Advantages of MAS for the Resolution of a Power Management Problem in Smart Homes

This paper contributes to the design of intelligent buildings. A MultiAgents Home Automation System (MAHAS) is proposed which controls appliances and energy sources in buildings. The objective of this paper is to show that by using intelligent agents related to appliances, it is possible to improve the energy consumption/production in buildings. The proposed MAHAS system is characterised by its openness, its scalability and its capability to manage diversity. In this paper, we show how a multi-agent system, well adapted to solve problems spatially distributed and opened, can dynamically adapt the consumption of energy to various constraints by exploiting the flexibilities of the services provided by domestic devices (services shifting, energy accumulating). Finally, we conclude on the contribution of Multi-Agent approach to the power management problem.