Abstract
Due to current trends in the design field towards virtual teams that collaborate over computer networks to achieve global optima in design, there is an increasing need for design teams to establish and maintain a cooperative work through effective communication, co-location, coordination and collaboration at the knowledge level. As problems become more complex, teamwork is becoming increasingly important. This paper proposes a multi-agent architecture to support multidisciplinary design teams that cooperate in a distributed design environment. Using ontologies and multi-agent systems, the proposed framework addresses resource allocation problems and aims to optimise design process operation and management.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Edmonds, E.A., Candy, L., Jones, R., Soufi, B.: Support for Collaborative Design: Agents and Emergence. Communications of the ACM 37(7) (1994)
Arias, E., Eden, H., Fischer, G., Gorman, A., Scharff, E.: Transcending the Individual Human Mind - Creating Shared Understanding through Collaborative Design. ACM transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 7, 84–113 (2000)
Iheagwara, C., Blyth, A.: Evaluation of the performance of ID systems in a switched and distributed environment the RealSecure case study. Computer Networks (2002)
Pena-Mora, F., Hussein, K., Vadhavkar, S., Benjamin, K.: CAIRO: a Concurrent Engineering Meeting Environment for Virtual Design Teams. Artificial Intelligence in Engineering, 202–219 (2000)
Laure, E.: OpusJava: A Java framework for distributed high performance computing. Future Generation Computer Systems 18, 235–251 (2001)
Jennings, N.R., Sycara, K.P., Wooldridge, M.: A Roadmap of Agent Reasearch and Development. Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 7–36 (1998)
Oliveira, E., Fischer, K., Stepankova, O.: Multi-agent systems: which research for which applications. Robotics and Autonomous Systems 27, 91–106 (1999)
Wooldridge, M.: Agent-based computing. Interoperable Communication Networks 1(1), 71–97 (1998)
Thoben, K.D.: Extended Products: Evolving Traditional Product Concepts. In: 7th International Conference on Concurrent Enterprising (2002)
Hirsch, B.: Extended Products in Dynamic Enterprises. E-Business: Key Issues, Applications and Technologies, 622–628 (2000)
Kimura, F.: Inverse manufacturing: From Products to Services. In: Managing Enterprises -Stakeholders, Engineering, Logistics and Achievement First International Conference Proceedings, MEP Ltd., London (1997)
Tomiyama, T.: The Technical Concept of Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS). University of Tokyo, Tokyo (1994)
Agah, A.: Intelligent Graphical User Interfaces Design using Multiple Fuzzy Agents. Interacting With Computers 12(5), 529–542 (2000)
Fischer, G.: Knowledge Management: Problems, Promises, Realities and Challenges. IEEE Intelligent Systems (2002)
Viano, G.: Adaptive User Interface for Process Control based on Multi-Agent approach. AVI 2000, Palermo, Italy (2000)
Hales, C.: Analysis of the Engineering Design Process in an Industrial Context. Department of Engineering. University of Cambridge, Cambridge (1987)
Lawson, B.: How Designers Think, Architecture, B. (ed.), 2nd edn (1990)
Hubka, V.: Design Science. Springer, Heidelberg (1996)
Roche, T.: Development of a Design for the Environment Workbench. CIMRU, Industrial Engineering Dept UCG, Galway (1999)
Nonaka, I., Konno, N.: The Concept of ”Ba”: Building a Foundation for Knowledge Creation. California Management Review 40(3), 40–54 (1998)
Nonaka, I., Takeuchi, H.: The Knowledge Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynasties of Innovation. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1995)
Polanyi, M.: The Tacit Dimension: Doubleday & Co (1966)
Kolb, D.: Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1984)
Nwana, H.S.: Software Agents: An Overview. Knowledge Engineering Review 11(3), 1–40 (1996)
Bradshow, J.M.: An Introduction to Software Agents. In: Bradshow, J.M. (ed.) Software Agents. MIT Press, Cambridge (1997)
Green, S., Hurst, L., Nangle, B., Cunningham, P., Somers, F., Evans, R.: Software Agents: A review, Intelligent Agents Group. Trinity College Dublin, Broadcom Eireann Research Ltd., Dublin (1997)
Jennings, N.R.: On agend-based software engineering. Artficial Intelligence (2000)
Wooldridge, M., Ciancarini, P.: Agent-Oriented Software Engineering: The State of the Art. In: Ciancarini, P., Wooldridge, M. (eds.) Agent-Oriented Software Engineering. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Maes, P.: Artificial Life meets Entertainment: Lifelike Autonomous Agents. Communications of the ACM 38(11), 108–114 (1995)
Franklin, S., Graesser, A.: Is it an Agent, or just a Program?: A Taxonomy for Autonomous Agents. In: Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages. Springer, Heidelberg (1996)
Shoham, Y.: Agent-oriented programming. In: Readings in Agents (1998)
Wooldridge, M.: Intelligent Agents. An Introduction to Multiagent Systems ed. G. Weiss. The MIT Press, Cambridge (1999)
Poslad, S., Buckle, P., Hadingham, R.: The FIPA-OS Agent Platform: Open Source for Open Standards. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference and Exhibition on the Practical Application of Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agents (2000)
Russell, S., Norvig, P.: Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 2nd edn. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs (2003)
Gasser, L.: Social conceptions of knowledge and action: DAI foundations and open systems dynamics. In: Huhns, M.N., Singh, M.P. (eds.) Readings in Agents (1998)
Martin, F.J., Plaza, E., Rodriguez-Aguilar, J.A., Sabater, J.: Java Interagents for Multi-Agent Systems. Software Tools for Developing Agents (1998)
Labrou, Y., Finin, T., Peng, Y.: Agent Communication Languages: The Current Landscape. IEEE Intelligent Systems (1999)
Odell, J.: Agent Technology, OMG - Agent Platform Special Interest Group (2000)
Nwana, H., Wooldridge, M.: Software Agent Technologies. BT Technology Journal 14(4), 68–78 (1996)
Gruber, T.R.: The Role of Common Ontology in Achieving Shareable, Reusable Knowledge Bases. In: Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Proceedings of the Second International Conference (1991)
Spyns, P., Meersman, R., Jarrar, M.: Data Modelling versus Ontology Engineering. ACM SIGMOD Record (2002)
Gruber, T.R.: Toward Principles for the Design of Ontologies Used for Knowledge Sharing. International Journal of Human and Computer Studies, 907-928 (1995)
Guarino, N.: Semantic Matching:Formal Ontological Distinctions for Information Organization, Extraction, and Integration. Summer School on Information Extraction, Frascati, Italy, July 14–19 (1997)
Gruber, T.R.: A Translation Approach to Portable Ontology Specification. Knowledge Aquisition 5(2), 199–220 (1993)
Borst, P., Akkermans, H., Top, J.: Engineering Ontologies. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 46 (Special Issue on Using Explicit Ontologies in KBS Development), 106–365 (1997)
Studer, R., Benjamins, V.R., Fensel, D.: Knowledge Engineering: Principles and Methods. Data and Knowledge Engineering 25(1-2), 161–197 (1998)
Guarino, N.: Understanding, Building and Using Ontologies: A Commentary to Using Explicit Ontologies in KBS Development. International Journal of Human and Computer Studies 46, 293–310 (1997)
Guarino, N., Giaretta, P.: Ontologies and Knowledge Bases: Towards a Terminological Clarification. In: Mars, N. (ed.) Towards Very Large Knowledge Bases: Knowledge Building and Knowledge Sharing, pp. 25–32. IOS Press, Amsterdam (1995)
Gaines, B.: Editorial: Using Explicite Ontologies in Knowledge-based System Development. International Journal of Human-Computer Systems 46 (1997)
Guarino, N.: Formal Ontology and Information Systems. Formal Ontology in Information Systems. FOIS 1998, June 6-8 1998. IOS Press, Trento (1998)
Uschold, M., Gruninger, M.: Ontologies: Principles, Methods and Applications. The Knowledge Engineering Review 11(2), 93–136 (1996)
Artala, A., Franconi, E., Guarino, N., Pazzi, L.: Part-Whole Relations in Object-Centered Systems: an Overview. Data and Knowledge Engineering 20(3), 347–383 (1996)
Van de Riet, R., Burg, H., Dehne, F.: Linguistic Issues in Information System Design. In: Nicola, G. (ed.) Formal Ontology in Information System (1998)
Weber, R.: Ontological Foundations of Information Systems, Melbourne, Coopers and Lybrand (1997)
Mena, E., Kashyap, V., Illarramendi, A., Sheth, A.: Domain Specific Ontologies for Semantic Information Brokering on the Global Information Infrastructure. In: Guarino, N. (ed.) Formal Ontology in Information Systems. IOS Press, Amsterdam (1998)
Bergamaschi, S., Castano, S., Vimercati, S.D.C.: An Intelligent Approach to Information Integration. In: Guarino, N. (ed.) Formal Ontology in Information System. IOS Press, Amsterdam (1998)
Chaib-draa, B., Dignum, F.: Trends in Agent Communication Language. Computational Intelligence. 18(2) (2002)
Berners-Lee, T.: Semantic Web Road Map, World Wide Web Consortium (1998), http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html
Berners-Lee, T., Hendler, J., Lassila, O.: The semantic web. Scientific American 284(5), 34–43 (2001)
Dumbill, E.: Building the Semantic Web, XML.com (2001)
Fensel, D.: Ontologies: A Silver Bullet for Knowledge Management and Electronic Commerce. Springer, Berlin (2000)
Ramsdell, J.D.: A Foundation for a Semantic Web (2000)
Decker, S., Harmelen, F.v., Broekstra, J., Erdmann, M., Fensel, D., Horrocks, I., Klein, M., Melnik, S.: The Semantic Web - on the respective Roles of XML and RDF. IEEE Internet Computing (2000)
Hendler, J., Berners-Lee, T., Miller, E.: Integrating Applications on the Semantic Web. Journal of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan 122(10), 676–680 (2002)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Chira, O., Chira, C., Tormey, D., Brennan, A., Roche, T. (2003). A Multi-agent Architecture for Distributed Design. In: Mařík, V., McFarlane, D., Valckenaers, P. (eds) Holonic and Multi-Agent Systems for Manufacturing. HoloMAS 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2744. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45185-3_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45185-3_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40751-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45185-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive