Patent ID: 9581987
Date: 2017-02-28
CPC Classifications: F24F,G05B,H04L,H05B

Claim:
1. A device control apparatus including an agent and for controlling a load device according to an operating condition of the load device determined by the agent that is associated with a user who is in a space in which an environment is controlled by the load device and that is realized as a representative of the user by a computer, wherein the agent comprises: an attribute setting unit configured to store an attribute of the user; a condition input unit configured to receive an operating condition of the load device; a utility value calculation unit configured to calculate an expected utility value indicating utility for the user with respect to the operating condition of the load device received through the condition input unit, using the attribute of the user, the expected utility value being expressed as a numerical value and expressing that a larger value thereof indicating a higher utility for the user; and a cooperation processing unit configured to judge whether an operating condition of the load device is acceptable or not to the user by evaluating the expected utility value calculated for the user, and to uniquely determine, when there are a plurality of users in the space and if there is a user to whom the operating condition is not acceptable, an operating condition to be instructed to the load device, and wherein the cooperation processing unit comprises: an evaluation unit configured to classify the expected utility value into one of three levels of first to third cases, by comparing the expected utility value with a first judgment threshold and a second judgment threshold smaller than the first judgment threshold, where (a1) when larger than the first threshold, the expected utility value is judged as the first case indicating that the operating condition of the load device is desirable for the user, (a2) when smaller than the second threshold, the expected utility value is judged as the second case indicating that the operating condition of the load device is undesirable for the user, and (a3) when smaller than the first threshold and larger than the second threshold, the expected utility value is judged as the third case indicating that the operating condition of the load device is neither desirable nor undesirable for the user; a planning unit configured to, when a result of the evaluation by the evaluation unit is the second case, plan an operating condition of the load device of which evaluation result of the expected utility value corresponds to the third case; a proposing unit configured to propose a proposal including the operating condition of the load device planned by the planning unit to another agent that is a representative of other user, and instruct the operating condition of the load device planned by the planning unit when another agent acknowledges the proposal; a response unit configured to, when the evaluation unit judges that the operating condition of the load device proposed by a proposing unit of another agent is the second case, return a response refusing the proposal to the agent that made the proposal; a negotiation unit configured to, upon receiving a response refusing the proposal from a response unit of another agent, designate that the agent that made the proposal as a manager and the agent that refused the proposal as a contractor, and negotiate such that the evaluation result of the expected utility value becomes the first case or the third case in each of the manager and the contractor; and a consensus-building unit configured to, when the agent is designated as the contractor, lower the second judgment threshold within an acceptable range, and (b1) when the expected utility value is larger than the lowered second judgment threshold, acknowledge the proposal, and (b2) when the expected utility value is still smaller than the second judgment threshold lowered within the acceptable range, refuse the proposal, and wherein the manager is configured to when the proposal is acknowledged by the contractor, instruct, to the load device, the operating condition of the load device planned by the planning unit, and when the proposal is refused by the contractor, handle the operating condition planned by the planning unit as invalid and keep the load device to operate with a current operating condition.