The process of cooperative problem solving can be divided into four stages. First, nding potential team members, then forming a team followed by constructing a plan for that team. Finally, the plan is executed by the team. Traditionally, very simple protocols like the Contract Net protocol are used for performing the rst two stages of the process. And often the team is already taken for granted...

Agent-based technologies in production control systems could facilitate seamless reconfiguration and integration of mechatronic devices/modules into systems. Advances in embedded controllers which are continuously improving computational capabilities allow for software modularization and distribution of decisions. Agent platforms running on embedded controllers could hide the complexity of boot...

Cooperative-problem-solving negotiations in competitive environments involve an initial conclusion of commitments as well as their possible adaptations during their execution. Conclusion of commitments, breaching the commitments (decommitments), their replanning and reconfiguration introduce means of achieving flexibility in cooperation among self-interested agents and require adequate negotiat...

This paper is about business modelling and negotiation protocol design in distributed scheduling, where individual agents have individual (potentially conflicting) interests. It is motivated by BT’s workforce scheduling problem, in which multiple service providers have to serve multiple service buyers. The service providers and buyers all attempt to maximize their own utility. The overall probl...

Multi-agent interaction protocols play a crucial role in multi-agent systems (MAS) development. They are used to manage and to control interactions among several autonomous agents in a MAS. Their formal specification, as well as their verification, constitute an essential task for the design of MAS applications. Several approaches have been proposed to formally represent agent interaction proto...

ABSTRAm We describe the concepr of distributed problem solving and define it as the cooperative solution of problems by a decentralized and loosely coupled collection of problem solvers. This approach to problem solving offers the promise of increased performance and provides a useful medium for exploring and developing new problem-solving techniques. We present a framework called the contract ...

To an increasing extent, large-scale information processing is a distributed phenomenon. As the trend in computing moves further towards distributed networks of powerful workstations and information servers, we see the growing importance of solutions to dynamic distributed scheduling problems. In these domains, resource providers are distributed both geographically and bureaucratically, so that...

Due to diversified and frequently changing demands from customers, technological advances and global competition, manufacturers rely on collaboration with their business partners to share costs, risks and expertise. How to take advantage of advancement of technologies to effectively support operations and create competitive advantage is critical for manufacturers to survive. To respond to these...

The term “negotiation” has been used in the distributed problem solving / multiagent systems community for many years. The first use of the term probably arose in the context of the Contract Net protocol in the early 80’s, but more recently, the term negotiation has been applied to a variety of techniques. This paper takes as a point of departure the definition that was given in the call for pa...

One of the key design issues of holonic manufacturing systems (HMS) is to effectively respond to resource failures based on the flexible holonic architecture. The objective of this paper is to propose a viable design methodology to implement reconfiguration mechanism in HMS. A reconfiguration mechanism is developed to accommodate changes based on collaboration of holons without leading to chaos...