ORCHID
ORCHID seeks to establish the new science that is needed to understand, build and apply 'human-agent collectives'; systems that symbiotically interleave human and computer systems to an unprecedented degree. It will develop and apply results in the areas of artificial intelligence, agent-based computing, machine learning, decentralised information systems, participatory systems, and ubiquitous computing to drive the science of HACs to real-world applications in the critical domains of future energy networks, and disaster response. For more information see the project website.
Intelligent Decentralised Energy-Aware Systems
The iDEaS project aims to explore the issues associated with the decentralised control, operation and management of future generation electricity networks. It is targeted at scenarios in which micro-generation and storage capabilities are ubiquitous, where intelligent sensing devices allow users to make informed choices about the control of devices in their home, and where producers and consumers are connected via a series of dynamically negotiated supply contracts. This is an industrially funded project from a Hampshire-based company. For more information see the project website.
Intelligent Agents for Home Energy Management
This project is seeking to develop intelligent agents (and other machine learning techniques) within the smart grid in order to reduce energy use within domestic settings. The project brings together an interdisciplinary team comprising experts in the fields of intelligent agents and multi-agent systems (School of Electronics and Computer Science), renewable energy and energy efficiency in the built environment, and human factors in the design of automated control and feedback systems (Sustainable Energy Research Group and Transportation Research Group in the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment) at the University of Southampton. The project is funded under the EPSRC `Transforming Energy Demand through Digital Innovation' call. For more information see the project website.
Building Banter
This project is seeking to develop the sensing and inference infrastructure require to facilitate novel interactions that will assist a building's users in reducing energy consumption. It will specifically focus on commercial and industrial buildings. The project involves a multi-disciplinary team involving both academic and commerical partners and is funded through the TSB/EPSRC Sandpit on 'Energy Efficiency in Buildings'. For more information see the project website.
Control and Management of Autonomous Mobile Sensors
This project addresses the challenge of developing effective and computational efficient inference and coordination algorithms in order to allow multiple mobile (and stationary) sensors to form agile teams such that they can efficiently represent, explore and search challenging, uncertain and dynamic environments. Working in collaboration with the University of Oxford, the project will combine fundamental theory, algorithms and methodologies from the fields of multi-agent systems, decentralised control and Bayesian inference to allow physically distributed autonomous sensors to make effective, timely and coordinated decisions. For more information see the project website.
ALADDIN
ALADDIN is developing mechanisms, architectures, and techniques to deal with the dynamic and uncertain nature of distributed and decentralised intelligent systems in the domain of disaster response. It is is a multi-million pound multi-disciplinary research project and is funded by a BAE Systems and EPSRC strategic partnership. It involves a number of leading research groups from Imperial College London, University of Southampton, University of Bristol, and Oxford University. For more information see the project website.
Adaptive Energy-Aware Sensor Networks
This project seeks to demonstrate the use of agent-based coordination algorithms within energy-harvesting sensors (i.e. sensors are capable of understanding, predicting and managing their own energy production). It is a collaborative project across two groups within the School of Electronics and Computer Science (IAM and ESD) and is funded through the DIF DTC. For more information see the project website.
ARGUS II DARP
Now completed, ARGUS II developed distributed and reactive agent-based data and information fusion systems that were capable of adapting to their environment and making the best use of whatever information is available. The project was a collaborative research programme under the Defence and Aerospace Research Programme (DARP) 2002 initiative sponsored by sponsored by the DIUS, MoD, EPSRC, QinetiQ, Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems. For more information see the project website.