Pavel Vrba, Pavel Tichý, Vladimı́r Mařı́k, Kenwood H. Hall, Raymond J. Staron, Francisco Maturana, Petr Kadera,
This paper provides a comprehensive overview of long-term R&D activities of the Rockwell Automation (RA) company in the field of holonic and agent-based manufacturing control systems. It presents a coherent framework of methodologies for designing agent-based control systems, tools that support implementation and validation of them, and agent applications that were developed for various industrial systems. The common attribute is the integration of novel techniques, such as multiagent systems or ...
Tópico(s): Auction Theory and Applications
2010 - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Part C (Applications and Reviews)
Tomáš Kadlec, Pavel Vrba, Pavel Kepka, Thomas Schmitt, Martin Konvička,
Abstract Large populations, seemingly not at risk of extinction, can decline rapidly due to alteration of habitat. This appears to be the case of the butterfly Chazara briseis , which is declining in all of Central and Eastern Europe, even from apparently large areas of its steppe grassland habitats. We combined mark–recapture, allozyme electrophoresis and adult behaviour observation to study the last remaining metapopulation of this once‐widespread butterfly in the Czech Republic. The total population ...
Tópico(s): Species Distribution and Climate Change
2009 - Wiley | Animal Conservation
Robert W. Brennan, Pavel Vrba, Pavel Tichý, Alois Zoitl, Christoph Sünder, Thomas Strasser, Vladimı́r Mařı́k,
This paper provides an overview of current techniques to allow the industrial systems to automatically adapt to change while maintaining predictable and stable system behaviour. This is performed along the dimensions of simple, dynamic and intelligent reconfiguration and focuses on the physical device and software component levels of the shop floor and in particular, on automatic reconfiguration of programmable logic controller systems. Through an analysis of recent work by the authors and others ...
Tópico(s): Real-Time Systems Scheduling
2008 - Elsevier BV | Computers in Industry
Jiřı́ Vrba, Pavel Kosina, Jitka Ulrichová, Martin Modrianský,
Sanguinarine (SA), a member of the benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids, is a potent anti-microbial agent with anti-inflammatory and anti-neoplastic properties. However, toxicity of the alkaloid severely limits its medical applications. Recent report by Williams et al. [Vet. Hum. Toxicol. 42 (2000) 196] implicated rat hepatic cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A2 as a likely modulator of SA toxicity. Indeed, the in vitro toxicity of SA in primary culture of rat hepatocytes and human hepatic cell line HepG2, demonstrated ...
Tópico(s): Drug Transport and Resistance Mechanisms
2004 - Elsevier BV | Toxicology Letters
Oldřich Čížek, Pavel Vrba, Jiří Beneš, Záboj Hrázský, Jiří Koptík, Tomáš Kučera, Pavel Marhoul, Jaroslav Zamecnik, Martin Konvička,
Military training generates frequent and irregular disturbance followed by succession, resulting in fine-scaled mosaics of ecological conditions in military training areas (MTAs). The awareness that MTAs may represent important biodiversity sanctuaries is increasing recently. Concurrently, changes in military doctrine are leading to abandonment of many MTAs, which are being brought under civilian administration and opened for development. We surveyed vascular plants in 43 and butterflies in 41 MTAs ...
Tópico(s): Bryophyte Studies and Records
2013 - Public Library of Science | PLoS ONE
Pavel Vrba, Oldřich Nedvěd, Helena Zahradníčková, Martin Konvička,
Understanding the factors restricting the distribution of some insect species to high altitudes is hindered by poor knowledge of temporal changes in their cold hardiness during overwintering.We studied overwintering larvae of fi ve species of Erebia butterfl ies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) differing in altitudinal distribution: lowland E. medusa
Tópico(s): Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
2017 - Institute of Entomology | European Journal of Entomology
Thomas Strasser, Filip Andrén, Johannes Kathan, Carlo Cecati, Concettina Buccella, Pierluigi Siano, Paulo Leitão, Gulnara Zhabelova, Valeriy Vyatkin, Pavel Vrba, Vladimı́r Mařı́k,
Renewable energy sources are one key enabler to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and to cope with the anthropogenic climate change. Their intermittent behavior and limited storage capabilities present a new challenge to power system operators to maintain power quality and reliability. Additional technical complexity arises from the large number of small distributed generation units and their allocation within the power system. Market liberalization and changing regulatory framework lead to additional ...
Tópico(s): Smart Grid Energy Management
2014 - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
Pavel Vrba, Vladimı́r Mařı́k, Pierluigi Siano, Paulo Leitão, Gulnara Zhabelova, Valeriy Vyatkin, Thomas Strasser,
The intention of this paper is to provide an overview of using agent and service-oriented technologies in intelligent energy systems. It focuses mainly on ongoing research and development activities related to smart grids. Key challenges as a result of the massive deployment of distributed energy resources are discussed, such as aggregation, supply-demand balancing, electricity markets, as well as fault handling and diagnostics. Concepts and technologies like multiagent systems or service-oriented ...
Tópico(s): Microgrid Control and Optimization
2014 - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics
Matthias Müller, Frank-Christian Kühl, Peter Großmann, Pavel Vrba, Klaus Mann,
The influcence of the pulse duration on the emission characteristics of nearly debris-free laser-induced plasmas in the soft x-ray region (λ ≈ 1-5 nm) was investigated, using six different target gases from a pulsed jet. Compared to ns pulses of the same energy, a ps laser generates a smaller, more strongly ionized plasma, being about 10 times brighter than the ns laser plasma. Moreover, the spectra are considerably shifted towards shorter wavelengths. Electron temperatures and densities of the plasma ...
Tópico(s): Atomic and Molecular Physics
2013 - Optica Publishing Group | Optics Express
Vladimı́r Mařı́k, Arnd Schirrmann, Damien Trentesaux, Pavel Vrba,
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Industrial Applications of Holonic and Multi-Agent Systems, HoloMAS 2013, held in Prague, Czech Republic, in Augus
Tópico(s): Optimization and Search Problems
2013 - Springer Science+Business Media | Lecture notes in computer science
Munir Merdan, Thomas Moser, W Sunindyo, Stefan Biffl, Pavel Vrba,
The application of intelligent agent technologies is considered a promising approach to improve system performance in complex and changeable environments. Especially, in the case of unforeseen events, for example, machine breakdowns that usually lead to a deviation from the initial production schedule, a multi-agent approach can be used to enhance system flexibility and robustness. In this paper we apply this approach to revise and re-optimize the dynamic system schedule in response to unexpected ...
Tópico(s): Assembly Line Balancing Optimization
2012 - Taylor & Francis | Journal of Simulation
Paulo Leitão, Vladimı́r Mařı́k, Pavel Vrba,
Industrial agents technology leverages the benefits of multiagent systems, distributed computing, artificial intelligence techniques and semantics in the field of production, services and infrastructure sectors, providing a new way to design and engineer control solutions based on the decentralization of control over distributed structures. The key drivers for this application are the benefits of agent-based industrial systems, namely in terms of robustness, scalability, reconfigurability and productivity, ...
Tópico(s): Flexible and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems
2012 - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics
Vladimı́r Mařı́k, Pavel Vrba, Paulo Leitão,
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Industrial Applications of Holonic and Multi-Agent Systems, HoloMAS 2011, held in Toulouse, France, August 29-31,
Tópico(s): Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Optimization
2011 - Springer Science+Business Media | Lecture notes in computer science
The agent technology provides a new way to design and engineer control solutions based on the decentralization of control over distributed structures, addressing the current requirements for modern control systems in industrial domains. This paper presents the current situation of the development and deployment of agent technology, discussing the initiatives and the current trends faced for a wider dissemination and industrial adoption, based on the work that is being carried out by the IEEE IES ...
Tópico(s): Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence
2011 - Springer Science+Business Media | Lecture notes in computer science
Pavel Vrba, Miloslav Radakovič, Marek Obitko, Vladimı́r Mařı́k,
The manuscript reports on the latest advancements in the field of multi-agent based industrial control systems. It is declared that this area is becoming strongly influenced by the recent massive proliferation of semantic technologies in various fields of software engineering. The application of ontologies for expressing semantics of data does not restrict any longer exclusively on semantic web or semantic web services. Ontologies are being applied for advanced handling, exchanging and reasoning ...
Tópico(s): Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Optimization
2010 - Taylor & Francis | International Journal of Production Research
Marek Obitko, Pavel Vrba, Vladimı́r Mařı́k, Miloslav Radakovič, Petr Kadera,
Distributed intelligent control systems compared to traditional centralized manufacturing architectures provide much more powerful instruments for developing robust, flexible and reconfigurable factory automation systems. The basic characteristic of any distributed system is a communication between the system’s components needed for information exchange and coordination of activities for accomplishing collective goals. To achieve effective knowledge exchange and integration in open, reconfigurable ...
Tópico(s): Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Optimization
2010 - IOS Press | Informatica
Munir Merdan, Thomas Moser, Pavel Vrba, Stefan Biffl,
Increased complexity of current manufacturing systems together with dynamic conditions and permanent demands for flexible and robust functionality makes their management and control very difficult and challenging. Workflow simulation is an effective approach to investigate dynamic workflow scheduling policies and evaluate the overall manufacturing system performance. The results attained in simulation model can give directions on how to maximize system output when selecting an appropriate scheduling ...
Tópico(s): Flexible and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems
2010 - Springer Science+Business Media | The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology
This paper focuses on reconfiguration aspects of agent-based industrial control systems. Reconfiguration is the ability of the control system to modify its behavior to cope with unusual conditions and changes of the production environment like machine breakdowns, product innovations, rush orders, etc. This paper presents a multiagent system dedicated to material flow control-manufacturing agent simulation tool (MAST)-and discusses in detail how agents efficiently cope with the dynamic reconfiguration. ...
Tópico(s): Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Optimization
2009 - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics - Part A Systems and Humans
Pavel Vrba, Miloslav Radakovič, Marek Obitko, Vladimı́r Mařı́k,
The paper reports on the latest R&D activities in the field of agent-based manufacturing control systems. It is documented that this area becomes strongly influenced by the advancements of semantic technologies like the Web Ontology Language. The application of ontologies provides the agents with much more effective means for handling, exchanging and reasoning about the knowledge. The ontology dedicated for semantic description of orders, production processes and material handling tasks in discrete ...
Tópico(s): Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Optimization
2009 - Springer Science+Business Media | Lecture notes in computer science
Marek Obitko, Pavel Vrba, Vladimı́r Mařı́k, Miloslav Radakovič,
Industrial distributed systems aim at robust and flexible control of industrial processes, for which the traditional centralized approaches are not sufficient. The general problem of distributed systems is that they are still tightly coupled from the point of view of system integration and are still far from openness that would enable cooperation at a larger scale without any human intervention. To achieve better operation and integration in an open reconfigurable environment, explicit semantics ...
Tópico(s): Business Process Modeling and Analysis
2008 - Elsevier BV | IFAC Proceedings Volumes
Pavel Vrba, Filip Macůrek, Vladimı́r Mařı́k,
The radio frequency identification (RFID) is a technology for automatic identification of items, particularly in supply chain, but it is becoming increasingly important for industrial applications. Unlike barcode technology that detects the optical signals reflected from barcode labels, RFID uses radio waves to transmit the information from an RFID tag affixed to the physical object. In contrast to today most often use of this technology in warehouse inventory and supply chain, the focus of this ...
Tópico(s): Assembly Line Balancing Optimization
2008 - Elsevier BV | Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence
This paper discusses the role of the simulation in agent-based control systems. It is argued that there is a call for a new class of agent-oriented simulation tools that combine the emulation of the controlled process/manufacturing equipment with the emulation of agent-control activities. It should contain a run-time interface connecting these two emulation systems that allows a smooth shift from the simulation to real-life control reusing completely the agent algorithms. The Manufacturing Agent ...
Tópico(s): Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Optimization
2006 - Inderscience Publishers | International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management
Michal Pěchouček, Shelby G. Thompson, Jeremy Baxter, Graham S. Horn, Koen Kok, C.J. Warmer, René Kamphuis, V. Maric, Pavel Vrba, K.H. Hall, Francisco Maturana, Klaus Dorer, Monique Calisti,
Agent technology provides industrial-applications developers with new abstractions for distributed-system development, new methodological tools, and a set of algorithms for creating autonomous, collaborative systems. Over the past few years, a number of industrial applications have deployed agents. However, a substantial gap still exists between the cutting-edge research carried out mainly in university laboratories and research institutes and the domain-specific industrial applications that commercial ...
Tópico(s): Vehicle Routing Optimization Methods
2006 - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers | IEEE Intelligent Systems
Kenwood H. Hall, Raymond J. Staron, Pavel Vrba,
Currently industrial automation systems are built using a hierarchical top-down approach, yielding tightly coupled and low flexibility systems. Holonic and intelligent agent-based industrial control systems have the potential to be much more highly robust and flexible systems with very loose coupling between subsystems. Despite this potential these systems are slow to be adopted by industry. This paper explores Rockwell Automation's current agent philosophy, application experience, the obstacles ...
Tópico(s): Optimization and Search Problems
2005 - Springer Science+Business Media | Lecture notes in computer science
Pavel Vrba, M. Vrbová, N. A. Bobrova, P. V. Sasorov,
Abstract We performed computer modelling of a fast electrical discharge in a nitrogen-filled alumina capillary in order to discover discharge system parameters that may lead to efficient recombination pumping of soft X-ray laser with active medium created by H-like nitrogen ions. The space-time dependences of pinch plasma quantities were found by means of a one-dimensional MHD code. Time dependences of populations of all ionisation states and populations of selected energy levels of lithium-, helium- ...
Tópico(s): Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research
2005 - De Gruyter Open | Open Physics
Tópico(s): Business Process Modeling and Analysis
2003 - Springer Science+Business Media | Lecture notes in computer science
We present an analysis of a capillary plasma Z-pinch, considered as an alternative to pumping for soft X-ray lasers. The study is based on the so called “snow-plow” model. The influence of an external circuit on the evolution of pinching capillary plasma is assessed. Calculated and measured results of pinch time for various experimental setups are compared.
Tópico(s): Laser Design and Applications
2000 - Wiley | Contributions to Plasma Physics
Jana Šlancarová, Pavel Vrba, Michal Plátek, Michal Zapletal, Lukáš Spitzer, Martin Konvička,
Comparative studies of co-occurring species using overlapping resources may help in understanding the mechanisms supporting biotic diversity in species-rich regions, such as the Mediterranean region of Europe. Three Papilionidae butterflies, Archon apollinus, Zerynthia cerisy and Zerynthia polyxena, develop on Aristolochia plants and co-occur in Greek Thrace. We used mark–recapture to describe adult demography and dispersal, and searched for eggs and larvae to assess host plants and microhabitat ...
Tópico(s): Plant and Fungal Species Descriptions
2015 - Taylor & Francis | Journal of Natural History
K. Koláček, J. Schmidt, V. Boháček, M. Řípa, O. Frolov, Pavel Vrba, Jaroslav Straus, V. Prukner, A. A. Rupasov, A. S. Shikanov,
Tópico(s): Advanced X-ray Imaging Techniques
2008 - Pleiades Publishing | Plasma Physics Reports
Francisco Maturana, Raymond J. Staron, Pavel Tichý, Petr Šlechta, Pavel Vrba,
Classical control systems are based on feedback techniques and models that generally cannot manage computational complexity, nonlinearity and uncertainty. Moreover, classical control cannot adapt well to the variability of the processes under control in a dynamic fashion. However, agent-based control eases combinatorial complexity by enabling a robust partitioning of knowledge and behaviors. It is a difficult challenge to create the infrastructure, development system and validation tools for agent ...
Tópico(s): Business Process Modeling and Analysis
2005 - Springer Science+Business Media | Lecture notes in computer science