Towards a consistent distributed design: a multi-agent approach

This paper reviews existing methods and techniques addressing the problem of mismatch control in distributed collaborative design. In order to contribute towards a more comprehensive solution a basis for a taxonomy of design mismatches is presented. The paper argues that a multi-agent approach is a more effective, and a promising, way forward towards a reliable automatic solution to the problem. An outline multi-agent architecture is proposed. The architecture assumes that the design knowledge is encapsulated within the different members of agent community. Agents are endowed with the capacity of negotiation with one another to ensure that any mismatches are detected and that a solution is proposed. The notions of proactiveness and social ability, which the agents need to exhibit, are central to this work