Data Provider Agents in the Polar Radar for Ice Sheet Measurements (PRISM) Project  
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Scientists have speculated that due to long-term global climate change there is a surplus of water being released from polar ice sheets. Although there is much speculation, they have insufficient data to prove this theory. This uncertainty has prompted scientist to explorer the interactions between ice sheets, oceans, and atmosphere in an attempt to quantify the role of ice sheets in sea level rise. Scientists and engineers at the University of Kansas are applying their expertise to develop and utilize innovative radar and robotic rovers to measure ice thickness and determine bedrock conditions below the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. This combination of data will help earth scientists determine how quickly the polar ice sheets are melting and to make more accurate predictions of the effects of this melting on sea level rise.

The Polar Radar for Ice Sheet Measurements (PRISM) project aims to design and develop an autonomous mobile radar system to measure polar ice sheets. The PRISM team is divided into four primary areas: Communication, Robotics, Intelligent Systems, and Radar. The Communication team is creating technologies that enable communication with the rover, in the field, and also from the field to the University of Kansas. The Robotics group created a virtual prototype model that has been a guide to the design and operation of the rover, which includes maneuverability limits, speed limits and antenna towering capability. The Radar team produced radar systems that are required to execute the scientific measurement of the ice sheets, and the Intelligent Systems team has designed the specification for an intelligent agency for radar and vehicle control.

We are currently working with the Intelligent Systems team using the PRISM Intelligent System codebase to get an understanding of the issues involved in the design and implementation of multi-agent systems. Agents share some common properties but are also very diverse. Some agents are mobile while others are static, some communicate through messages others don’t communicate at all, and some perform task individually while others work cooperatively. The study of multi-agent systems focuses on systems in which many intelligent agents interact with each other. Using the PRISM codebase, we are enhancing our understanding of multi-agent systems and contributing to the PRISM project by creating UML models of key parts of the multi-agent architecture including the MatchMaker, and the underlying RMI system that allows agents to communicate with other agents over networks. Using UML we will develop a class diagram of a messaging subsystem and also a sequence diagram of an agent getting data from a sensor.