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AGENTS for cooperating expert systems in concurrent engineering design

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2009

Guo Q. Huang  and
John A. Brandon
Guo Q. Huang
Affiliation:
Enigineering Design Centre, School of Engineering, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CVl 5FB
John A. Brandon
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, University of Wales College of Cardiff, Newport Road, Cardiff CF2 1XH, U.K.
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Abstract

A main theme of concurrent engineering is the effective communication between relevant disciplines. Any computer tools for concurrent engineering must provide sufficient constructs and strategies for this purpose. This paper describes the AGENTS system, a domain-independent general-purpose Object-Oriented Prolog language for cooperating expert systems in concurrent engineering design. Emphasis is placed on demonstrating the use of the AGENTS constructs for distributed knowledge representation and the cooperation strategies for communication, collaboration, conflict resolution, and control. A simple case study is presented to illustrate the balance between simplicity and flexibility.

Type
Research Article
Information
AI EDAM , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , August 1993 , pp. 145 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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