Multi-Agent Systems and Machine Learning for Wind Turbine Power Prediction from an Educational Perspective

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term that encompasses different fields of study, and topics related to these fields are addressed separately or within the scope of AI. Multi-agent systems (MASs) and machine learning (ML) are the core concepts of AI that are taught during AI courses. The separate explanation of these core research areas is common, but the emergence of federated learning has triggered their combined usage. This paper describes a practical scenario in the energy domain where these technologies can be used together to provide a sustainable energy solution for predicting wind turbine active power production. The projects in the AI course were assigned prior to the step-by-step learning of MASs and ML. These concepts were applied using a wind turbine energy dataset collected in Turkey to predict the power production of wind turbines. The observed performance improvements, achieved by applying various agent architectures and data partitioning scenarios, indicate that boosting methods such as LightGBM yield better results even when the settings are modified. Additionally, a questionnaire about the assignments was filled out by the student groups to assess the impact of learning MASs and ML through project-based education. The application of MASs and ML in a hybrid way proves valuable for learning core concepts related to AI education, as evidenced by feedback from students.