Multiple Fuzzy Roles: Analysis of Their Evolution in a Fuzzy Agent-Based Collaborative Design Platform

Abstract

Design for configurations is a highly collaborative and distributed process. The use of fuzzy agents, that implement the collaborative and distributed design by means of fuzzy logic, is highly recommended due to the fuzzy nature of the collaboration, distribution, interaction and design problems. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy agent model, where fuzzy agents grouped in communities interact and perform multiple fuzzy design roles to converge towards solutions of product configuration. Analysis of both interactions and multiple fuzzy roles of fuzzy agents during product configuration in a collaborative design platform is proposed. The modelling of fuzzy agents and its illustration for a collaborative design platform are presented. The results of analysis have shown the important influence of fuzzy solution agents in the organization of the agent based collaborative design for configurations platform. The more the fuzzy agents share their knowledge, the more their fuzzy roles are complete in every domain of design for configurations. The degree of interactions between fuzzy agents in the design for configurations process has an impact on the emergence of increased activity of some fuzzy agents. The fuzzy function agents, influenced by many fuzzy requirement agents, are the most active in the design process. The simulation shows that this observation can be extended to the fuzzy solution agents. The most active fuzzy solution agents are those which create the best consensual solution. Simulations show that the consensus can be found principally by increasing the degree of interactions.

Appendix

I: Notation Used in the Fuzzy Agent Model

$\tilde{A}=\left\{ {\tilde{\alpha }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of fuzzy agents

$\tilde{I}=\left\{ {\tilde{\iota }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of interactions defined for all fuzzy agents

$\tilde{P}=\left\{ {\tilde{\rho }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of roles to be performed by all fuzzy agents

$\tilde{O}=\left\{ {\tilde{o}_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of organizations of all fuzzy agents into communities

$\tilde{\varSigma }=\left\{ {\tilde{\sigma }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of states defined in agent-based system

$\tilde{\varSigma }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \subseteq \tilde{\varSigma }$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of states of fuzzy agent $\tilde{\alpha }_i$

$\tilde{\varPi }=\left\{ {\tilde{\pi }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of perceptions in agent-based system

$\tilde{\varPi }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \subseteq \tilde{\varPi }$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of perceptions of fuzzy agent $\tilde{\alpha }_i$

$\tilde{\varDelta }=\left\{ {\tilde{\delta }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of fuzzy decisions, with $\tilde{\varDelta }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } =<\tilde{E}_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } ,\tilde{X}_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } ,\tilde{\varGamma }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } >$

$\tilde{\varGamma }=\left\{ {\tilde{\gamma }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of actions

$\tilde{\varGamma }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \subseteq \tilde{\varGamma }$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of actions that fuzzy agent $\tilde{\alpha }_i$ can process

$\tilde{\varLambda }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \subseteq \tilde{\varGamma }$ :

is the specific finite fuzzy set of communication acts that fuzzy agent $\tilde{\alpha }_i$ can process; $\tilde{\lambda }_{s,r} =<\tilde{\lambda },\tilde{\alpha }_s ,\tilde{\alpha }_r ,\tilde{P}_{\tilde{\alpha }_s } ,\tau ,\tilde{\eta }>$ is a fuzzy communication between $\tilde{\alpha }_s$ and $\tilde{\alpha }_r$

$\tilde{K}=\left\{ {\tilde{\kappa }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of fuzzy knowledge in agent-based system

$\tilde{K}_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \subseteq \tilde{K}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of fuzzy knowledge of fuzzy agent $\tilde{\alpha }_i$, with $\tilde{K}_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } =\tilde{P}_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \cup \tilde{\varSigma }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \cup \tilde{\varSigma }_{{\tilde{M}} _{\tilde{\alpha }_i }}$

$\tilde{E}=\left\{ {\tilde{\varepsilon }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of fuzzy events observed in agent-based system

$\tilde{E}_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \subseteq \tilde{E}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of fuzzy events that fuzzy agent $\tilde{\alpha }_i$ can observe

$\tilde{X}=\left\{ {\tilde{\chi }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of conditions in agent-based system

$\tilde{X}_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \in \tilde{X}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of conditions associated to internal states of fuzzy agent $\tilde{\alpha }_i$

$\tilde{B}=\left\{ {\tilde{\beta }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of speech acts

$\tilde{H}=\left\{ {\tilde{\eta }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite fuzzy set of messages

$\tilde{T}=\left\{ {\tilde{\tau }_i } \right\}$ :

is the finite set of types of messages

$\tilde{M}_\alpha =<\tilde{A},\tilde{I},\tilde{P},\tilde{O}>$ :

is the tuple defining an agent-based system

$\varPhi _{\tilde{\varPi }(\tilde{\alpha }_i )} :\tilde{\varSigma }\times \tilde{\varSigma }_{{\tilde{M}} _{\tilde{\alpha }_i }} \rightarrow \tilde{\varPi }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i }$ :

is the function of observations of fuzzy agent $\tilde{\alpha }_i$

$\varPhi _{\tilde{\varDelta }(\tilde{\alpha }_i )} :\tilde{\varPi }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \times \tilde{\varSigma }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \rightarrow \tilde{P}_{\tilde{\alpha }_i }$ :

is the function of decisions of fuzzy agent $\tilde{\alpha }_i$

$\varPhi _{\tilde{\varGamma }(\tilde{\alpha }_i )} :\tilde{\varDelta }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i } \times \tilde{\varSigma }\rightarrow \tilde{\varGamma }_{\tilde{\alpha }_i }$ :

is the function of actions of fuzzy agent $\tilde{\alpha }_i$

II: Characteristics Defined for the Case Study