Multi-Agent Cooperative Design Support in Distributed Environments

The paper addresses system modelling and engineering in cooperative distributed environments. Multi-agent systems, ontologies and web technologies are used for the support and management of resources in a distributed virtual environment. Distributed design involves dispersed heterogeneous teams of people who have to establish and maintain an efficient cooperation process in order to reach global ´optimal´ solutions to various problems. Key needs addressed by the introduced multi-agent system refer to inter operation among distributed resources and knowledge sharing, reuse and integration. An ontology library creates a common shared understanding of the domain for inter operating agents. The proposed system employs agents for information storage and retrieval, for enhancing collaboration within a distributed design environment and for providing a suitable interface to the user. The agents offer content-related support to the user by committing to the same library of ontologies. The proposed multi-agent design information management system aims to facilitate the optimization of the solution space of the collective dispersed design team.