Multi-agent systems to improve efficiency in steelworks

Abstract

A multi-agent system consists of several computational entities capable of autonomous actions, called agents, which communicate with each other, and have the ability to coordinate their actions and to cooperate. Multi-agent systems received a great interest and attention over time, as they can be seen as a key enabling technology for complex applications, where distributed and processing of data, autonomy, and high degree of interactions in dynamic environments are required at the same time. Therefore, in view of current and future developments of the digitalization of industrial production cycles promoted by Industry 4.0, multi-agent systems are foreseen to play an increasing role for industrial production management and optimization. Because of barriers represented by large presence of legacy systems, in the steel sector agent-based technology is not widely applied yet, and multi-agent systems applications are very few. On the other hand, steel manufacturing industries are complex and dynamic systems whose production processes held a strategic role in the global economy. During last decades, the steel sector has undergone relevant transformations, especially through the massive digitalization and the innovation introduced by Industry 4.0. A further evolution is foreseen in the incoming years to improve the sustainability of the production cycle by improving energy and resource efficiency. Therefore, steel industries must face several challenges on the path toward the factory of the future. In such context multi-agent systems, through their intrinsic properties, such as autonomy, social abilities, reactivity, proactivity, and mobility, can overcome existing drawbacks and barriers, by increasing flexibility, improving resources efficiency, handling production operations, reacting to unpredicted events, optimizing production processes, and supporting legacy systems. In this paper, some applications of multi-agent systems in steel sector are presented to show the advantages and opportunities of agent-based technology.

Hydrogen intensified synthesis processes to valorise process off-gases in integrated steelworks

“…Final investigations concerned techno-economic, costs and business case analyses for facilitating the implementation of i 3 upgrade solutions in the steelworks. It is important to highlight that prices developments were carried out following references as reported in the following list: * Electricity price low [39] * Electricity price high [40] * Electricity price volatility [41] * MeOH prices (low + high) [42] * NG price low [43] * NG price high [44] * 6.1.5 CO 2 price (low + high) [43] An agent-based model was developed [45] for medium/long term techno-economic scenario investigations/optimization. The behavior of each agent was modelled through a combination of system-dynamics and state charts, which are suited for describing event-and time-driven behaviors.…”

Utilization of Synthetic Steel Gases in an Additively Manufactured Reactor for Catalytic Methanation

“…This skips the step of separation, but leads to other challenges. As the new customers for steel gases are in competition with their previous internal use, a dynamic prediction of the gas volume flows generated in the steel production process and their intelligent distribution to the different plants, adapted to the current market situation, becomes necessary [20][21][22][23][24]. Furthermore, for methanol or methane synthesis, hydrogen must be provided economically at the steelworks' site in addition to the carbon source (BFG/BOFG) in order to be able to set the respective preferred stoichiometric ratio for the reactions [25][26][27] and the reactors used must be able to handle the unconventional feed gases (mixture of CO and CO 2 , high inert gas content of N 2 ).…”

A Qualitative Study of Legacy Systems Modernisation for Citizen-Centric Digital Government

“…The government's digitalisation initiatives are hampered by the presence of legacy systems [13,14]. The rapid advancement of technology has rendered legacy systems to become obsolete and out of step with the digital transformation towards the era of industrial revolution 4.0 [15]. Besides the manufacturing industry, the fourth industrial revolution also impacts ICT, education and labour supply [16][17][18].…”