Distributed Artificial Intelligence
Research Program - Results (3)
Consistency of representations
Consistency of representations is a very important issue in the case of
multi-expert (blackboard) systems. It is not so crucial in the case of
independent agents for the type of applications that we consider (concurrent
engineering, knowledge management).
Time stamping
A first answer was introduced by Abriat for a system for automatic
assembly with error recovery. In that system time-stamping of information
elements was enough to permit a consistency management of individual representations
of the task within each agent.
Divergence/reconciliation using versioning
For more complex systems with a longer lifetime, the method proposed
by Barthès mimics the work organization in engineering bureaux.
Indeed, we showed that by using a versioned representation of data and
knowledge, it was possible to introduce a mechanism of divergence/reconciliation,
letting the various groups diverge in between meetings used to enforce
consistency. A prototype of model of representation, PDM3, implementing
the versioning mechanisms proposed by Bohrani was already available. Furthermore,
as we indicated elsewhere, our agents offer rather complex services and
are autonomous, which means that they are in practice weakly coupled. This
approach dispenses with the need for a global consistency mechanism, which
leads usually to deadlocks.
Last modified 8/4/02