Schema-based conversation modeling for agent-oriented manufacturing systems

In agent-oriented manufacturing systems, an efficient and flexible computational conversation model can enable more effective and robust communication, cooperation, and negotiation among agents. This paper therefore describes a schema-based agent conversation model for intelligent agent-oriented manufacturing systems. Conversation schemata are constructed by (1) identifying agent types and their interactions; (2) capturing and formalizing interaction constraints; (3) verifying schemata using colored petri net (CPN) (to prevent deadlock and livelock of conversations); (4) translating the schemata into production rule sets and Java thread classes; (5) identifying inter-schema relationships and building class hierarchies of schemata; (6) constructing conversation managers (CMs) to control and coordinate the schema thread-based dynamic execution. An application example in distributed production planning, implemented in the Java environment, shows the effectiveness of the method.