Application Examples

Nucleus is a tool that primarily supports the development of small and medium size applications in a “research” environment. Although, by the nature, the framework proposes mostly "generic" components in order to support virtually any type of application, we strive to provide a closer support systems based on a Mutliagent system architecture. Agents are appropriate for applications that are modular, decentralized, changeable, ill-structured, and complex (Puranak, 99).

The advantage of using a Multiagent system architecture, as the one put forward by Nucleus, are numerous:

• Facilitates the representation and management of complex systems;
• Distribution of computational resources and capabilities across a network of interconnected agents. Whereas a centralized system may be plagued by resource limitations, performance bottlenecks, or critical failures, an MAS is decentralized and thus does not suffer from the "single point of failure" problem associated with centralized systems.;
• Supports the interconnection and interoperation of multiple existing legacy systems. By building an agent wrapper around such systems, they can be incorporated into an agent society;
• Efficiently retrieves, filters, and globally coordinates information from sources that are spatially distributed;
• Decouples services (agents) by « roles », which is closer to a human representation and understanding of a system’s functionalities.

Because of its close support for distributed systems in Multiagent system architecture, the Nucleus framework is particularly appropriate for applications relating in the domain of information analysis, control & management and software simulation:

• Military and security Applications
  
  • Command & Control
    
    • Situation analysis (sensors networks);
    • Decision support;
    • Threats reaction;
    • Real-time coordination.
    • Intelligence Systems
  • Simulation
    • Agent based simulations;
    • Propagation models for epidemics, nuclear attacks, etc.;
    • Complex systems analysis.
  • Emergency response management: environmental disasters, biological, nuclear and terrorist threats, etc;
  • Computer security: analysis of the system’s state, threats and reaction.
• Transport applications
  • Fleet management: Trucking Industry, public transportation, etc.
  • Traffic management
    • Public roads;
    • Air traffic (airports).
  • Infrastructures
    • Simulation of transport vehicles (traffic, fleet, etc.) for analysis purpose.
• Economy
  • Supply chains (management & improvement);
  • Business process management inside a company;
  • Financial portfolio management;
  • Electronic commerce (Internet transactions and e-auctions).
• Energy management
  • Domotics, i.e., energy consumption control (A.C., lights, etc.) in a building;
  • Power plant management: micro grid resource management for efficiency and risks control.
• Robotic
  • Control of a factory assembly line;
  • Coordination of robots fleet;
  • Management and control of robots at various levels.
• Health care
  • Management of health system and hospital resources: coordinate, share and efficiently use information about: medical staff, patients’ information (historic and real-time data), regional, national, international health status (epidemics), theoretical data (medicine);
  • Bioinformatics (decision aids through software modeling);
  • Modeling and simulation in the field of molecular biology (immune system, physiological systems, etc.).
• Management of various information
  • Staff working hours (calendar management);
  • Markets analysis (sales and clients information, marketing strategies, etc.);
  • Internet-based information management : search, filters, etc.;
  • Telecommunications management: analysis and control of transmissions.