Simulating the Smart Grid

via The Smart Grid by Manfred P on 4/30/13
 

In our PowerTech2013 paper Simulating the Smart Grid we propose a meta-model for a complete view onto the Smart Grid.

Power systems face increased complexitiy because of developments leading to more interdependencies between the power system components. For example:

• The progress of ICT in the last decades allows new applications in the field of energy.
• With increasing energy production in small distributed and private plants, the power flow direction is no longer unidirectional, from power plants to endusers. The former consumers becomes a prosumers.
• Increased use of renewable energies makes the energy production less schedulable. Loads need to be stored or shifted in time. A high need for efficient storage possibilites is generated.
• The energy market has been liberalized what gives rise to new energy related products and services.

The Smart Grid as Agents operating on several layers of complex flow networks.

 Power systems, as we knew them, are geting smarter by use of ICT. Liberalization of power market is expected to increase efficiency and energy product variety. New developments enable new perspectives which further drive new developments - it is hard, sometimes impossible, to distinguish between the drivers and the outcomes of this process.The make this highly complex system more comprehensive, we propose to view it as agents operating on different flow networks. The agents optimize their flow according their individual utility function. The rules for the different types of flow are resulting from the subsystem design. The model is generic but as flows are a measurable quantities it is suitable for quantitative extensions.

M. Pöchacker, A. Sobe, W. Elmenreich: Simulating the Smart Grid, IEEE PowerTech2013, Grenoble, June, 2013. 

e-puck solving a maze

via Networking Embedded Systems by wlfred on 4/19/13
 

As a result from Rene’s and Kevin’s work, we can show a maze-solving application for an e-puck. The approach has been implemented on real hardware and tested in a simulation using Webots. To solve the task, different sensors of the e-puck (IR-Light Sensor, Distance Sensor, …) have been combined, so that the e-puck could solve this maze. The robot follows the right wall, until he finds its goal (a dark sector in the maze) – then the LEDs are blinking and it makes a sound, so you notice, it has finished.

As you can see in the video, the approach works (though the robot is moving a bit slowly); also the simulation predicts very similar results.

EvoENERGY - Evolutionary Algorithms in Energy Applications @EvoStar 2013, Vienna

via The Smart Grid by Wilfried Elmenreich on 4/4/13
 

EvoStar comprises several co-located conferences on the topic of evolutionary computing. The track of EvoENERGY contained five paper presentations of interesting ideas for the Smart Grid.

Ana Soares from the University of Coimbra presented her work on "Domestic Load Scheduling Using Genetic Algorithms" where a Genetic Algorithm is used to optimize for an objective function considering energy consumption, end user preferences, peak power, and presently available energy. Encoding of solutions was done as string of integers where the recombination was done by a bit mask over the integer string (so no typical crossover). The evolved results define scheduling of loads from household appliances in order to fulfill the above defined objectives.

Stephan Hutterer from FH Hagenberg approached the optimal power flow problem with an evolutionary algorithm. Optimal control policies are learned offline for a given power grid resulting in general abstract rules for optimal power flow.

"Prediction is difficult, especially of the future" (Nils Bohr) - the prediction of power load profiles can be improved with the approach presented by Frédéric Krüger from the Université de Strasbourg. They show how a genetic algorithm generated with the EAsy Specification of Evolutionary Algorithms (EASEA) language can be applied to solve a noisy blind source separation problem and create accurate power load profiles using real world data.

Another approach for forecasting electrical consumption was presented by Martina Friese and Oliver Flasch from FH Köln in his talk on "Comparing Ensemble-Based Forecasting Methods for Smart-Metering Data". They apply state-of-the-art time-series forecasting methods to electrical energy consumption data recorded by smart meters and show that genetic programming is an attractive alternative to custom-built approaches for electrical energy consumption forecasting.

Dominik Egarter from Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt presented the paper "Evolving Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring" [PDF]. Here, an evolutionary algorithm is used to determine a set of devices for a given load curve - in other words, your smart meter knows what devices you have on even if they are not smart. The work on evolving non-intrusive load monitoring shows the capabilities of the approach but also its limits. The latter basically tell you how much you have to masquerade your power profile so that it does not give away information about the devices that constituted it. See also this blog article on Dominik's work.

JGridMap - Fast and Easy Visualization of Objects in a Grid

via Self-Organizing Networked Systems by Wilfried Elmenreich on 3/21/13
 

Conway's Game of Life implemented with JGridMap

Many models for complex systems start with some markings on a piece of squared paper. This is probably the most straightforward approach to depict agents in their environment. However, in order to model a complex system, the cells need to interact, which is hard to implement on paper but easily done with a computer. However, if you, like me, have a favor for Java, then there was no quick way for implementing a cellular automata with graphical visualization. In the end, programmer have spent 90% of the time getting the graphics right and at most 10% remained for the actual model of interest.

After reviewing several frameworks for displaying nice grid structures, we decided there is a need for an easy to use and fast Java library. Our project JGridMap is now about two years old and mature to support you for fast and easy visualization of objects in a grid. With JGridMap you can quickly implement a visualization for cellular automata including proper routines for zooming. Cells can be painted with a selected color or with a picture of your choice, which makes it easy to create attractive visualizations.

JGridMap is available as open source project at http://sourceforge.net/projects/jgridmap/ under GPLv3.

Examples of projects done with JGridMap:

Langton's Ant simulation:


Vampires vs. Werewolves simulation:



Integrated in the Framework for Evolutionary Design (FREVO):


Graphical engine for a Smart Grid simulator:

Wireless Time-Triggered Communication using a Firefly Clock Synchronization Approach

via Networking Embedded Systems by wlfred on 3/20/13
 

In South-East Asia, huge swarms of fireflies synchronously emit light flashes to attract mating partners. The underlying principle can be used to implement a robust and scalable distributed synchronization approach in wireless sensor networks.

AVR Z-Link Zigbee Nodes

In this work we implement the Firefly Algorithm on battery-powered low-cost wireless nodes to establish a time-triggered network with a global notion of time. This global notion of time is used by the protocol but also provides a service that can be used by real-time applications. The synchronized nodes perform a time-triggered communication, where the sending instant of each message is known a priori to all nodes. This enables the implementation of an energy-efficient low duty-cycle protocol, where sender and receiver units can be turned off during silent phases.

 

R. Leidenfrost and W. Elmenreich. Establishing wireless time-triggered communication using a firefly clock synchronization approach. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Workshop on Intelligent Solutions in Embedded Systems, pages 227–244, Regensburg, Germany, July 2008.

Open-Source Energy Monitoring Hardware

via The Smart Grid by Dominik Egarter on 3/11/13
 

OpenEnergyMonitor hardware: raspberry pi, emonTX  and emonGLCD

In our smart microgrid laboratory at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt we need to be able to measure energy flows at different places in the network. Our criteria had been to be able to measure power, current, and voltage with adjustable measurement time intervals. The meters should be networked wirelessly with a visualisation possibility via an embedded device or a web page. In order to implement appropriate measurement strategies (for example measuring with a time-triggered architecture) the system should be fully programmable, in other words open-source. 

emonCMS web-app visualization tool

To meet this requirements we decided to use the OpenEnergyMonitor. It provides a metering board emonTx, which is based on Arduino and communicates to some base station. This can be either a own-built base station emonBase from OpenEnergyMonitor or the nowadays trendy Raspberry Pi. All necessary software is provided and easy to use. The OpenEnergyMonitor also provides an energy visualisation tool called emonCMS, which can be installed on the Raspberry Pi. It can be used for processing, logging and visualizing energy. Like the other software also the emonCMS is open source.

Links:

• Raspberry Pi, a credit-card-sized embedded computer running Linux
• OpenEnergyMonitor, open-source energy monitoring tools
• A. Monacchi, D. Egarter, W. Elmenreich. Integrating Households into the Smart Grid. Workshop on Modeling and Simulation of Cyber-Physical Energy Systems, Berkeley, CA, May 2013.
• W. Elmenreich, G. Bauer, and H. Kopetz. The time-triggered paradigm. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Time-Triggered and Real-Time Communication Systems, 2003.

Call for Papers: Eleventh Workshop on Intelligent Solutions in Embedded Systems (WISES 2013)

via Networking Embedded Systems by wlfred on 3/7/13
 

WISES 2013 will take place in Pilsen (Plzen), Czech Republic on September 10-11, 2013.

Embedded Systems run our cars and telephones, control production lines and aircraft systems. Meeting the strong requirements regarding the cost, safety, security, size and the power consumption require new and innovative solutions. Providing flexible and configurable systems is nowadays the key role of the embedded software.

In this context, WISES2013‘s objective is to create a forum for exchanging ideas, discuss solutions and share experiences among researchers and developers from both industry and academia. Original papers describing prototype implementations and deployments of embedded systems are particularly welcome. WISES 2013 will be held in conjunction with the 18th International conference on Applied Electronics (http://www.appel.zcu.cz).

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Embedded Systems Architecture

- Multicore SoC (e.g. homogeneous, heterogeneous MPSoC)
- Memory systems and optimization in embedded systems
- On?chip buses and point?to?point networks
- Application?specific (e.g. ASIPs, hardware accelerators)
- Architectures and tools for reconfigurable computing

Software for single or multi?core embedded systems

- Applications and systems software (e.g. drivers, communication libraries)
- Real?time operating systems and middleware in embedded systems

Prototype platforms, applications and case studies

- Next generation networking and mobile/wireless technology
- Sensor networks and related hardware/software platforms
- Embedded systems with ambient intelligence and pervasiveness

Tools and methodologies for analysis, exploration and validation

- Cost?efficient and power?aware embedded system design
- Fault tolerance, reliability and security in embedded systems
- Real?time embedded systems
- Debugging and profiling techniques and tools
- Cyber-physical systems

Special Sessions:

- Industry?oriented research
- Safety and Security
- PhD students session

Other special sessions can be proposed to the General Chairs.

Submission and Publication

The working language of the workshop is English. Prospective authors are invited to submit new original research papers of a maximum length of 6 pages (A4,two column, 10pt, IEEE conference style) for blind review. Initial submisssions must not contain any authors informations (name,affiliation, etc.)

All submitted paper will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published in printed proceedings. The papers will be made accessible via world-wide web and via IEEE Digital Library. Each paper must be presented by one of the authors at the workshop.

Submissions will only be accepted electronically via WISES homepage in PDF format. Submission will be enabled on March 11th.

Please format the final version of your accepted paper according to the “IEEE Manuscript Templates for Conference Proceedings” in A4 (latex or word): www.ieee.org/web/publications/pubservices/confpub/AuthorTools/conferenceTemplates.html

Important Deadlines and Dates

Manuscript Submission Final Deadline	March 31th, 2013
Notification of Acceptance:	May 31th, 2013
Pre-Registration (download registration form) (download copyright form)	August 20th, 2013
Camera-Ready Paper Submission:	July 22th, 2013
Workshop:	September 10th/11th, 2013

Call for Posters 7th International Workshop on Self-organizing Systems IWSOS 2013

via Self-Organizing Networked Systems by Wilfried Elmenreich on 3/19/13
 

IWSOS 2013
7th International Workshop on Self-organizing Systems http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/iwsos2013/ Palma de Mallorca, Spain
May 9-10, 2013
Technical co-sponsors: IFIP TC6 WG6.2, EC FP7 NoE EINS

Poster Abstract Submission Deadline: March 15, 2013

We are looking for submissions of research posters, from both academia and industry, describing research, exciting new research projects, and encouraging preliminary results on self-organizing systems.

** Poster Abstract Submission
The submission should be an extended abstract of two pages in two-column format. All submitted abstracts will undergo a peer review process. Accepted posters must be presented at the conference and will be published electronically in a book (ISBN-indexed) named "Emerging Ideas on Self-Organizing Systems".

Poster abstracts should use the following format: http://ifisc.uib-csic.es/iwsos2013/media/poster_latex_template.zip

Poster abstracts can be submitted via: https://www.edas.info/newPaper.php?c=13239&track=31695

** Important Dates
Submission deadline: March 31, 2013 extended!
Notification:        March 31, 2013
Camera-ready:        April 15, 2013

** Scope
The main themes of IWSOS 2013 are from the fields of techno-social systems and networks-of-networks with their unique and complex blend of cognitive, social, and technological aspects. We will analyse how these systems self-organize, acquire their structure, and evolve. Thus, we aim to advance our understanding of such key infrastructures in our societies and, more generally, of these sorts of self-organizational processes in nature. We are further interested in learning how to engineer such self-organizing networked systems to have desirable properties including dependability, predictability, and resilience in the face of the inevitable challenges that they face. Building on the success of its predecessors, this multi-disciplinary workshop aims at bringing together leading international researchers from complex systems, distributed systems, and communication networks to create a visionary forum for discussing the future of self-organization in networked systems. We invite the submission of manuscripts that present original research results on the themes of self-organization in techno-social systems and networks-of-networks.

** Key Topics
The workshop scope includes, but is not limited to, the following topical areas of self-organizing systems:
- Design and analysis of self-organizing and self-managing systems
- Inspiring models of self-organization in nature and society
- Structure, characteristics, and dynamics of self-organizing networks
- Self-organization in techno-social systems
- Self-organized social computation
- Self-organized communication systems
- Citizen Science
- Techniques and tools for modeling self-organizing systems
- Tools to quantify self-organization
- Control and control parameters of self-organizing systems
- Phase transitions in self-organizing systems
- Robustness and adaptation in self-organizing systems
- Self-organization in complex networks such as peer-to-peer, sensor,
  ad-hoc, vehicular, and social networks
- Self-organization in socio-economic systems
- User and operator-related aspects of man-made self-organizing systems
- Self-organizing multi-service networks and multi-network services
- Methods for configuration and management of large, complex networks
- Self-protection, self-configuration, diagnosis, and healing
- Self-organizing group and pattern formation
- Self-organizing mechanisms for task allocation, coordination and
  resource allocation
- Self-organizing information dissemination and content search
- Security and safety in self-organizing networked systems
- Risks and limits of self-organization
- The human in the loop of self-organizing networks
- Social, cognitive, and semantic aspects of self-organization
- Evolutionary principles of the (future, emerging) Internet
- Decentralized power management in the smart grid

Call for Papers 6th Complex Systems Modelling and Simulation Workshop (CoSMoS 2013)

via Self-Organizing Networked Systems by Wilfried Elmenreich on 2/21/13
 

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy
1 day workshop held between 1 - 5 July 2013

http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/nature/cosmos/cosmos2013.html
cosmos2013-group@york.ac.uk
SPECIAL ISSUE OF NATURAL COMPUTING JOURNAL: we will be organising a special issue of the Natural Computing journal (http://www.springer.com/computer/theoretical+computer+science/journal/11047) based on the themes raised in the workshop. Suitable workshop submissions will be invited to submit to this special journal issue.

The 6th workshop on Complex Systems Modelling and Simulation (CoSMoS 2013) will take place as a 1-day satellite workshop of the Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation conference (http://ucnc2013.disco.unimib.it/) held between 1st and 5th July at the Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy. The CoSMoS workshops series provides a forum for research examining all aspects of the modelling and simulation of complex systems. This year, we will place a special focus on how complex systems simulations can be used to simulate unconventional and natural computation.

Constructing models and simulations of complex systems is a challenging and interdisciplinary task. Elements might include choice of modelling tools and techniques, simulation infrastructures, concurrency, the process of moving from models to simulations, arguing validity of simulations, and the identification of reusable engineering techniques such as patterns. The CoSMoS workshop series continues an initiative, based at the Universities of York and Kent, UK, to develop a framework and infrastructure for the construction of complex systems simulations.

Submitted papers will undergo a rigorous peer-review process and accepted papers will appear in the workshop proceedings published by Luniver Press. Proceedings of the previous CoSMoS workshop are available: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/psa/cosmos2013/proceedings.html


AREAS OF INTEREST

We are seeking submissions that explore aspects of complex systems modelling and simulation, with a special focus on how complex systems simulations can be used to simulate unconventional and natural computation. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

* Complex systems simulation case-studies
* Modelling tools and techniques
* Simulation infrastructures
* Arguing validity of simulations
* Concurrency and distribution techniques
* Identification of reusable engineering techniques
* Working across scientific disciplines


SUBMISSIONS

We are accepting both full papers (to be presented orally) and abstracts (to be presented via a poster). Both full papers and abstracts will appear in the workshop proceedings.

For submission via abstract, please submit an abstract not longer than 2 pages of LNCS format that summarises the content of the poster you wish to present. Full papers can be of any length up to a maximum of 25 pages of LNCS format. If you wish to exceed the page limit, or have any other queries, then please email cosmos2013-group@york.ac.uk in advance of submission.

LNCS formatting details can be found here: http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-7-72376-0

Papers should be submitted via EasyChair here: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cosmos2013


IMPORTANT DATES

* Paper Submission: 22 March 2013
* Notification of acceptance: 22 April 2013
* Camera ready copies: 6 May 2013
* CoSMoS Workshop: 1 day between 1 - 5 July 2013


WORKSHOP CHAIRS

* Paul Andrews, Department of Computer Science and York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis, University of York, UK
* Susan Stepney, Department of Computer Science and York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis, University of York, UK