the resource consumption in each of said entities; providing to each of said entities means for carrying out a software function of autonomously and cooperatively determining a strategy; allowing said entities to take turns to perform said software function, wherein said software function includes, when each of said entities is assigned with an initial index of said interval reference index, and dynamically shifted between two roles of a server and a client, dynamically performing four actions of said server consisting of bidding, evaluating, committing and shifting, or an action of said client consisting of reporting, so as to allow said entities to distributedly perform a processing of determining a strategy for the entire system; and wherein the software function in any selected one of said entities to whom said role of said server is delegated according to said shifting action, further comprises; performing said committing the resource consumption in said selected entity to bring said specific performance into conformity to said target index or maintain said specific performance at said target index; performing said bidding action to collect first data about a difference index between an actual specific performance and said target index in each of the remaining entities and second data about a difference index between said assigned interval reference index allowing the resource to be consumed at a predetermined index, and an actual number of time-frames in an elapsed time period after the latest turn-on instance in each of said remaining entities; performing said evaluating action to select one of said remaining entities which is to be allowed to commit the resource consumption in a subsequent time-frame; and performing said shifting action to delegate an authority to determine said strategy. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
- a plurality of entities (agents) each adapted to exhibit a specific performance while consuming a resource;
Specification