Study on multi-agent based maintenance decision support system used for power plant equipment

With the developing of industry, maintenance has become an important factor that influences survival and development of the business. There are numerous pieces of equipment in a power plant, but the maintenance requirement is different for respective equipment, so making condition based maintenance in a power plant is a systemic and integrative activity in maintenance management. As an interdisciplinary activity, a special maintenance decision support system is necessary to aid operating and maintenance personnel use that knowledge right and well. As a hotspot of Distributed Artificial Intelligence research, agent technology is one of the strongest tools for constituting large-scale distributed and open computer-based systems. This paper briefly introduces decision support system and agent technology, and presents an architecture of multiagent based maintenance decision support system used for power plant equipment, and describes its architecture, function and decision making process in detail.

I. Introduction

A few decades ago, the maintenance function was regarded as an unavoidable part of the production function and difficult to manage. This view changed gradually with the development of the industry; maintenance function has become a separate, fully recognized and essential business function. Maintenance influences not only production capability but also economic interest of business. If maintenance is carried out effectively, there is a scope for improving the profits and productivity of business [1]~[5].