Multiagent Knowledge-Based Environment for Concurrent Engineering Applications

Abstract

The systematic integration of humans with the tools, resources, and information assets of an organization is fundamental to concurrent engineering (CE) In an integrated environment, all entities must first be connected, and they then must work cooperatively Services that support "concurrency"—through communication, team coordination, information sharing, and integration—in an interactive and formerly serial product development process provide the foundation for a CE environment Product developers working concurrently in their application domains need "built-in" tools and "operated-in" tools in a computer-aided CE environment The latter group of tools evolves over time and requires continuous extensions and changes since each next product development is either new or an improvement of the previous one Product developers need a CE programming environment in which they can build programs from other developed programs, built-in tools, and knowledge bases describ ing how to perform a complex design process In every system, some part handles details unique to each user In client/server systems, this is typically a client program In monolithic systems, some program modules maintain status information for each user and provide an interface to other system modules In a multiagent model, system components dedicated to individual users are agents acting on behalf of those users (roles) Multiagent systems distribute intelligence throughout the entire system allowing individual system objects to remain simple and interactions be tween objects is minimized through the use of agents, which adapt automatically to changes in components These are futures that are necessary in large flexible design and manufacturing systems This paper describes a type of system integration provided by means of a multiagent knowledge-based environment that encompasses programs, CAx tools, and knowledge bases The presented approach is illustrated by selected examples

Keywords

concurrent engineering problem solving cooperation knowledge bases intelligent agents

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