Cooperation and negotiation of agents by means of Petri net-based models

Modelling agents by means of place/transition Petri nets (P/T PN) are introduced here and three possibilities of the agents cooperation and negotiation are introduced and analyzed. While PN places model states of atomic activities, the PN transitions model discrete events. However, the cooperation and negotiation are concerned by means of P/T PN too. The cooperation and negotiation are realized by the mutual communication of agents on way of the information exchange by means of: (i) the particular states of the communicating agents through the interface realized by PN transitions; (ii) the mediate states of the interface represented by PN places (being components - states - of a supervisor); (iii) both the PN transitions and the PN places. Finally, also the hierarchical cooperation is proposed, where the supervisor on upper level coordinates activities of autonomous agents on lower level.