Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Designing and implementing a multi-agent architecture for business process management

  • Part V: Architectures
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Intelligent Agents III Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages (ATAL 1996)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1193))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

This paper presents a general multi-agent architecture for the management of business processes, and an agent design that has been implemented within such a system. The autonomy of the agents involved in the system is considered paramount. Therefore, for agents to agree on the distribution of problem solving effort within the system they must negotiate. The knowledge sharing and negotiation functions of such an agent are focused on in this paper.

This paper reports on aspects of the ADEPT project. ADEPT is a collaborative project under the DTI/EPSRC Intelligent Systems Integration Programme (ISIP). The project partners are BT Laboratories, ICI Engineering Technology, Loughborough University, and Queen Mary and Westfield College.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. J. L. Austin. How to do things with words. Harvard University Press, 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  2. M. Barbuceanu and M. S. Fox. Cool: A language for describing coordination in multi-agent systems. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, pages 17–24. AAAI/MIT Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  3. M. Barbuceanu and M. S. Fox. The design of a coordination language for multi-agent systems. In J. P. Müller, M. J. Wooldridge, and N. R. Jennings, editors, Intelligent Agents III — Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages (ATAL-96), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 1996. In this volume.

    Google Scholar 

  4. P. R. Cohen and H. J. Levesque. Communicative actions for artificial agents. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, pages 65–72. AAAI/MIT Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  5. G. F. Coulouris and J. Dollimore. Distributed systems: Concepts and design. Addison Wesley, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  6. M. R. Genesereth and S. P. Ketchpel. Software agents. Communications of the ACM, 37(7):48–53, 1994.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. J. C. Giarratano and G. Riley. Expert systems: Principles and programming. PWS Publishers, 2nd edition, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  8. T. R. Gruber. A translation approach to portable ontology specifications. Knowledge Acquisition, 5:199–220, 1993.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. N. R. Jennings. Controlling cooperative problem solving in industrial multi-agent systems using joint intentions. Artificial Intelligence, 75(2): 195–240, 1995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. N. R. Jennings, P. Faratin, M. J. Johnson, P. O'Brien, and M. E. Wiegand. Using intelligent agents to manage buisness processes. In B. Crabtree and N. R. Jennings, editors, Proceedings of the First International Conference on Practical Applications of Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agent Technology (PAAM96), pages 345–360. Practical Applications Company Ltd., 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  11. N. R. Jennings, E. H. Mamdani, I. Laresgoiti, J. Perez, and J. Corera. Using ARCHON to develop real-world DAI applications for electricity transportation management and particle accelerator control. IEEE Expert, Dec 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  12. T. Khedro and M. R. Genesereth. The federation architecture for interoperable agent-based concurrent engineering systems. International Journal on Concurrent Engineering, Research and Applications, 2:125–131, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  13. A. P. Kosoresow. On the efficiency of agent based systems. In Groen, Hirose, and Thore, editors, Proceedings of Intelligent Autonomous Systems 3, pages 551–560, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  14. B. Lâasri, H. Lâasri, S. Lander, and V. Lesser. A generic model for intelligent negotiating agents. International Journal of Intelligent and Cooperative Information Systems, 1(2):291–317, 1992.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. J. Mayfield, Y. Labrou, and T. Finin. Evaluation of kqml as an agent communication language. In M. Wooldridge, J. P. Müller, and M. Tambe, editors, ntelligent Agents II: Proceedings of the IJCAI-95 workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages, volume 1037 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, pages 347–360. Springer-Verlag, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  16. T. J. Mowbray and R. Zahavi. The essential CORBA systems integration using distributed objects, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  17. H. J. Müller. Negotiation principles. In G. M. P. O'Hare and N. R. Jennings, editors, Foundations of Distributed Artificial Intelligence, pages 211–230. Wiley Interscience, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  18. H. Raiffa. The Art and Science of Negotiation. Harvard University Press, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  19. J. S. Rosenschein and G. Zlotkin. Rules of encounter: Designing conventions for automated negotiation among computers. MIT Press, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  20. J. Searle. Speech acts. Cambridge University Press, 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  21. N. Singh, M. R. Genesereth, and M. Syed. A distributed and anonymous knowledge sharing approach to software interoperation. International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems, 4(4):339–367, 1995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. R. G. Smith and R. Davis. Frameworks for cooperation in distributed problem solving. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 11(1):61–70, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  23. H. Takeda, K. Iino, and T. Nishida. Agent organization with multiple ontologies. International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems, 4(4):321–337, 1995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. J. M. Tenenbaum, J. C. Weber, and T. R. Gruber. Enterprise integration: Lessons from shade and pact. In C. J. Petrie, editor, Enterprise Integration Modelling: Proceedings of the First International Conference, pages 356–369. MIT Press, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  25. D. Zeng and K. Sycara. How can an agent learn to negotiate? In J. P. Müller, M. J. Wooldridge, and N. R. Jennings, editors, Intelligent Agents III — Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages (ATAL-96), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 1996. In this volume.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronic Engineering, Queen Mary and Wesfield College, University of London, Mile End Road, E1 4NS, London, UK

    Timothy J. Norman, Nick R. Jennings & Peyman Faratin

  2. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London, SW7 2AZ, London, UK

    E. H. Mamdani

Authors
  1. Timothy J. Norman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nick R. Jennings
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Peyman Faratin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. E. H. Mamdani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Jörg P. Müller Michael J. Wooldridge Nicholas R. Jennings

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Norman, T.J., Jennings, N.R., Faratin, P., Mamdani, E.H. (1997). Designing and implementing a multi-agent architecture for business process management. In: Müller, J.P., Wooldridge, M.J., Jennings, N.R. (eds) Intelligent Agents III Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages. ATAL 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1193. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0013591

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0013591

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-62507-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-68057-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation